Reading is an Adventure!
Dia del Libro came early this year to Florida, Opatoro, as we celebrated before the Easter rush. With more than 400 students attending and approximately 200 parents and volunteers, Dia del Libro was a great success!
Our theme this year was “Reading is an Adventure.” Students were given “passports” and then attended activities to receive stamps in their passports for their participation. The ten activity stations each included a different type of book and theme. One of the most population stations read a book about snow and then cut their own snow flake. A second favorite was the station that did a puppet show on the Three Billy Goats Gruff and then each child learned about “characters” and got to pick a character to make their own paper bag puppet. Another station used a flashlight and punched cards to shine images of star constellations on the walls of blacked out room and told the relating ancient Greek story. A third book was a how-to book showing how to draw after reading a children’s book of a budding artist who didn’t give up.
We also created activities using the strengths of our volunteers who ran the activities. A scientist ran the station about static electricity. The students then read a book that walked them through a balloon experiment using a balloon and demonstrating the way static electricity both had negative and positive forces. A Honduran author came along and read part of the book “Corduroy.” He stopped halfway through the story and the children became the “authors” and wrote their own ending. Some of our middle school volunteers preformed a play they had written about how reading evokes different emotions.
The schools had also spent the weeks before Día selecting finalists to enter in the read-out-loud competition and an art competition for why they liked to read. They used books from their new school libraries to participate. Several children arrived in costumes, and one even scared the judges when she pretended to faint in conjunction with the story line. Community members arrived to watch the competitions and judges were also selected locally including one Honduran artist.
Check out the photos below to see the activities and all our awesome volunteers!
