In this day and age, when children would rather reach for the television remote or play on the computer, it is important to try to draw their attention to books and reading. The month of March is an ideal time to encourage these activities. Four years ago, the Lutheran Academy in Martin began a project called BOOK WORMS, a project that supports reading literacy and a love of books. This is a program that not only improves the literary skills of our students, but also of their creative spirit.
This program of Lutheran Academy was prepared and organized by students in the 4.B class, under the supervision of classroom teacher and project coordinator Agnes Neupauerová.
This year the Book Worm program went through some changes. The first change concerned allowing guests to read along with the students. The fourth grade students, along with their teacher and program coordinator, decided to invite parents and other family members to join in. Everyone agreed that the family atmosphere added a positive new component to the program and was a fantastic experience.
A second change was significant. Students were not required to read a common book, but were allowed free choice in the book they read. The joint meeting at the end of March was therefore not aimed at activities associated with collaborative reading, but with creative presentation of all the books read. Students were allowed to present short plays or poems about their books. They also expressed great creativity by making their own book illustrations and some even made puppets. The guests particularly showed great imagination!
The culmination of this year’s program was a competition for “Bookworm of the School.” The competition involved answering questions from three pre-chosen tales: Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread House, and Three Billy Goats. These are traditional tales, but even if a class decided to read and present on modern works, project coordinator Agnes Neupauerová believes it’s “good if students manage to brush up their memories of the classic fairy tale.” Each book concerned children and added to a healthy contestant atmosphere.
Project “BookWorm” is an important project encouraging reading literacy among students. Its value is not in just exploring the beauty of Slovak literary works, but also because it allows those for whom books are a rare and irreplaceble part of life to meet together and share their experience. Organizers, school leaders, and guests agreed that this year’s version of the project was the best ever. 
