Akshara Foundation Conducts Summer Camps

Here's the programme report on Akshara's library camps this past summer.

Akshara Foundation’s School Library Programme held a summer vacation camp in 110 of the school and community libraries it runs across Bangalore. It lasted two weeks in April-May and had 3210 children participating in it. The effort was aimed at inducing children to read more.

Activity Planning

• Activities contained concepts from science and history. Imagination Building was another set of activities wherein children were given simple sketches of objects and asked to create a story about them. There were games too, involving concentration and memory.
• Two versions catered to different age groups of children. There were activities for older children which familiarized them with advanced concepts, while activities were kept simpler for younger children.
• Activities were linked to books in the library.
• Books were read at the start and at the end of each activity.
• A short quiz was conducted at the end of each activity to check on comprehension and impact.
• Librarians and other field staff were trained and given a printed manual (available in Urdu, Kannada and English).
• There was prior announcement and publicity about the summer camp at the libraries.

The Activities

1. Astronomy: a) Day and Night b) Solar and Lunar Eclipses c) Solar System: Groups of children were made to stand back-to-back, arms interlinked, moving in a manner that simulated celestial bodies such as the earth, sun, moon and the planets. Concepts learnt also included orbits and time zones. Books used: Sameer’s House from Tulika Books; Sister, Sister Where does the Sun go at Night? The Moon and the Cap and My Family from Pratham Books.

Solar system activity at the Link Road library

“You are the Moon” – a simple day and night activity for
younger children at the Kaggalipura library

‘Sameer’s House’ – book reading at the
Sompura library

2. Botany – Children collected leaves from the neighbourhood and discovered geometrical shapes such as lines, triangles, rectangles, and parallelograms in the vein patterns of the leaves. Books used were It’s all about Leaves from Pratham Books and The Summer Tree Contest from the Children’s Book Trust.

3. History /Role Play – Children presented impromptu skits of episodes from a few popular books. The books used were Chatura Birbal from Navneet, Norbu’s New Shoes from Tulika Books and Swathanthrya Yatre from Vasan Publishers.

Enactment of an episode from Akbar and Birbal at the
Bidaraguppe library

4. Book Treasure Hunt. Book-related clues were given to children who were asked to crack the clues and bring the book. Children noted such information as the title, author / illustrator’s names and so on.

5. Imagination Building/Story Creation. Children were given a few simple single-object sketches and drawings (e.g. a ball, a cap, a vegetable or a house) and asked to create and tell a story of their own.

6. Fruit-Vegetable Game, Touch and Feel and the Train Game. These were memory/concentration and imagination building activities. The Fruit Vegetable Game, for example, asked each child to name one vegetable or fruit in turn and was declared “out” if unable to do so or made a repeat choice.

• Akshara Foundation shared its summer camp activities with other NGOs like Hippocampus Reading Foundation, KSCCW, Bangalore, Samarthanam Trust and Makkala Jagriti, all organizations that run libraries. The objective was to share know-how and ideas about the camp and its activities.

• Mobile librarians put in great effort to make the summer camp interesting and informative. Children participated enthusiastically and though it was held during holiday time, children came in large numbers. Children of a school in Malleswaram, residents of a hostel, postponed their visit to their hometowns till the camp was over.

Feedback from Children

• Yeshwanth, from Std. IV, Government Kannada Model Primary School, Hegganahalli, is an avid reader, the only student to have finished reading all the books in his library. His talented story creation at the camp was widely appreciated. He said, “The summer camp provided us with a beautiful opportunity to explore by ourselves. I liked Imagination Building because it helped us imagine and build a story of our own. This boosted our confidence to actually narrate a story in front of a group. My librarian helped me a lot here. I thank Akshara Foundation for this. I also enjoyed the leaf collection activity in botany - using leaves to analyze shapes, studying their uses and doing a role play.”

• Nagarjuna, Std. V, Government Kannada Model Primary School, Byatarayanapura, said,“The concept of astronomy was brought out beautifully at the summer camp. Frankly speaking, we were unaware of the solar system, of day and night and eclipses. But after the summer camp, our knowledge of these concepts really expanded. On behalf of all the children who participated in the summer camp, I thank the library team for this effort. I hope the summer camp continues in this fashion. We would like to know more, get more information.”