Students in character as Literacy Month activities wind down

St Jude’s Primary culminated its activities to observe Literacy Month on Friday with a Character Day that saw teachers and students dressing up as their favourite story characters and parading in front of the school body. 

Organiser of the St George school’s activities for Literacy Month, Language Arts coordinator Anderson Butcher, said the idea was to show children that reading was fun and they could manifest what they loved most about their favourite character by pretending to be them for a day.

“The theme for this year’s Literacy Month, which we celebrated in October, was Literacy: A Doorway To A Brighter Future. Today, children were to immerse themselves in characters from story books they read. This helps them with their social and emotional development as they interact with their peers and tell them about the character they are in and why they are fond of that character. 

Have you ever heard the story about the princess and the cowboy?

“We want children to understand that literacy and reading are fun and that school is an exciting place to be. We want them to know that regardless of whatever circumstances they may have at home or encounter at school, literacy and reading will help them achieve all their goals and aspirations,” he said.

“We would have had some celebrity, such as Parliamentary Representative for St George North Toni Moore, entertainer Jermaine Coopa Dan Gittens and DJ Patrick Salt Bellamy, who would have read story books with the children during Literacy Month and the children could have selected characters from those stories, characters from other books, and even characters from animations,” Butcher added.

Fairytale princesses brought to life.

Friday was not the usual school day for the students. After being read a story of the Three Little Pigs from the wolf’s perspective, they modelled their costumes and explained what their character depicted. The students also danced to folk songs and popular Barbadian music and got the opportunity to take pictures with their colleagues and teachers on a 360 photo booth machine.   

Last month, as part of the activities for Literacy Month, various professionals visited the school and chatted with students about the importance of being able to read and write. (SZB)