The Department of Culture of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, directed by Elena Espino Santana, has launched, once again, the “Reader Sponsorship” project aimed at the students of the CEIP Santa Águeda, in El Pajar.
This is a reading promotion project in which 6th grade primary school students become godfathers and godmothers for 5-year-old kindergarten students to share moments of reading. In this way, there will be 5 45-minute meetings in which the godfather or godmother will read a book to their godson or goddaughter.
Yesterday morning the first meeting between both courses was held, where the pairs of godfathers/godmothers and godsons/goddaughters were formed. There they have received the copy and the material with which they will participate in the project.
On this occasion the title of the book, loaned by the Maspalomas Municipal Library, is “The Dinosaurs Are Coming!”, by the author Mary Pope Osborne. It is an easy-to-read illustrated book, full of adventure, fiction and mystery. It consists of 89 pages and is aimed at boys and girls between 7 and 8 years old.
Parallel to reading, students will carry out complementary activities to work on the content of the book. Among the benefits of the project are the development of reading and active listening skills, the improvement of vocalization and intonation as well as the understanding of oral texts, differentiating the structural elements of the story, feeling interest in the narrative by identifying characters and situations, take responsibility for the care of the book, learn to adapt to people of different ages and, especially, enhance interpersonal relationships, recognizing young students as their equals at school.
With this activity, emotional ties are created between both courses that usually last over time, since in addition to sharing moments of reading, other types of encounters are encouraged, resulting in finally "congratulating each other on their birthdays, giving each other gifts, having breakfast." together or participate together in different activities. In all these meetings you can see these boys and girls very proud and attentive to what their respective godparents and godchildren are doing,” said María del Pino Pérez, sociocultural facilitator of the Department of Culture and person in charge of the project.
For his part, Espino has stressed the importance of this type of initiative that "represents a unique experience for each of its participants and surely when they are adults they will remember this stage fondly."
