Literary Week in Preschool

Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need and has not changed, except to become more needed.

From 22nd to 26th August, 2016, The Indian School-Second Shift went literary! Literary Week is an annual celebration at TFS, aimed at commemorating the spirit of literature. It infuses in the children, an appreciation, understanding and love for literature through innovative activities that mark the week.

At the Pre-School level, activities were planned to develop good verbal skills among students, keeping with the theme of the year Africa.

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Story-telling sessions in class

Stories are among the most useful educational and inspirational tools. Thus, the week began with a storytelling session by the teachers. Keeping with the theme of the year, teachers narrated African folktales to the children. Each section took up a different story. New vocabulary linked with these stories were picked up and discussed. A dramatisation of the characters with pictures, role-play, voice-modulation and puppets was used.

Show and Tell

The Yellow (colour )Show and Tell activity provided an opportunity for both fun and learning. All the children actively took part in the activity by bringing their favourite yellow object like a balls, a cut-out of the sun/ a sunflower/a smiley, lunchbox, and a toy amongst others and spoke few lines about each.

The idea behind this activity, besides introducing the colour, was to help preschoolers build on their communication skills and gain new self-confidence watching their peers as they attempted to speak.

Assembly based on a story-session

An assembly based on story- enactment by the Preschool teachers using beautiful and innovative props was very educative. The story selected was Handas Surprise by Eileen Browne, which is the story of young Kenyan girl, Handa, who sets off on a journey to visit her friend Akeyo in a neighbouring village, taking with her a basket of 7 delicious- looking tropical fruits. On her journey whilst Handa is contemplating which fruit her friend would like best, a number of animals appeared and forcibly picked their favourite fruits from Handas basket! They were so nimble that Handa was left completely overwhelmed and unable to react in time to save the precious fruit! However, as the story unfolds, an accident enables Handa to gift her friend her favourite fruit, tangerines.

The narration and enactment by the teachers (as African animals), and the use of real tropical fruits (mango, banana, guava, oranges, pineapple, avocado, passion fruit etc) , helped introduce new vocabulary and their pronunciation to the students. Soon after, recapitulation activities were taken up in the classes to help the little ones recognise the fruits and animals they had just seen, by relating them with visuals. The learning was thus easily assimilated.

The exercise proved to be an educative and enriching experience for students and teachers alike, all week through!

Ms. Kritika Negi.