Literary Week 2024

“Literature is the comprehensive essence of the intellectual life of a nation.”

                            William Shakespeare 

The Indian School-Second Shift celebrated Literary Week with an array of activities from 22 to 26 April, 2024. This week is observed each year to ignite and fuel an interest for reading, writing and love for literature through various enriching activities. School welcomed several acclaimed writers and speakers whose presence created quite a spur amongst the students. 

The students of classes 7 to 10 participated in a wonderful session, ‘Power of Personal Stories’, on 23 April 2024 with Ms Jas Kiran Kaur, a certified life coach. Ms Aditi Mehrotra, writer and editor, whose work has appeared in Kathadesh and Naya Pratiman, took a workshop on 24 April 2024 about the relevance of literature and the space for intellectual and professional growth in the current system.  She also analysed the handwriting of students and gave some helpful suggestions about creative writing in Hindi and English. Dr Jaishree Sethi, creative director and chief storyteller at Story Ghar, took a storytelling session on 25 April 2024 for classes 3 to 6. The children became active participants in the storytelling session and benefitted from her skills. It was indeed a great opportunity for students to savour a delightful treat of literary genius served hot on a platter! 

The week-long celebration with its plethora of activities started with our little ones at the Pre school and Pre primary levels participating in their own special way each day. Special stories were narrated to the children to hone their language skills. Teachers enacted the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ with puppetry, wherein the tiny tots learnt new vocabulary and the names of fruits and colours. This was followed by caterpillar craft. The children spoke impromptu in ‘Pick and Speak’, an extempore activity, about incidents and experiences from their daily activities.

Reading, a very important aspect of language, was covered through the ‘D.E.A.R – Drop Everything and Read’ activity. The Weave-A-Story activity gave them an opportunity to expand their imagination and create a story by working in collaboration. 

The students of class 1 assembled a collage on Naming Words, wherein they pasted the pictures of people, places, animals, and things from old newspapers and magazines. They also presented a choral recitation of the song 'With my hands on my waist', which helped them to recap the names of  body parts. An enactment of 'The Hare and the Tortoise' tale was also presented, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. They learnt two and three letter Hindi words.

Students of class 2 presented a choral recitation of the song 'The farmer in the Dell.' They wrote a few lines on the topic 'If I were a bird', which made them put down their creative thoughts on paper. Students also participated in a ’Word Roll Activity’ on word blends.

The teachers of classes 1 and 2 narrated stories to the students, like ‘The Giving Tree’ and ‘The Famous Dinosaurs’, which entertained them thoroughly besides introducing them abundantly to new words. They made bookmarks as a follow-up activity. Riddles and emoticons were used to enhance cognitive skills. Students also dressed up as their favourite book characters and spoke a few lines on the characters. In order to practise effective communication skills using proper pronunciation, vocabulary games and a quiz on rhymes were also organised. Tongue twisters and word puzzles were also a part of the Literary Week activities for the young ones, enabling them to interpret carefully woven words in the intricacies of thoughts, emotions and wisdom. 

The students of class 3 made wall hangings and word ladders on Nouns. They even made book covers and wrote quotes on them. The children drew pictures and made beautiful posters and collages.

In class 4, the students narrated stories of their favourite fictional characters as 'heroes of the environment'. The students re-created stories by changing the endings of the stories and incorporating  twists and turns in them!  They enacted the stories with utmost zeal and enthusiasm. They also made innovative comic strips. 

The Week was kickstarted by the students of class 5 by writing acrostic poems. They presented themselves as colourful hand puppets made from old socks and even painted old T-shirts with adjectives to describe themselves!  The children narrated stories in class, which they had heard from their grandparents. The ‘Word Scavenger Hunt’ was also conducted wherein English and Hindi words having the same pronunciation were explored. 

A game named ‘Story Dice’ waa played by the students of class 6, wherein the children rolled the dice by turn and wove beautiful and interesting stories. They also explored the art of dialogue writing, and created interesting conversations in given imaginary situations. Using letters of the Sanskrit language the children created new words, sentences and short stories. The innovative use of voice modulation and body language infused passion and enhanced imagination and expression in students. 

The students of class 7 wrote letters to their favourite fictional characters from their favourite story books. Students reviewed and wrote their opinions on Hindi short stories of their choice. Some children composed innovative stories with story sheets. A skit on ‘Three questions’ by Leo Tolstoy was presented by the students. 

The students of class 8 presented a synopsis of Shakespeare's plays, and made book covers for the same. They also made beautiful wall hangings noting famous quotes by Indian authors in Hindi. ‘Shloka Uchharanam’ was conducted during their Sanskrit class, wherein the children learnt and chanted shlokas with great enthusiasm. Students also explored French cuisine and wrote about it. 

The students of class 9 selected a poetic device and wrote a limerick using it, and then explained that poetic device in class in a flip classroom set-up. They made portraits of fictional characters and wrote a few lines in French about them in a group activity. In Hindi, students composed poems expressing emotion keeping in mind the School theme of the year. Students presented a skit in class on the title, ‘Nature and Nurture’. 

In class 10, the students made a project in groups, presenting the history and evolution of the English language. They also explored how literature is a reflection of the historical, political and cultural contexts of a society.

“Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.”

Literary Week was a great opportunity to provide a window to the students' minds and open the doors of their hearts. A festival for promoting a love for literature, the activities were truly an enriching experience for the students. The children were fruitfully engaged, encouraged to explore and communicate their thoughts. The whole event drew an overwhelming response and having been a well planned one, it successfully helped to develop new  interest for the languages and literature among the children.