Article Source: School of Communication and Design

Writer: Tang Huijie

Recently, volunteers from SYSU Boya Class held the first picture books reading activity with the theme of ‘Picture Books, Bright Minds and Painting World’ in the Children’s Reading Area of Guangzhou Library. As one important event of the Guangzhou Library Study Project of SYSU Boya Education Program, this activity aimed to lead Boya students into community and organize ‘knowledge services’ for teenagers and children, who warmly welcomed the activity.

Picture books contain mainly drawing pictures. Different from traditional reading mode that accepts information passively, they emphasize on readers’ observations and discoveries on pictures and realizing deeper cultural connotations that books convey through self-participatory imagination and deductive procedures. The activity was based on picture books including Burger Boy. Volunteers had fully prepared for the activity after several stages including group discussions, picture books selection, information collection, expert consultation, PPT preparation and sitcom presentation. Volunteers from Boya Class began the whole activity with a sitcom and guided the children into rabbit dance, which created brisk atmosphere. They then showed the pictures in the books through PPT and encouraged children to make their own stories, share them with others, and act them out. Additionally, volunteers summarized the difference between storytelling and plays to children in order to inspire them to think, respond, debate and so on. As a result, these children would develop healthy eating habits, cultivate correct views on nutrition and provoke further interest in picture books.