A helping hand for Bookworms Library

Today we came together in the home of Umm Uzair. When smaller bookworms sat down for their reading, Umm Uzair asked them about their very favourite toys - everybody had a turn telling others about theirs. Then she asked, if ever anything bad had ever happened to their favourite toys, and children shared some of their sad experiences of toys getting broken and even lost.

All of this this discussion led to the selected reading for the day, which was "Raggedy Ann" by Johnny Gruelle - a story about a doll, who also happened to go through a very rough experience. Bookworms also learned that Raggedy Ann was, in fact, a real doll, who used to belong to a real girl named Marcella. Because Marcella was often ill and had to spend much of her time at home, her father, the writer of this book, looked for ways to keep her entertained. He was inspired by Marcella's rag doll, which had bright shoe-button eyes and red yarn hair. They named the doll Raggedy Ann. Knowing how much Marcella adored Raggedy Ann, Johnny Gruelle wrote stories about the doll. He later collected stories he had written for Marcella and published them in a series of books - one of these bookworms got to read!


After the reading, smaller bookworms continued on with a crafts activity. With the help of their moms, they outlined on a piece of paper their hands and coloured them with their favourite colours of crayons and pencils. Later, Umm Uzair attached these colourful hands to straws, creating a bunch of beautiful flowers!

While smaller bookworms were busy in story-time, the bigger book club girls got started on a serious project - repairing the picture books of Bookworms Library. Even though our library is still small, books do suffer from reading and need some attention for making their life longer.

The bigger bookworms worked under the supervision of Hafsa and aunty Almas, who ensured the smooth proceeding of the fixing process. One group of girls identified the broken books, while the other started to work on fixing them. This time, scotch-tape and scissors was all the girls needed. However, Umm Uzair promised that for bigger chapter books, some more serious work would be coming up - she would teach the girls how to bind books into new covers, Insha'Allah.

As the girls were busily working, aunty Almas came up with a poem, describing the book-fixing workshop:

We worked in a line, for our books to shine,
Because a stich in time saves nine.

When my books feel fine, I'm on cloud nine,
Because a stich in time saves nine. 

I see in them plants, trees and pine, I'm through them, they're all mine,
Because a stich in time saves nine.

I find them sweet as cane and sour as lime. When I see them, my heart chimes.
Because a stich in time saves nine.

Aunty Almas and the girls presented this poem to the rest of the book club - aunty Almas reading one line and the girls all together chanting the repeating line. Thank you, aunty Almas, for the beautiful poem!

With all the colours of rainbow

This week, bookworms gathered together for having some fun at the home of Haneen and Safiya - thank you for welcoming us! At a previous book club, we had agreed to discuss the topic of rainbows and colours in general, so children had brought along something colourful for show-and-tell. Here is what we enjoyed:

Hassan had constructed and coloured a rainbow house. He had some rain-clouds on the sides, too.

Haneen demonstrated to us her rainbow top - when she spun it,  all the colours mixed into a yellowish glow of light.

Fatima had drawn a story about rainbow - children came to park to play, it started to rain, and they saw a rainbow.

Hibatullah showed us a beautiful multi-colours mat made by her mother.

Hibatullah had brought with her a pack of colourful t-shirts arranged according to the colours of rainbow.

And that's Sulaiman showing us a colourful rainbow with the letters of each colour marked inside.

Hajrah had a colourful plastic spring - she shifted it from one palm to the other, forming the colourful bow of the rainbow this way.

As children were showing their colourful items, all of us discussed, how rainbows are formed - how the sunlight breaks down in the droplets of rain into all the colours of rainbow. Hajrah's mother reminded her, how they saw completely round (not bow-shaped) rainbows at Niagara Falls. Hafsa's mother reminded her, how they had been sitting in a train, over which a rainbow was arching - as they drove closer to the rainbow, it seemed to disappear from view.


After this wonderful show-and-tell, Umm Haneen red for us a story about a rabit, who was trying to find out, what colours made up a rainbow. This reading was followed by another book read by Umm Uzair - about an orange cat named Archie, who hated (but later learned to appreciate) the colour pink. Umm Uzair also asked all the bookworms about their favourite colours and the reasons why they liked them.

The reading was followed by an art activity - all the children were invited to make their very own rainbows by looking at Hassan's house for guidance, as to which colours to have in their rainbows. Even the smallest bookworms tried out their hand at creating rainbows!

Later on, Haneen and Safiyah showed to all their friends, how to make your own rainbow at home. All you need is a glass of water, white sheet of paper and bright sunlight. You place the sheet of paper flat on the ground in sunlight and hold a glass of water slightly above it. Move the glass of water up and down, to find the right distance at which the reflection of water will form a colourful rainbow on your sheet of paper. 

As usual, the book club ended with some snacks, which this time were followed by games in Haneen's and Safiya's garden - thanks to the beautiful cool weather! :)