Introducing Library as part of Education
To develop love for reading in children it is necessary to introduce them to books. We wanted to kindle interest in children to read books or at the least flip the pages of a book they come across. This motivated us to start the library program for 5th grade children in the 2024-25 academic year.
A Start…
In the beginning the children were distracted and it was difficult to even make them sit still and listen to the stories. Then we decided to start the class with the whispering game where a short sentence is whispered to the first student, who then whispers it to the student next to him such that no one else can hear until the last one says it out loud. This not only made them focus on what is being said but also how they needed to keep silent and only whisper if needed in a library class. Once we had their attention, short stories were read to them in English and explained in Kannada. Soon the children were able to grasp the stories by themselves and language was not so much of a barrier. To get their attention whenever they strayed we played games like I Spy, Word building or finding new words from the story books. We also gave them books to read by themselves and exchange with their friends when done.
Once the library classes became regular every Friday, the children started looking forward to the library hour. This year we also introduced our You-Tube channel with stories in Kannada and English. Our debut audiovisual story was Ghost in the park [https://hongiranafoundation.org/ghost-in-the-park-an-audiovisual-journey-by-hongirana-at-ganigarapalya-school/] We also had a session on Birds during one of the library hours to introduce the children to some of the local birds they see around their house.
Pratham Books – Storyweaver “One day One story reading
We thank Pratham books for giving us the books to read to the children as part of the “One day One story reading” program.
We read the story “Exam Fever” during our library hour to 5th grade children. They enjoyed the reading and the picturization of the characters.
It was an interactive session with children about how they felt before the exams and sharing stories of incidents when someone in their family or friends also had a sympathetic exam fever.
They also enacted small skits in groups showing how the teachers prepared them for exams and how they wrote exams in school. It was an interesting hour to be cherished.
Extension of Library hour with Valley School Outreach
As part of the Valley School Outreach program, their coordinator and few parents took interest in our library program. They volunteered to organize the books we already had according to reading levels. It was an amazing experience in school with parents and kids volunteering to sort and label the books and we realized we had over a thousand books.
Thereafter volunteers came twice a week for regular library hours and we expanded to 4th, 6th and 7th grades with their support. They read stories from different books in English or bi-lingual and conducted some reading activities emphasizing English sight words and their translation in Kannada. We are looking forward to continuing this library outreach program with Valley school in the next academic year.