Berlin Elementary welcomes reading to the jungle
“Otherwise, he would be far away in the jungle; tasting, touching, seeing, and feeling new things.” — Rudyard Kipling from “The Jungle Book."
Experiencing new things, whether through sight, sound, smell or touch, was one of the key components behind Berlin Elementary’s Right to Read Week.
The Jungle or The Rain Forest was the theme chosen by Berlin educators, and the object was to create a jungle-like atmosphere throughout the school that would entice kids into reading galore during the week of May 12-19.
A trek through the wild jungle up to the second floor of the elementary school ushered everyone into a brave new world, one that was lush and green and filled with monkeys, snakes and other assorted animals that make the rain forest their home. With green paper placed over the hallway lights, a beautiful, luminous green aura enveloped the entire floor as tree leaves and vines cascaded from above along the entire corridor.
“The goal is to get students to explore new and exciting things and places through reading,” said Darren Blochlinger, Berlin Elementary principal. “We play music throughout each day that signifies that students are to drop whatever they are doing, grab a book and start reading. They then read for about 20 minutes, and then we get back to our regular schedules. We wanted to make something that was fun for the kids while at the same time allowed them to maybe read materials that would help them learn about something new.”
There also were fun activities throughout the week. From hat day to wear green and brown day, dress like an explorer day and bring your favorite stuffed animal to school day, the activities were designed to promote unity in the school.
Students also had plenty of art activities in which to participate including making rain sticks, iguanas and monkeys as craft projects.
One treat was a visit from Eric Khobung, an actual tribesman from Manipur, India, who came to read to the students and share about life in India. Khobung is currently going to school in the United States, and he spoke to the students about his life and geared it to the ever-popular Rudyard Kipling classic, “The Jungle Book."
“He was amazing,” Blochlinger said of Khobung’s ability to connect with the kids in meaningful ways. “Anyone who can keep the attention of my kindergarteners for 40 minutes is doing something special.”
Khobung did the initial kick-off day event and then returned later in the week to go classroom to classroom for more in-depth lessons with the students.
“This needs to be fun of course, and we want to make it something that will stay with the students for a long time,” Blochlinger said. “But at the same time we want it to be educational, and we want this time to help students realize the importance of reading and learning. Making it exciting for them to read is great, and we tried to make some cool things that took kids to different places around the world that they may never get to see firsthand.”
With a goal of 100,000 pages to read school-wide, the students zoomed by that mark with ease and celebrated with a jungle movie that provided insight into the rain forest ecosystem.