Written by Flavia
One of the newest schools under the LiS umbrella, Mae-de-Deus High School, Corjuem, Aldona, Goa, has not seen much of Bookworm’s magic. Sessions at this school are conducted on the same day as another LiS school at Margao, which means only the closest few (geographically), conduct sessions here.
For the session on ‘In My Pocket’ with Std.1, I decided to make the effort to show them some worm Magic. This involved wearing a coat with an extra large pocket and carrying props that matched the story. As I walked through the corridor to the classroom, carrying the book box, wearing the coat, I heard a murmur from the students of older classes – ‘What is happening today?’
The students of Std.1 were excited to see the coat too. At first they thought I was a doctor. Then they saw one extra large pocket and they waited to see what would happen.
I read the story aloud first, which kept the suspense going. The kids asked me about the coat a couple of times. I told them to wait and see.
The magic started during the recap of the story, when the kids were asked to come up and put the required items in my extra-large pocket. At first, there was hesitation. They remembered what went into the pocket as well as the appropriate number, but no one had ever loaded a teacher’s pocket before. Usually the teacher unloads the kids’ pockets!
As soon as the first couple of kids correctly loaded my pocket, everyone else wanted a turn, some of them twice. I had to hold onto the pocket so that the ‘one big hole’ did not appear prematurely.
When everything fell out of my pocket through the hole, everyone wanted to help pick up the items, count them and put them back into a box. My able assistant Monica, captured scenes of the excitement. A little effort goes a long way in making a story memorable.
