Reading can expand children’s vision, improve their knowledge, cultivate their personality and promote their temperament. It is a gift which will accompany children throughout their lifetime. How can we encourage children to fall in love with reading and cultivate strong reading habits? House of Knowledge is committed to celebrating books and the art of reading with our students. During the first week of March, we held our forth annual Reading Week. During this year’s Reading week, we held various fun interactive activities, interesting games, role playing activities, and field trips across our three campuses- Shunyi, Chaoyang Park and Xinglong.
Elementary
In Elementary, students were given a different topic to focus on each day: role playing of foreign books, role playing of Chinese books, bedtime stories, Library Day and assembly. Students were asked to select their favorite writer’s book and dress up as various characters with costumes. Popular authors included J.K. Rowling, Zheng Yuanjie, Dr Seuss and Yang Hongying. Students not only learned about the distinct characteristics of different roles in reading, but also were exposed to a series of works by the different writers. We believe that even after Reading Week has ended, students will continue to read books by authors on this list. Students were invited to come to school in pyjamas and with their favorite book. They also brought flashlights, slippers, stuffed animals and robes for the bedtime story.
This year, all elementary students went on a trip to the National Library of China. It was so exciting to see so many wonderful books all under one roof. We really hope students can still enjoy the fun of reading in this era of science and technology, where our lives depend so heavily on electronic products. With the teachers’ guidance, the elementary students also completed their reading diaries, reading mind maps and they also edited and “published” a book < A Travel of Elves in House of Knowledge> by themselves. Finally, on Friday the students from different classes had an opportunity to present their work from the week to their peers and their parents.
Early Years
The Early Year students across the 3 campuses were also given lots of themes during Reading Week: bedtime stories, special visitor day, reading buddy day, favorite book character day, role play of teachers, creating stories day and so on. Each class chose the themes most suited to the children and their projects. Children brought their favorite books, wore their own pajamas, and listened to teachers sharing stories on their pajamas day. Some classes combined recent projects, such as outer space, dinosaurs and so on, and selected books that children like in order to develop their thinking and advance their interest in reading through this topic. Some classes invited parents to school to participate in the theme of special visitor day. Parents read stories for the whole class which helped to expand the reach of children’s choice of stories and allowed the children see how stories can be interpreted differently by different readers.
One day, children and teachers chose their favorite characters from books and they dressed up in costume and did role play. Through the preparation of costumes, the performance of roles and the integration of dance music, children could understand the character, connotation, age and culture of different countries. Children also got to “write” their own stories through painting, handicraft and other forms after listening and reading so many books.
Reading Buddy Day
On Reading Buddy Day, the older students from Elementary also visited their little friends in Early Years and shared their favorite stories with each other. Ms. Anna, the Principal of Xinglong campus, also read her favorite book for the children. It was a wonderful day of reading for everyone.
Another successful Reading Week has now drawn to a close, however, we believe that we have planted a little “seed” for a love of reading in our children’s hearts, which they will “fertilize and water” every day. We look forward to the day when it will grow into a big tree and bear fruit.
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