Thailand - IBBY's Hug

Storytelling and Teacher Training

Storytelling for children at CDC was carried along with the survey since August 2005. Teacher training was done by FFC from 10 to 14 October, 2005. The topics were : how to display books for children, how to use picture books for children’s development, storytelling and book repair.

The average age of CDC’s teachers under this project was 25 years old, the lowest age was 22 years and the highest was 53 years old. The average work experience was 7.9 years with 4 months as the lowest and 33 years as the highest.

On average teachers are trained only once in 2 years.

After we sent the picture books to CDC we asked the teachers to answer 8 questions before we arranged the last seminar on 25-26 November, 2005.

1. What did you think when your CDC was selected to receive IBBY’s Hug?

All of the teachers replied that they were so pleased and so happy that their CDC was chosen because they had never received these good quality picture books for children. They did not have much budget to buy books.

Some teachers told that they never had any training in children’s book before.

2. How did you feel when you first saw the books from IBBY’s Hug?

We were excited and impressed with the beautiful story books for children. We loved every book and would like to read all of them to our children. They were very good books and useful for children. Our children were also excited and wanted us to read for them immediately. We had never received these kinds of books before. Thank you so much!

3. What do you think children will gain from the books?

So many things from many books. Knowledge, moral, language, enjoyment,

new experience, imagination, nature, arts, daily life, culture, co-operation and giving, poem, funny stories etc.

4. What is the book you like best?

Nu Nid Hates Vegetables, Trees in the Orchard, Because I Love You So Much, Papaya Salad Pock Pock, Miichan’s First Errand, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive a Bus, The Turnip, Play with Dad, Mr. Fong ‘s Tooth Brushing, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Cat of Million Lives, Graduk Gradik Gradok Gradak, Nu Nid Hates Tooth Brushing, The Red Half Circle, Gas We Pass, Let’s Take a Bath, The Good Yellow-Orange etc.

5. What did you do with the books?

Read to the children, set a book corner in the room, classify the books, read the books before tell the story to children, read the books to children every day and let the children look at the pictures etc.

6. How did you use the books with children?

First, let the children look at the cover, read the name of the author, point at the title and read, let the children follow, open each page and tell the story.

Read to children before they go to sleep. Read to children in the morning. Open the book and ask the children about the pictures inside, etc.

7. How did children react to the books?

Children loved to open the books and talk to their friends about the pictures. Children laughed at pictures they saw in some books. Children imitated the actions in the books. Children brought the books and asked teacher to read for them. Some children acted like a teacher reading to other children.

8. What is the book children like the best?

Red Riding Hood, Big Cat and Little Cat, Don’t let the Pigeon Drive a Bus, Gas We Pass, Pooh Pooh, Nu Nid Hates Vegetables, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Mr. Fong’s Tooth Brushing, The Turnip, Seven Goats, Papaya Salad Pock Pock, Miffy, How Do You Put It On?, The Cat with Million Lives, Gurumpa’s Kindergarten, Play with Mud, Who Am I?, Because I Love You, So Much, Graduk Gradik Gradok Gradak, Five Little Chicks, The Very Hungry Snake, Let’s Eat Rice, Nu Nid Hates Going to School etc.

Teachers expressed their gratitude to IBBY for IBBY’s Hug Programme that they had learned so much from the training and received a lot of good picture books they never dreamed of. They wished they would have more training on books so that they could use them effectively.

Seminar

The seminar titled “Book is Necessary for Early Childhood Development” for 44 teachers, 2 from each CDC, was conducted on 25-26 November 2005 in Phuket.

In reality, there were nearly 60 attendants! The others asked to attend the seminar on their own budget.

The seminar was conducted by two experts from Bangkok: Assistant Professor Kulvara Chupongpairote from the Department of Children’s Literature, Srinakarinwirot University and Mr. Ruangsak Pinprateep, the Manager of the Foundation for Children (FFC). Porn-anong Niyomka Horikawa, Secretaty General of ThaiBBY also delivered her speech on IBBY and ThaiBBY’s activities including IBBY’s Hug Project.

The seminar was so successful that the teachers asked for more seminars and teacher’s training in 2006. ThaiBBY will try to answer their request.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation

Following the survey of CDC in the Tsunami affected areas, our staff contacted local organizations for cooperation and worked along with them. Although CDC in the Southern provinces were physically and financially much better than CDC in other parts of Thailand, they still had very few books for children. Most of the CDC concentrated on physical health of the children. Non of the teachers ever received any kind of training in children’s books! This was their first time.

Questionnaires were sent to teachers after the seminar. The outcome was very positive. They understood more about the magic of picture books to children. They could use the books effectively and could see the development of their children obviously.

Lots of thanks to IBBY’s Hug and the donors!!!