The DLS celebrates World Read Aloud Day (WRAD)

World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) was celebrated on Wednesday, 2 February 2022 - a very important day on the library’s calendar. WRAD was established in 2010, by a non-profit organisation “LitWorld”, which actively promotes the power of reading aloud in society. They focus on the following beneficial aspects that are developed during the reading process:

• Enhancement of general knowledge
• Expansion of vocabulary
• Development of writing skills, and
• Stimulation of imagination that transfers a child into another world.

To commemorate this day, the DLS team - represented by Christine Nel, Gerda Ehlers, Thulani Mahlangu, Busisiwe Mmalefhalo, Suzie Viljoen and Lehlohonolo Mokonele - visited the pre-school at the Lutheran Theological Seminary for a day of reading and fun activities. The reading theme for the day was “birds”, which saw some role-playing performances from the children who imitated birds by standing like flamingos, flapping their wings like an owl, and waddling with their feet like penguins.

Afterwards, there was a fun baking session where the children created bird nests and branches using biscuits, speckled eggs, caramel condensed milk, and coco pops. In line with the theme, the children were shown four dried weaver nests that were still on branches as well as real ostrich eggs - to demonstrate how large a bird’s egg can be - and they were delighted by these practical examples. The weaver nests were also donated to the school afterwards and the teachers were very excited.  

The team read the following books to the children, which the DLS also donated to the school:

• Butterfield, M. (2021) Dance like a flamingo: learn how to move and groove like the animals do! Welbeck Editions.
• Hegarty, P. and Galloway, F. (2019) Flamingo a playful book of counting! Wilton, CT: Tiger Tales (My little world).
• Sirett, D., Davis, S. and King, D. (2011) Pop-up peekaboo! Farm. New York, NY: DK Pub (Pop-up peekaboo!).
• Teckentrup, B. (2020) Blue. London: Orchard Books.

The outreach was a fun-filled day - the teachers and children were very happy and expressed their gratitude for all the donations. The read aloud event contributes to our story telling techniques, which we constantly try to improve on.  As a team, we felt that although we are small, we contributed significantly in celebrating World Read Aloud Day.