Rawalpindi International Literacy Day was celebrated in all Montessori and Primary campuses of Sadeeqa’s Learning System (SLS) Montessori and High School, says a press release. The month-long celebrations, starting from September 8, included special assemblies, extra hours for reading, and fun classroom activities that let children spend more time
By our correspondents
October 10, 2015
Rawalpindi International Literacy Day was celebrated in all Montessori and Primary campuses of Sadeeqa’s Learning System (SLS) Montessori and High School, says a press release. The month-long celebrations, starting from September 8, included special assemblies, extra hours for reading, and fun classroom activities that let children spend more time with their favourite books. After reading their favourite book, students shared passages of it with their class fellows. They were encouraged to share the moral of the story, if it had one, and to summarize the story in their own words. Be it about dinosaurs, fairies or Alladin, every school day had a little bit of storybook magic added to it. For those who couldn’t quite find their favourite book, they were encouraged to make book covers of what their favourite book would be about. Lots of wonderful little handmade book covers were added to the school collection. One day was spent with students making bookmarks for their books and to present as gifts to their loved ones. The International Literacy Day was declared in 1965 by Unesco and aims to have children “rediscover the joys of reading while raising awareness for those without access to education.” Keeping this in mind, a Book Reading Week was arranged at SLS schools with book fairs put up in all campuses to urge students to look through and find new favourite books. Parents were encouraged to inculcate the habit of buying books in their children. And primary level students were encouraged to teach willing staff members daily use phrases in the English language. Special morning assemblies were presented by students in which they dressed up in costumes and performed a skit on the story of a book. Supporting music and props made these skits a delight for the young audience. Older students took this opportunity to highlight the importance of being literate and how many of us can take our literacy for granted. Students were taught to recognise foreign words that are abundantly used in the English language, like Cartoon, Kindergarten and Cookie. Teachers helped students learn greetings in Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. The highlight of the International Literacy Day for the students was dressing up as their favourite storybook or poem character. Students came to school as Little Elf Man, the Woodcutter, Harry Potter and Rapunzel amongst many other beloved characters.