On Friday 21st April, we launched a series of activities for "Book Day". Reading has been celebrated, for the last 28 years, as a big day every year on the 23rd April, in China, when it was designated as "World Book Day". Reading more books, reading good books and loving reading books are also good habits that our school has always fostered within our children.
On this special day, teachers and children dressed up as their favourite characters from books, bringing the characters to life. With the collision of traditional culture and modern technology, the integration of historical civilization and the fictional world, the children dressed up as characters such as: Sun Wukong, Zhu Geliang, fairytale princesses and Harry Potter – just to name a few! Everyone was very excited to join in the morning parade and celebrate all efforts made.
All English classes during this day, focused on reading skills and exploration of books. Some classes focused on Roald Dahl’s‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’ and created some wonderfully weird and wacky potions, to other classes acting out and retelling famous well-known stories, but giving a different story plot! This Book Day allowed children to experience the highlights of books from both Chinese and international perspectives and children had fun engaging, exploring and learning new knowledge and skills. For children in Year 1 and Year 2 we had a ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ where some of our International Teachers read their favourite stories to the children, whilst they were having their afternoon tea.
Some children in Year 6 acted out some drama performances for children in our upper school – recreating some historical scenes which created a deep charm of cultural reading.
Creative activities were also produced. Children made posters, dioramas and bookmarks to express their understanding of reading and content they were exploring in a unique way. Our ‘Extreme Reading’ challenge was a HUGE success, with photographs taken of children in some wonderfully odd and unusual places – our children and parents were extremely imaginative!
Reading is not only a way for self-improvement and vision broadening, but also a good habit that benefits all. Through the "Book Day" activities, HIKSVS encourages children to read more books and integrate the knowledge and wisdom from books into their lives, influencing more people around them.