ECE Literacy Month 2017

In this academic year (2017-2018), ECE celebrated Literacy Month from October 2 – October 27, 2017. The aim of this event is to highlight the importance of literacy skills where we also commemorate the Month of Bahasa Indonesia in October. ECE students did various kinds of activities in the classroom, outside the classroom and at home related to the literacy during the Literacy Month.

We started this event by inviting an international storyteller: Aryo Faridh Zidni (Kak Aio). The storytelling took about 45 minutes. We started at around 10.00 am and finished at 10.45 and the audience were EY 2 and EY 1 students with the homeroom teachers. It was a fun storytelling time.

One of the activities that we had and still continues for the whole year for all levels is “Read-with-me” Journal. It’s a good idea to read with your child often. Reading with children from an early age helps them develop a solid foundation for literacy. It also promotes bonding and is good for your relationship with your child. Parents and children may read together every weekend starting October 6, 2017, and they return the journal on Monday/Tuesday the next week. The other activity was students’ storytelling for EY 2 and EY 1 students.

Students were invited to bring their favorite books from home and they shared their stories to their friends in the classroom. The students were really excited to join this activity. We also had DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) in the classroom. This was the time when the teachers and students took some time to read books individually. It could be after the playground time or after the snack time.

Talking, singing, playing sound and word games, reading, writing and drawing with the children are great ways to set up a good literacy foundation. Everyday activities, like reciting poems and rhymes or going to library, all offer lots of fun opportunities for literacy development. To appreciate the students’ efforts in building a good literacy foundation, ECE students and teachers did a YES, WE READ! handprint activity on a long white cloth.

For EY 2 and EY 1, there was a ‘Me-in-a-book’ competition. The students made their own scrap book about him/herself assisted by their parents at home. For EY 2 students the theme for their book was My Personal History and the theme of the book for EY 1 students was Me and My Family. We had a lot of participants for this competition and we chose 3 winners from each level. The students submitted their book on October 24, 2017 at the latest and judgement was done on October 25-26, 2017. The winners were given vouchers from Gramedia.

For Nursery classes, there was a Book Characters Photo Competition on Instagram, October 2-23, 2017. Students took a picture wearing character costumes, uploaded their pictures onto Instagram with the character’s name and the title of the book. We chose 2 favourite winners for those who got the most ‘LIKES’ on the Instagram post. So, the winners were 1 student from Nursery Morning class and 1 student from Nursery Late Morning class and the winners were given a Victor the Lion and a voucher.

On the Culmination Day of the Literacy Month, we had the ‘Me-in-a-book’ winners announcement and also a Character Costume Parade by Nursery students. Nursery students came to school wearing the costumes and we chose 2 winners each from Nursery Morning and Nursery Late Morning classes and the winners were given a voucher from Gramedia.

We did a lot of activities during Literacy Month and YES, WE READ!  

(article written by Ms. Merly)