With this year’s theme “Moving Forward Through Literacy,” ICA joined the international community in celebrating Literacy Month last September.  From the 26th to the 30th of the month, the grade school English department had a series of exciting activities and contests.

The festivities kicked-off last September 26 with a Character Parade, wherein students and teachers alike dressed up in their favorite literary figures. Princesses, heroines, fairies and other beloved characters from classic tales to the more recent favorites such as those from the “wizarding” world of Harry Potter filled the DTASC. The students, especially the lower grades, had a lot of fun showing off their wonderful costumes as they paraded around the hall. Even the grade school teachers and the guidance counselors got in the act and had a friendly competition amongst the participants.  Students were so delighted to see their teachers join in the fun, clapping enthusiastically as their teachers took center stage.

Over the course of the week, the grade school department was definitely abuzz with activities for each level’s own take on the theme. Most of the activities were done as inter-class events, some as friendly competitions between and among the sections. The program of events was as follows:

Grade 1 – Playlet
Grade 2 – Interpretative Reading
Grade 3 – Monologue
Grade 4 – Story Telling
Grade 5 – Classroom Radio Play and Inter-class Quiz Bee
Grade 6 – Alternative Classes and Playtomime: Literature’s Leading Ladies
Grade 7 – Play and Classroom Decoration

For the Grade 7, each class had their own theme for the parade, reflecting the stories that they had drawn for their level’s dramatic play and classroom decoration contests.  Each class made the stories of Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, A Little Princess, Pocahontas, Narnia Chronicles and Mulan come alive with their own take on these much loved tales.  A visit to their classrooms also transported people to magical worlds, as they had turned their classrooms into scenes depicting the story that their class picked.  The Grade 7 also had the privilege of having the youngest Palanca winner, Scott Lee Chua, give a talk on the writing process last September 30. The brilliant seventh grader from Xavier School shared his experiences as a writer, as well as tips and techniques on how to write well.

With the success of this year’s Literacy Week celebrations, the department is definitely looking forward to next year’s festivities, hoping to make it as, if not more, fun and educational for all students and teachers.