Topic: Reading aloud day
Dear parents,
Today I would like to tell you about a special day at our school that transformed our Mierendorff School into a true reading paradise: our Reading Aloud Day!
Even early in the morning, the atmosphere in the school building was characterized by a very special mood – calm, tense anticipation and great curiosity were in the air. Our colleague Ms. Raschke put her heart and soul into making something wonderful possible: eight authors and illustrators of children’s books were our guests, read aloud and held workshops with our pupils. Thanks to the proceeds from our summer party and the generous support of the Förderverein, we were able to realize this special event.
Author Beate Dölling and illustrator Henrike Wilson visited us for our Year 3 classes. They read from their book “On the road with Harry” and then held a workshop on the topic of “Empathy”. The children creatively explored the question: “If I were an animal, what would I look like and what would I do?”
The 4th graders had the opportunity to work with author and writing teacher Katharina Frier-Ott and illustrator Ulrike Jensen. They worked with the book “Mit dem ABC durch Berlin” (With the ABC through Berlin). In their workshop, they created colorful collages from snippets of text and pictures on the theme of “Kiez-Lieblingsding” – small works of art that bring our district to life.
Our 5th graders were read to from the book “Mascha’s Shining Years”. A particularly touching moment occurred when the author Veronika Wiggert and the illustrator Marie Geissler presented their book. While the author read, the illustrator drew a freehand picture to accompany the book – a magical moment! In the subsequent workshop, the pupils created their own poems to accompany the book presentation and turned them into art.
Mr. Fasshauer, who already inspired us last year, was also with us again and read from his book “Der Zeitzauber – Tickt’s hier noch richtig?” to our 6th graders. The children immersed themselves in a world full of monsters and mythical creatures and developed their very own monster pictures and magic spells in the workshop.
Our 1st, 2nd and welcome classes organized the reading day on their own with just as much enthusiasm and imagination. The classrooms were filled with reading, laughter and amazement: funny stories made the children giggle, adventurous tales transported them to faraway lands and magical worlds. Whether talking animals, brave heroes and heroines or fantastic journeys – the stories made the eyes of our youngest pupils light up. They listened attentively to the words of their teachers and gave free rein to their own imaginations. The children created their very own worlds full of colors, characters and adventures.
What a successful day! Experiencing school in a completely different way, immersing yourself in foreign worlds, discovering your own creativity – all this has awakened curiosity and a love of reading in our children. Experiences like this are invaluable and will be remembered for a long time.
My heartfelt thanks go to everyone involved who made this wonderful day possible!
Yours sincerely
Andreas Schnelle
School management Mierendorff elementary school
