Reading is your very own time machine
The first sentence of a book will transport you to a different universe, a time and place you have never been before. And it only engulfs you further and further into their world.
Indonesia is not known for having the highest number of readers. Due to this minimal reading culture, Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH) Lippo Village holds an annual celebration called Book Week for the Junior School to embrace and celebrate a love for reading and books. It is a week filled with activities and events to spark students‘ and teachers’ interest and engagement with books.
With the tagline ‘Go and Grow,’ this year’s Book Week coordinator, Ms. Savannah McKinnon, specifically organized the event around the theme of Growing Reader, Growing Mind, and Growing Faith. Relevant to the SPH’s annual theme of Arise and Shine, the theme for Book Week derived from Isaiah 61:11, “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”
Fun Daily Themes
Keeping students on their toes, Ms. Savannah ensured the week would ignite their love and interest in reading with these fun daily themes!
On a creative hat or hair day, on Monday, Junior School students were encouraged to wear their funky hats to school or style their hair in the wildest way! Tuesday was pajamas and buddy reading day with some of the older students, while on Wednesday, students would have some guest readers to read alongside them. Teachers had the most fun on Thursday, as it was DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) day, and they got to decide on the time and place when students had to quite literally drop everything and read on the spot. On Friday, the event concluded with students and teachers dressing up as their favorite characters. Though there was a different theme for each day of the week, a book fair, reading competition, and illustrating competition took place throughout the week.
With these various reading settings throughout the week, one reading day that students anticipated the most was appropriately the Cozy Reading Day on Tuesday. Not only was it an opportune time to wear pajamas to school, but it was a memorable sight to have the older students join the younger classes’ reading time and see kids of different age groups read together and share their joy through books.
What Lies beyond Reading
Through SPH Lippo Village’s annual Book Week, students are encouraged to simply find joy in reading. Exposure to books and reading at an early age allows them to expand their perspectives as they learn from and engage with stories from around the world. They are reminded that reading is far more than just learning; there is pleasure within this story-sharing community. It also shows that reading is a free, beneficial, and sustainable form of recreation for everyone.
If you are interested in learning more about our Junior School program at SPH Lippo Village, feel free to reach out here.
