Town Centre librarians dressed as book characters. Anelisa Qina is Little Red Riding Hood, Zulfah Petersen is Liewe Heksie and Duma Tiyo is Zorro.
Town Centre librarians arrived at Imperial Primary School dressed as book characters to celebrate World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) at the Beacon Valley School on Wednesday February 1.
They celebrated the annual event, which is on the first Wednesday of February, with Nal'ibali (isiXhosa for “here's the story”) Trust, a literacy group aimed at instilling and rekindling the love for books among children.
They performed an icebreaker, entitled “Library Tantrum", and acted out the WRAD story to the pupils.
Children’s librarian Anelisa Qina, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, said the stories were directed at fostering a love of reading and a love for the library, from an early age.
“A love for reading is a crucial element with promoting sustainable community development as well as future academic success, books and stories have always been the driving force of our imagination and reading is a new way of sparking that love,” she said.
Teachers Zureenah Williams and Jennifer Rustin said they used the opportunity to advocate for literacy and advance reading.
“We made our read aloud pledge to Nal’ibali and the story was read in our 41 classes.
“Teachers integrated the story into their planing and used ICT (information and communications technology) to encourage learners to read to each other and enrich their learning experiences.”
Each grade participated in a competition, which included drawing pictures, retelling stories, writing newspaper articles, word searches and writing short narratives.
They received certificates, book prizes, stationery, and sweet treats.
Their principal CJ Baron, peers and teachers applauded them for their excellence.
“The school had actively involved other stakeholders like their local library and Nal’ibali to build essential literacy skills to advance the lives of pupils and to make a positive impact in our community and the world,” he said.