Children Play Book Hide and Seek with Community to Ensure All Children Have Access to Stories
Inspired by Book Week, the children at Guardian Early Learning Springfield have begun an epic game of hide and seek with their local community. Hide and seek with books, that is.
Educational Leader, Amanda, reveals how the game began and what the community’s response has been.
“It all began with the rock hide and seek game that is popular throughout our community. The children are always finding the rocks and bringing them back to the centre, and have created their own rocks and hid them in the park as a way of sharing and giving back,” says Amanda.
“This inspired us to start book hide and seek as a part of Book Week, and share our love of reading with the wider community. We believe all children should be able to access books as it’s important for language and literacy development and it is also fun to take some time and read a book together.”
Since their first drop last month, the children of Springfield have gone on multiple excursions to Robelle Domain parklands loaded up with literature.
With a note attached to each book, the children search for the perfect hiding place in hopes that other children will find the books and share a story together.
“The children get so excited when they take the books down to hide. They take their time to search for the perfect hiding spot and enjoy watching people walk past to see if they are going to spot the book,” explains Amanda.
“The person who finds the book can read the story while out in nature. They can then either choose to re-hide the book, keep the book or bring their own book down to hide and continue the cycle of shared literacy.”
To spread awareness of the project, the children helped create a poster to place at the front of each book, which is hidden in a plastic sleeve to protect it from the elements. The Springfield team then created a Facebook page for the community to share where they find each book.
“I didn’t expect many people to share their finds with us on the page but the community has been really responsive and thinks it’s a great idea,” shares Amanda.
“Another early learning centre also got involved after seeing our children hiding the books. It was special to know we had inspired so many people and children in the community to get outdoors and read.”
The families of Guardian Springfield have been very supportive of the project, and can often be found at Robelle Domain with their children on afternoons and weekends.
“They think it’s an exciting way to encourage families to spend more time outside. We’ve also had families bring books in from their home for the children to take and hide,” says Amanda.
“We look forward to continuing to grow the love of literacy throughout the wider Springfield community by continuing the project and encouraging everyone to be involved.”
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