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The ultimate guide to running the IBC Children’s Choice Awards: for Activity Leaders

By Fabia Turner

Now that you’re Activity Leader for the IBC Children’s Choice Awards and the shortlist is on your shelves, you’re ready for the best bit: supporting your children in becoming enthusiastic, empowered and ’official’ book judges.

But where do you start? We know it can be tricky to fit reading for pleasure activities into the school day. The good news is that running the Children’s Choice Awards is simple, and we’re here to offer a host of quick ideas to get you started.

Whether you’re a teacher, librarian or parent, here’s our 10-step practical guide to making the Children’s Choice Awards a roaring success in EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

1. Plan for shadowing

How you approach planning for the Children’s Choice Awards depends entirely on the needs of your class or group and the quantity of books you have available. However you do it, consistency is key so that children become familiar with the books and the judging process.

You have 5 weeks to read and rate the shortlisted books between 12 January and 16 February, so it’s a good idea to plan one or two weekly shadowing activities to ensure there is enough time for children to read and discuss the books. Other possible activities include:

Whole-school ideas

  • Daily storytime or 15-minute read-louds for chapter books
  • Weekly ‘Awards Reading Hour’ for independent reading and discussions
  • Download and use Peters Book Talk cards to spark conversations
  • Plan drama/role-play opportunities to deepen understanding
  • Create fun book-related matching/guessing games, quizzes or jigsaw puzzles
  • Plan structured book-voting activities (see Free resources)

EYFS ideas (nursery and reception)

  • Read and talk about the shortlisted picture books or baby and toddler books
  • Plan child-led reading opportunities
  • During storytime or shared reading, look at illustrations and talk about what’s happening. Ask simple questions: ’What did you like/not like?’
  • Use hand puppets to bring stories to life and prompt imaginative play
  • Allow children time to respond to books with drawings or mark-making

KS1 ideas

  • Read and talk about the shortlisted picture books or chapter books
  • Support children in sharing their opinions and explaining choices, eg, offer sentence starters to scaffold their thinking: ‘My favourite part/character was…’; ‘I liked this book because…’; ‘I did not like this book because...’
  • Create character profiles or write short book reviews to share with others
  • Run weekly lunchtime book groups (KS1/KS2)

KS2 ideas

  • Read and talk about the shortlisted picture books or chapter books
  • Hold exciting, timed book debates
  • Write deeper book reviews: encourage thinking about plot, characters and themes
  • Keep a special IBC Awards reading journal
  • Recommend books to peers
  • Use drama ‘freeze frames’ to explore scenes and characters’ feelings/motivations
  • Create comic-strip versions of book scenes
  • Make artwork inspired by the texts, eg book covers
  • Build 3D-junk models or LEGO constructions of book scenes/settings
  • Carry out further research into shortlisted authors and illustrators to learn more about their books or creative process

Note: provide lots of opportunities for reading the books aloud so children can hear how the stories sound, particularly for picture books. Think about how to support all children so they can fully participate in the process, including English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners and SEND pupils. Also, where possible, allow children to take books home to enjoy with their families. They can use their special Children’s Choice Awards bookmarks to rate each book and then share their thoughts back at school.

Overall, keep the reading activities light and fun. You want children to feel relaxed and to enjoy the process, and no one should feel forced to take part.

2. Who, when and where?

The Children’s Choice Awards can be led by any adult (usually teachers, librarians, early years practitioners and parents) who has registered as an Activity Leader for the shadowing scheme. The Activity Leader is responsible for leading the group or class of children through the process.

If you are struggling for time, you may find it helpful to buddy up with another adult to support you in running the scheme.

If your setting is a school, you might also find it easier to plan shadowing activities outside of lesson times, eg during lunchtime, or after-school or morning clubs. Integrating shadowing activities into literacy or other curriculum subjects is also completely doable (see curriculum links below).

Whether you are leading a small group of two at home or a whole class of 30, think about the best locations to read and discuss the books so children can enjoy reading and listening to the stories, and feel relaxed and comfortable sharing their views.

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3. Motivate children’s reading

Depending on the number of children participating, you could choose to introduce the Children’s Choice Awards during carpet time, whole-school assembly or an extra-curricular club.

Explain to the children what the Awards are for and why they are important. Tell them they will be judges and how this exciting process will work. Talk about the phrase ‘inclusive book awards’ and elicit ideas about what this could mean for judging.

Mention the diverse list of authors and illustrators whose books have been shortlisted by the IBC Awards judges, and what the prizes are for winning. Knowing reasons why their opinions matter will boost children’s sense of enthusiasm and responsibility, and will make reading feel purposeful.

If appropriate, for older children, you might want to share content from the IBC Awards page for more context:

4. Give children official Awards’ roles

Most children will love having the official role of Judge. Give each of them an ‘I am a judge’ sticker so they feel special, valued and included.

Additional roles could include book monitors, book ambassadors/champions or reading detectives, depending on the activities you’ve planned. Of course, you will definitely need some ‘vote counters’ to conduct the important task of counting the voting slips and tallying the votes.

5. Create a buzz around the books!

When your book delivery arrives, why not hold a special book-box opening event? Involve a group of children in opening the box so they can browse all the brand-new books. They will be extremely excited to do this, and it should generate lots of chatter as they dive in and share what they’ve found.

For older children, you could get them to record a video of the box opening or take photos to share on a class drive, school website, in assembly, or even on your social media with permissions.

Hand out the Children’s Choice Awards judges’ bookmarks to each child as an extra-special surprise! Let them take these home, to get their families and carers excited about the Awards too!

6. Make your Awards’ book display interactive

Create a Children’s Choice Awards book display or reading area showcasing the shortlisted books. Make the display interactive and attractive; you want children to pick up, browse and read the books as they wish.

Display the book covers facing forward, not just for prettiness, but also so children can see the diversity in book characters. Other ideas to make your book display look engaging include:

  • Dress it up with thought-provoking labels, your book-judging guidelines poster (see below), bunting, fairy lights or cushions
  • Add images of the books’ authors and illustrators to highlight the diversity in authorship
  • Include differentiated book-review templates or star-rating sheets (KS1/KS2)
  • Leave a stack of Post-it notes and pencils for children to jot down book recommendations; younger children could put removable star stickers on the book covers to show preferences
  • Include a basket of book props/LEGO figures for imaginative play
  • Leave a simple sign-out sheet or book rota for children to use (Reception/KS1/KS2)

Involving children in organising and maintaining the Awards display and allowing them to offer their own ideas will make it even more fun!

7. Set some book-judging guidelines

For KS1 and KS2, encourage your class to think about what makes a good story and then what makes a good inclusive story. Also agree, together, on how children should conduct themselves while judging. Ensure they understand they are free to read as many or as few of the books as they like. They should never feel forced to read all the shortlisted books and should respect everyone’s valuable input and opinions throughout the process.

Write up and display your group’s Awards judging criteria based on your discussion. Don’t make this task too onerous; reading enjoyment should always be the main focus of the Children’s Choice Awards.

8. Make voting feel monumental

The process of voting is just as important as the final results, so plan sufficient time for this activity ahead of the deadline, which is 16 February. Try not to rush through the reading process, though. The more familiar the children are with the books, the more meaningful their final votes will be.

  • Use official IBC Children’s Choice Awards voting slips (see free resources below)
  • Make and decorate your own book Awards ballot box
  • Ensure children vote privately
  • Count up votes together for EYFS. For older children, dedicated ’vote counters’ could count the voting slips, and as a class, you could create a bar chart to show the final results (KS1/KS2)
  • If votes are tied, hold another round of voting just for the tied books until a winning book emerges.
  • Discuss the results and identify your overall winning book as a group/class — was the result what the children expected?
  • Cast your final vote on the IBC website! Explain that the winners will be announced on the evening of 25 February, during a live Awards ceremony at London’s Southbank Centre, and remind children of the prizes.

9. Arrange an Awards party

When all the reading and judging are over, why not hold a fun celebration to reward the children for participating in the IBC Children’s Choice Awards? To make the event even more memorable, children could dress up as one of the inclusive book characters. Perhaps ask them to bring in a few party snacks, and you could invite other classes, groups and parents to join in with the celebrations.

During your party, watch clips from the IBC Awards ceremony to find out who won. If you can’t watch the event live, a YouTube link will be posted on our IBC Awards page at the end of February. Don't forget to take photos as mementoes of the celebration for your Awards display.

Finally, don’t forget to download your IBC Children’s Choice Awards certificate, add your group’s details and display it in pride of place for all the children to see.

10. Use our free shadowing resources

Don’t forget to use these free downloadable resources for Activity Leaders to support your running of the Children’s Choice Awards with your children:

Curriculum links

The IBC Children’s Choice Awards provide perfect opportunities to support all EYFS Areas of Learning, and several statutory and optional KS1 and KS2 subjects as follows:

EYFS

  • Communication and language
  • Personal, social and emotional development
  • Physical development
  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the world
  • Expressive arts and design

KS1/KS2

  • English: reading (reading for pleasure) and purpose; writing (persuasive non-fiction or creative writing) for real purposes; Spoken language; drama
  • Maths
  • Art and design
  • Design and technology
  • PSHE & citizenship

Fabia Turner is Head of Content at IBC and the Founder of the Jericho Prize for Children’s Writing. She is also a former primary teacher and educational book editor with a love of children’s literature.

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