"One of the many gifts that books give readers is a connection to each other. When we share affection for a writer, an author or a story, we also have a better understanding of people unlike ourselves. Books cultivate empathy."
-Sarah Jessica Parker
September 8 is observed as International Literacy Day all over the world. This day celebrates and highlights the importance of literacy for individuals, communities, and societies. The many benefits of literacy further call for the need of intensified efforts towards more literate societies. And what better way to raise awareness among our students about literacy than by promoting the love of books which we conceptualised through a Reading Week from 8th September to 14th September 2020.
The boys of Junior School, from KG to Class 3 were encouraged to discover the joy of reading in the comfort of their homes, and were actively involved during this week by the teachers in their respective online classes. Various activities like Read Aloud Sessions, Speech Activities, Book Reviews, etc., aimed at encouraging the students to express how they enjoy reading and find friends in books!
During live Google classes, the boys had fun enacting their favourite characters from story books and speaking about their favourite books.
These activities not only reinforced the unparalleled role of books and reading in our lives but also encouraged the boys to pick a book in their free time and take a flight of imagination rather than turning to a mobile phone or tablet for a video game.
Some of the activities that were conducted during the Reading Week are as follows:
1) Book Reviews: The students picked their favourite books and short stories and expressed their views through book reviews. They summarised the plot of the story in their own words, described and spoke about the main characters, discussed the moral of the story and why they would recommend the story to their friends and classmates.
2) ‘Dress up and enact’: The students chose their favourite story characters, dressed up like them, re-enacted their favourite scene from the story and delivered the dialogues from that particular scene.
3) Art Integration: The students designed beautiful Book Covers for their favourite stories.
4) Story Mapping & Graphic Organisers: The students were encouraged to attentively read a short story during the class, following which they had to fill out the Graphic Organisers and Story Maps depicting how the story progresses from the beginning to the end.
5) ‘Read-a-thon’: The students were assigned a reading passage and were timed so that the fastest reader won the race in the fun activity.
6) Poem Recitations about BOOKS: The students had a wonderful opportunity to recite poems about books followed by an interesting activity where they designed interactive pages with an artistic front cover about books and reading.
The boys surely had a fun filled week turning the pages of their beloved books and kindling their imagination through various characters and plots. They were further infused with a renewed passion in the joyous company of books.
