Library Week 6-11 November, 2019

Einstein said that Imagination is more important than knowledge. As soon as the dates of Library Week were announced, enthusiastic responses from students across the levels started pouring in. They began imagining what all they would do during Library Week, the activities for the week and the novelty this year!

Library Week was held from 6 - 11 November 2019 and a plethora of activities were planned by the library department.

On the first day i.e. 6 November, 26 the enthusiastic readers of class 5 got an opportunity to visit the Dr B.C. Roy Memorial Childrens Reading Room and Library. The excited children could be heard discussing their favourite books with each other during the bus journey.

The library, founded on 12 November, 1967, has a collection of 40,000 books ranging from fiction, non-fiction, encyclopaedia, reference collection etc. The librarian, Mr Nandkishore, took us on a tour of where the children got a chance to view the numerous and diverse sections of books. They were particularly delighted to see so many books under one roof! Mr Kishore let the children know that they could also enrol as members. He welcomed them to seat themselves and look at books they liked and later made them sit down with some colourful books.

The children were so enthralled that they decided to come again with their parents and sign up for the library membership. Later, Ms Menon, editor of a childrens magazine, addressed the children. She talked about various competitions which her team held annually and encouraged the children to participate.

On the same day, a workshop on Climate Change and Recycling was organised for class 8 in our School auditorium. Resource person, Ms Champa Banerjee, writer and educationist, focused on creating innovative ways to help the students with recycling the waste around them in a playway manner. She encouraged the students to adopt eco - friendly and lab-friendly methods at School as well as at home. She discussed various ideas like making a top with a used CD and a discarded tennis ball and how it can be used to understand the laws of motion.

During the interval, Ms Bannerjee sang a couple of beautiful folk songs in her melodious voice. Some students got an opportunity to try their hands on making a duster using a waste cloth and a stick. She taught them the meaning of the 4Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Respect. The workshop was also attended by our School Vice -Chairperson, Dr Mrs Nayana Goradia, who appreciated the knowledge and efforts of the resource person.

Since the Library department had planned an activity in the zero periods as well so on 7 November, our storytellers of class 8 participated in Knock Knock Tales, where they told stories to the younger students in their classrooms. They took a round of the School and knocked on some of the classroom doors and entered to narrate their stories. Antriksh Nair of class 8A narrated Appu and his friends to the students of class I. The little ones were overjoyed as the story happened to be a part of their English textbook.

Mannat, Trisha and Kirtida of 8E narrated The Mango Birds in class 2 whereas Jasleen, Khushi and Pranshi of 8D narrated The Wise King in class 3. On the one side, Knock Knock Tales were being told at School while on the other side, the children of classes 6-12 were participating in the Book Exchange Corner. This year, of the 300 coupons made for book exchange a whopping 278 were taken by our students! Getting a new book without spending money was the idea behind this activity and our students participated in the exchange with great enthusiasm.

A puppetry storytelling session was organised for the students of class 4 in the School auditorium. Over 175 students got the unique opportunity to interact with and learn from Ms Rekha Vyas- noted shadow puppeteer and storyteller. Waiting with bated breath for the puppetry session, the excited students were accompanied by their teachers Ms Martina Roy, Ms Radhika Prabhakar, Ms Sheetal Singh, Ms Protima Roy, Mr Shankar, Ms Taniya Sutradhar and Ms Kusum.

While some students carried their own puppets for the session, others created their own finger and glove puppets They delightfully learnt this to use puppets to tell their stories.

Ms Vyas began her session with a short story using a rod puppet. She went on to demonstrate the art of shadow puppetry, one of the oldest forms of puppetry in India. She also explained how the craft got its name from shadow play, a form where figures are placed between light and a screen. The speaker then linked this with the history of filmmaking, explaining, how long before the advent of motion pictures, moving images through shadow play were used to create animated pictures in films. She shed light on the technique of shadow play used in different countries, especially China and India, where great legends and folktales are often retold through elaborate puppetry sessions.

Much to the delight of the students, Ms Vyas narrated an interesting short story about a fish using leather shadow puppets from Andhra Pradesh. The intricately designed and decorated shadow puppets with perforations looked very appealing. The students were mesmerised to see the puppets come to life through the wonderfully crafted storytelling session.

The two and a half hour session was not only very engaging and educative but also an insight into the history, significance and intricacies of puppetry in India. The session left the students motivated to create unique puppets of their own and incorporate them in their stories. While the activities were going on in the auditorium, a book fair was held outdoors in the School compound. The two-day fair by Scholar India who are the distributors of almost all the major publishers like Penguin, Rupa, Harper Collins, Paragon, Random House, Jaico, Westland etc. displayed books on the latest fiction, non-fiction, activities, Quiz, Science, learning, reference, classics, encyclopaedias and many more. Young ones visited the book fair with their class teachers whereas students from the middle and senior wings made their own purchases. Some of them picked up gifts like exam boards, pocket dictionaries and pouches. The book fair was so greatly enjoyed that even the showers on the following day did not dampen the students spirit!

On 8 November 2019, the children of class 9 gathered in the auditorium to attend a workshop by life skills' trainer, Ms Jayshree Mehta. The workshop began by understanding the difference between a lecture and a workshop. She told her young audience that a workshop was simple, practical, interactive and saw participation from both sides.

She conducted an activity in which she showed two objects wrapped up in different ways. She asked the audience to identify two differences and similarities between the two objects. She then told a student to choose between the two. When the student chose the object that was neatly wrapped, she explained that the human brain tends to choose the neatly packed object because it assumes that the gift inside must be an attractive one as the packaging was neat. She then told us how the same logic is applied to people and the statement - First impression is the last impression- is indeed strong and very true.

She explained Emotional Intelligence and how Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was now dominated by EQ. She gave an explanation on why we should express our emotions and never suppress them. The informative session ended with her advice that we must take responsibility for our emotions and learn to deal with them rather simply making the person in front of you the victim of your tirade.

On the same day an excursion to the Gandhi Library and Museum was arranged for some selected students of classes 11 and 12. The Library has one of the largest available collection of books and documents on Mahatma Gandhi; a fairly large collection of books on the Freedom Movement in India (1857-1947), and a large General section of books on the Social Sciences, Humanities, Literature and Nature Cure. Its collection has now grown to about 27,000 titles (books) and 25,000 photocopies of letters, telegrams, notes etc., written by Mahatma Gandhi to others or by others to him. It contains Gandhis works collected in about 100 volumes.

Students got the opportunity to visit the museum on the first floor. They first visited the Spinning Wheel Gallery which contains 23 models of spinning wheels (charkhas) from the traditional, to the portable versions like the peti Charkha and the mechanised versions including the Ambar Charkhas; two models of looms; samples of various components and ancillaries related to hand spinning; samples of yarn handspun by Gandhiji and other leaders; selected write-ups by Gandhiji, and photographs of him and the other leaders of the great movement, working on the spinning wheel.

11 November was the last and the most exciting day of Library Week, where 55 children of classes 4 11 participated in a Reading Rally conducted on the School premise during the zero period. Some of our teachers also participated in the Rally by reading out lines from Shakespeares, Romeo and Juliet. The rally was headed by Ms Navreet Shergill, HOD, English, followed by Ms Sargam Sharma, Ms Radhika Prabhakar, Ms Asha Lakshmi and Ms Tarannum Athar. The students carried colourful placards in their hands and sang a song When I am reading, I am succeeding, I pick up the book and take a look. My mind just starts to grow.

The rally wrapped around the entire School and ended on a vibrant-positive note on how reading refreshes our mind. Some of our enthusiastic students even came out from their class rooms and started singing along! Some of the teachers and students sat in an open area reading books of their choice. The idea was to encourage children to inculcate the habit of reading everyday. Later our Vice Chairperson, Dr Ms Nayana Goradia and Principal, Ms Tania Joshi joined the session. The sight of the teachers and children engrossed in reading was soothing to the eyes. The calm and composed atmosphere seemed to beckon all, to drop everything and read.

On the same day, School organised a workshop on Creative Writing for the students of class 7. The workshop was conducted by Mrs Neelam Sanwalka who has been in the field of education for the past forty years. Writing is one of the most important skills a child can learn and indulge in as a developmental habit., she said. Creative writing is an excellent tool to help broaden a childs imagination and induce cognitive thinking.

Around 75 students attended the workshop which began with an ice breaking activity. The names of the different parts of speech were put up in the different corners and the students were asked to move around the auditorium singing or dancing when the music began to play. They were then supposed to stand in front of any one of the placards when the music stopped. Ms Sanwaka asked several questions to check the students grammatical skills. She also taught the students a new way to write their picture compositions using POPCAR (people, objects, places, colours, action, reaction)- a technique developed by her to make creative writing easier. The students were prompted to make a habit of thinking in English rather than their mother tongues. All the individual as well as group activities and games conducted for the students were ones that would facilitate them fluency in spoken English. The methods taught for improving writing skills were particularly useful. Overall, it was an amazing, informative and wonderful learning experience for all the participants.

A workshop on Origami to mark World Origami Day was aconducted for the students of class 6 in the Art room. Origami is the art of folding paper into decorative items and shapes. The workshop was conducted by members of Experience Japan for our 60 excited students. The resource persons initiated the workshop by telling the students about how origami came into existence and its importance. They taught them to make small useful decorative items like book marks, a Japanese flower, a butterfly and a pen stand. Every child went back home with some of these items and a beautiful smile.

This time Library Week was special as several students were awarded certificates of appreciation for their efforts. The students who participated actively were Oishee Halder of V A, Pranshi Pareek, Khushi Bammi and Jasleen Kaur Bajaj of VIII D, Akshita Panwar, Anushree Dutta, Simran Khandpur, Shivangi Sharma and Vidhi Sharma of XI-D. Library Week thus concluded on a exuberant note and with a promise to come back again next year with another set of innovative actuvities.