Since 2011, K. International School Tokyo (KIST) has promoted reading through the “Drop Everything and Read” (DEAR) program, a month-long celebration that began in the United States in honour of American author, Beverly Cleary.
Throughout November, the program was celebrated at KIST each Wednesday morning when everyone in the school — students, teachers and office staff — spent twenty minutes engaged in silent reading.
To kick off this year’s program, elementary students and teachers transformed themselves into their favourite literary characters and then showed off their costumes in a book-character costume parade around the school playground. Some of the characters seen in this year’s parade included Harry Potter, Where’s Wally, Sherlock Holmes, Pippi Longstocking, Wimpy Kid, Winnie the Witch, and many others. Prizes were awarded for the best costumes in various categories.
Other activities held in conjunction with DEAR included a presentation from Tokyo-based children’s book author, Chris Larter, and the “DEAR Wall” initiative in which students and parents were invited to write comments on two large banners to express their thoughts about reading.
K. International School Tokyo is an IB World School, fully authorized to offer the PYP, MYP, and DP. It is located one minute from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa station in Koto-ku. —CRAIG LARSEN
