To kick off the National Children's Book Week celebration, SM invited 50 pupils from Palar Elementary School in Taguig City, together with their parent and teachers to the National Children's Book Read Aloud Day! Different SM Malls around the country celebrated the events simultaneously by holding their very own unique ways of telling stories and inviting inspiring speakers.
It was an honor to be invited by SM Aura as their guest storyteller representing The Storytelling Project. I told the story Bumabara-bara-bara thru Digital Storytelling (iPhone and LEDTV tops!), which is a story about taking care of the environment, waste segregation and helping making the world a better place. Another story that I shared is the heart-wrenching Two friends, One world. This time, since it's World BOOK READ ALOUD day, I used a printed book and read the story out loud. It was kind of confusing for the kids at first, but they were able to figure out later that Antonio is a special friend.
Some key takeaways:
1. Stories have magic. It is for everyone. We had the program at the malls' atrium and everyone including the passersby would stop for a minute and listen to the story.
2. Always always always take into account the context of your listeners. While SM and the publishers would have wanted to convey very good morals, the stories used needed a lot of unlocking of unfamiliar words -- Butanding, Tarsier -- to the Grade 2 students from a public school.
3. Learning never stops. It was a holistic learning experience for the children and it was a rich learning experience for me. You will really see the disparity of society. There were many shoppers that day and there were also the children.
