Help Build School Libraries in Rural Guatemala

It’s nearly summer (dry season) in Guatemala, so school vacation is right around the corner. This year Pueblo a Pueblo is offering a library camp throughout November where children can go for education, fun, and a nutritious meal while their parents work.

     Our six-week library camp will feature literacy activities based on a new theme each week, such as “The World, My Community, and I" and “Types of Animals.” Some activities will focus on imagination and fiction books and other activities will involve investigation and non-fiction books. Throughout, kids will read, listen to stories, and enjoy arts and crafts.

The Chukmuk children attendance to literacy activities at the Library is growing. Their interest has been awaken with the activities done in June.

In July our theme was ‘Nature’ and through activities linked to four children’s books we learned about how to best care for our mother earth.
The first book was ‘El Arbol generoso’ (The generous tree) and on that library session each child thanked the flowers, the trees and our beautiful lake for everything they give us.

The second book was ‘Siembra una semilla’ (Plant a seed) and guess what! each child made their own seed pot with recycled paper and planted a sunflower seed!
After watering the seeds and give them love for a whole week…. they came out!

With the third book (El loro tico tango) we experimented and learned how to write rhymes. It was the first try ever for most of the children so it was difficult!

And after reading 'El bosque tropical' (The tropical forest) we had to join letters and create animal names without orthographical mistakes...

Even though we are still on a temporary space we continue working to bring books to the life of children in Chukmuk and to awaken their interest for reading, widening their imagination and knowledge.