MUBS Hosts Aley School Children For Reading Day

By MUBS Communications Dept., 2000-2021.

On February 12, 2020, the Modern University of Business and Science (MUBS), Aley Campus, hosted fifty children from the Modern National School and the Aley Second Public School for a reading day full of fun and excitement! The event was organized by the Early Childhood Education students and instructors at the Aley and Damour campuses for 1st grade students.

The children were captivated by the stories read and the poems sung by students and teachers. The stories were accompanied by Power Point presentations featuring pictures, musical videos, and puppet shows to engage the children. The event gave them the chance to experience a novel learning experience - not only did they listen to the stories, but they were also invited to be actively participants. They repeated chants and participated in singing storytelling and face-painting. They acted the stories out and were creative and made masks to take home.

In addition, the MUBS students and teachers created their own story books and shared the stories with the children. Throughout the process, they applied what they learned from the course “Children’s Literature in ECE”. The outcomes were well-developed stories with various themes, unique writing styles, and engaging plots. Themes varied from friendship to family love and personal belongings and addressed all types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The titles were catchy varying from “Reina and The Balloons”, “Sam’s Choice”, “What Could It Be?” “A Special Gift for Eve” to “Snowy’s Birthday Party”, “The Vowel Sound A”, and “Blankie Blankie”. The children were interactive and enthusiastic.

The reading day gave MUBS students the opportunity to share literature strategies to meet 21st Century standards. They employed today’s technology to facilitate their presentation of stories, to provoke responses from children, and to ensure their engagement. The interactive puppet show captured the children’s attention and interactive read-aloud strategies were implemented where storytellers kept the audience involved through discussion questions that encouraged children to make predictions. This also helped relate the story events to their own life experiences and stimulated their critical thinking skills.

In the end, MUBS students and teachers alike concluded that good storytelling ignites a passion for reading and plays a central role in influencing kids to be lifelong readers. The stories were presented through inspirational sketches and this is what made the event a great success.