READING
“Reading is for the mind what exercise is for the body.”
In a world flooded with screens, the internet and digestible forms of entertainment, fewer and fewer people are investing in reading and collecting books, considering it perhaps an obsolete occupation.
So the books…
They offer us generous knowledge, reduce stress levels, they develop critical thinking, improve the ability to concentrate, expand and enrich our vocabulary
SELECTION OF BOOKS
At the beginning of the year we bring to class and choose any book students prefer to read. The books obtained from:
(a) the library of the classroom, school, district, town or village
b) bookstores
c) Students library
We suggest a series of topics: knowledge, sports, everyday life, adventure, mystery ...
We created a corner in our classroom which we called “Library corner”. We put a bookcase next to it and we decorated with black circles in the top shelf with colorful letters. Then, our teacher brought some books that are suitable in our language. We decided to bring some of our favorite books that we had in our house.
We put them on the shelves in alphabetical order and then we started borrowing books according to our interests. We used borrowing cards where we wrote our name, the title of the book which we had borrowed and the date we borrowed the book. We also wrote the date that we would return the books.
When all the students in our class had finished reading a book we decided to dedicate a teaching hour to present the book we read to our classmates. Our teacher made the appropriate booklet which we used as a guide for the presentation of our book.
BOOK PRESENTATION
Book presentations take place throughout the year, whenever a child or group of children has read a book and is ready to present it.
We were all excited about the presentation. Some even decided to paint something related to the book and its plot. After the first presentation we continued to borrow other books while we started looking for information about the authors of the books by writing their biographical details.
Let's look at some ways of presenting books
Conversation about the heroes of the book (what would I do in their place? Who would I like or not like for company? A hypothetical discussion between the heroes about an episode. We get a fantastic interview from a hero. We make a portrait of them and find his details their character.)
Illustration of part or the most important episodes of the book.
Theatrical play on the theme of an episode or the whole book.
We choose books based on students interests. We can suggest a series of topics: knowledge, sports, everyday life, adventure, mystery ...
ACTIVITIES - PRESENTATION OF ACTIVITIES
Examples of activities:
Scenario construction.
Crosswords, cryptos with names of heroes, locations or other features of the book.
Matches: Who said what? Who does what?
Search for the correct order: to include the titles of the chapters or characteristic excerpts of the book in the form of a historical line.
Making a board game based on a book.
Identify the heroes of the book through a series of oral questions to which the player's answer can only be "yes" or "no".
Create riddles with names of heroes, locations or other features of the book.
PRAISES FOR PARTICIPATION
The program will closes with a celebration, in which, among other things, praise is shared. Each child who participated in the first leg of the Reading Relay takes individual praise. Each team or class that participated in the second leg of the Relay race receives team praise. The celebration is open to parents, and of course all students at the school.
It was a great experience to read books and then talk about them with our classmates so we decoded to continue with our reading club next year. Finally, we started making games and quizzes about the most popular books.