Book and ICT week at Dun Frans Camilleri Primary

The Dun Frans Camilleri Primary School in Hamrun recently organised a book and ICT week during which schoolchildren from kindergaten up to Year 7 took part.

The aim of organising such an activity was to raise literacy levels. In fact, after a School Development Plan session it was agreed that apart from class libraries, reading schemes and other activities which make reading more fun and attractive, a book and ICT week could further promote reading and integrating books with ICT.

 The activities included storytelling through the use of PowerPoint presentations. Pupils also undertook some research work, and a Year 6A student prepared a PowerPoint presentation about Einstein, which was then shown to the class.

Some schoolchildren also learnt how to browse the Internet. Thus, the children found they could use various search engines to look up the same information they can look for in books.

Some activities also included printing. The children used the software found on their computers, mainly PrintShop, to create their own storybooks. In some classes the children invented the stories, typed them on their computers, found pictures associated with their stories from the Internet, and printed them as booklets.

Apart from drawing their favourite storybook characters on paper, some children used the software KidPix to draw these characters using their computers.

A lot of reading was being done during this week, not only from books but also from the software. The younger classes read the series of Reader Rabbit on their computers. These stories were first shown to the whole class on the class monitor and later each child could read it again at his or her own leisure on one of the class computers.

An interesting activity was when the children dressed up in costumes and then used the Internet to search for information on the costume and country they were representing, thus learning about different cultures and traditions.

As a result the children became more aware of the importance of reading. They realised this could be fun and interesting and also learnt to integrate ICT which became part and parcel of all they were doing.