Public library’s summer school a big draw

It is perhaps the range of activities that the Kerala State Central Library lines up each summer that makes its ‘Summer School’ a popular draw among children. Not 50 or 100, the month-long camp for children from Classes 6 to 10 has 500 participants this time around.

Like always, there is a good mix of things lined up for students – theatre, painting, music – Naadanpattu, Mappilapattu, poetry, story-telling, games show, competitions, quiz, and science, not to mention face-to-face with various personalities, talks on health and music and agriculture, and sessions on energy management, green protocol, and traffic awareness across three venues. But there are some other activities that promise to make the camp very interesting.

One is a play using puppets by Sunil Pattimattom. They will get to know what calligraphy is and how it is done. Children will also learn how not to let waste go waste and use it to make creative things. They will be taught how to use tender palm fronds to make innovative things. There will be sessions on origami, jewellery making, and on variety craft.

Children will also learn how to carve vegetables from a former chef at Mascot Hotel. They will also learn how to make an LED lab. To encourage reading among children, the library has arranged a session titled ‘Naam vayichirikenda pusthakangal.’

A session on script writing has been lined up as also one on direction. Children’s films will also be screened for the participants. The camp was inaugurated on Wednesday by Minister for Transport Mathew T. Thomas. A play ‘Poovankozhi Muttayittu’ by Rangaprabhath Children’s Theatre was held in the afternoon.