Luminating Literacy Day at SA L’Avenue
Once upon a time, hundreds of students set their uniforms aside in a school not so far away. Today, Friday, September the 6th, wasn't a normal day for the students in Sampoerna Academy L’Avenue, it was the celebration of Literacy Day. One day out of the year, a reminder of how wonderful books can be. It's not often we get to dress up into something ripped straight out of the pages of our favourite books! Literacy Day, although positive and fun, isn't something to take lightly. Literacy lays the groundwork for people around the world to acquire broader knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviours to cultivate a culture of lasting peace. With the theme of ‘Sharing Our Stories, Connecting Our World’, this celebration strives to build a love of reading in every child.
Early in the morning, the sun shining bright into the plaza, accompanied by even brighter smiles, Mr. Piero began the day with an inspiring speech, detailing the importance of literacy. The speech then kickstarted the rest of the opening ceremonies festivities. All the students in the plaza participated in singing the Literacy Day Song. Performances didn’t stop there! Up next was time for the students to showcase their skills on the big stage with the primary students exploding onto the stage with their dramatic reading performances. The ELC students cooled down the spotlight with a short poem, prepping the stage for the secondary students, who followed Mr. Piero’s steps to give a speech. Finally, every student who worked meticulously on their costume for this big day got to show it off in the ‘costume parade’ before following their class for a photo shoot on the bridge and main stage. No one's costume went unnoticed!
The ELC students enjoyed a fantastic storytelling show, and the primary students had a wonderful time with their midday program. Grades 1–3 had literacy rotations in Mandarin, Bahasa, and English, with fun games such as Character Charades, Trivia, Chinese Short Stories, Story Book Cover Puzzle, and Treasure Hunt. Grades 4–6 kept themselves busy with a literacy workshop led by an outside vendor. These programs were wrapped up with parent readers - two parents per homeroom read stories to the students.
The Secondary students celebrated this occasion through various literacy and literary activities. As they read their hearts out, the Grade 7 students held the championship round of their Readers Theater Competition. The Grade 8 students had simultaneous class presentations of their Story in A Bag - A Dystopian Travel Writing Creative Show and Tell, featuring the outputs of their Term 1 PBL. The Grades 9 and 10 had a battle with words and displayed their creativity with the displays and judging of their Cutout Poetry for Grade 9 and Flash Fiction Writing for Grade 10.
As the day ended, smiles, albeit still very wide, were starting to tire. It was time to end the day with awards for ELC and Primary. These awards were: Best Door Decoration (class doors decorated with favourite authors), and Best Dressed Costume. Of course, the day wouldn't be complete with writing awards as well; Grade 3 had the best Story ("Healthy Heroes in Space"), Grade 4 awarded the best Fable, Grade 5 presented the best Poem, and last but not least, Grade 6 awarded the best Dramatic Reading.
Furthermore, the secondary students concluded the day's celebration by honoring the Best Dressed Students, Best Dressed Teachers, and the winners of the various grade-level competitions. As the celebration of Literacy Day ended, it is a reminder that the journey towards universal literacy is ongoing, as millions of people worldwide are not allowed or able to be literate themselves. On this day, we were reminded of how much literacy illuminates our society and how it is essential to grow, not only as a human being but also as a community.
