Book Reading Session at ILM Montessori
On a balmy September evening, ILM Montessori organized an entertaining book reading session for over 25 kids to discover, develop interest, enjoy and appreciate the beauty of reading.
To make it innovative and effective, Dr Suess’s masterpiece, “Horton Hatches the Egg” was read by none other than Bangalore’s Theater royalty and founder of BSSD, Dr. Zulfia Shaikh and Maseera Shaikh.
After a quick and friendly introduction, Dr. Zulfia and Maseera interacted and gauged the reading habits and pulse of our audience (kids aged 4-9), preparing them for what lay ahead for the next hour.
Brimming with spontaneity and humor, our drama queens read out the book in dramatic tones and expressions getting some gasps and laughter out of the audience while they enacted their characters to perfection.
With every word, the excitement on the kids’ faces grew as they were immediately hooked to every word read as they were transported into Horton and Mayzie’s world enacted by Maseera and Dr. Zufia respectively.
The vivid description and dialogues were effectively read out and the timely interjection of some really funny comments and reactions to the events by our readers and audience taking place in the story ensured that most of the audience was listening in rapt attention.
As the story progressed, our kids were asked questions and also encouraged to question if they didn’t follow anything. To make things more interesting, the kids were divided into two groups (Horton and Mayzie) after being presented with caricatures of Horton and Mayzie and asked to enact and repeat the characters’ dialogues after Dr. Zulfia and Maseera.
This switching of context from the story to real life, made it easier for the kids to relate to the characters and their characteristics.
It was a privilege and honor to witness both Dr Zulfia and Maseera’s “reading performance” that last lasted just over an hour as we all were amazed at how gracefully they brought the characters and the book itself to life.
Like most stories our reading session too had a happy ending with the kids promising Dr. Zulfia that they would read more, while the parents learnt that in order to harness the benefits of reading books out aloud, they’d have to bring the book to life by adding a dash of drama, spontaneity and humor.
Click here to view more photos of the Book Reading.