Journée anglaise

September 21st, 2013 ~ La Bretagne ~ Reunion Island

Last Saturday, the second edition of the Jounée anglaise took place in our neigbourhood, here, in La Bretragne.

English Rocks! (our association) partnered with the local library to give access to books written in English to children.

The librarian brought a large number of  books from the central St-Denis library (Médiathèque François Mitterrand).

I was amazed by their collection, this place is a gold mine, 
they provide great resources for teachers or families searching for books written in English.

If you live in the area, be sure to check it out!

While the librarians supervised the reading area, 

I held bilingual StoryTime workshops for over an hour and a half.

It was tiring but fun!

When I invited kids to join the workshops, a few of them said no thank you.

They were not interested in BOOKS...

Some seemed to look at me either with a polite look saying I really don't want to hurt you but I'd rather do something else, others were more like, get real, why would I look at a book on a Saturday afternoon, books are at school, where they belong.

 Each time a kid said no, I extended the same invitation:

How about you try, come and sit with us and if you don't enjoy it, 

you can leave anytime, I won't mind.

Most of these kids came and STAYED! They did enjoy the BOOKS.

They realized that stories are fun,
that they don't have to be scared about not undersantding English (I translate when needed)
and they got a glimpse of the magic only good books can bring.

Here are a few pictures, kindly taken by one of the parents in attendance:

The Crocodile's knobbly Skin by Andrea Florens

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae

here are the books the kids got to choose from:
StoryBox treasures from all over the world