Mandaue City, Cebu

A Report from Pandoo Foundation

Last February 10, 2016, the Pandoo Foundation team went to Umapad Elementary School in Mandaue City, Cebu to ask three Grade 5 classes to help solve Inang Kalikasan’s problem. Through a felt board-inspired storytelling technique, Teacher Mel and Kuya Paolo told the story of “Inang Kalikasan’s Bad Hair Day”. For this book giving and storytelling activity, we focused on the theme “the process of problem solving”. With each new page, the children learned about Inang Kalikasan’s problem and the different solutions that were offered to solve it. Our storytellers kept the students engaged by asking questions and involving them in finding a solution for Inang Kalikasan’s problem.  

After the storytelling, Teacher Gen and Teacher Julia, as well as our volunteer Stephanie, asked the students some questions that 1.) checked their comprehension of the story, 2.) stimulated their imagination, and 3.) encouraged them to express their opinions. After the question and answer portion, we did an activity called “Problem Solving with Images”. We asked students to pick an image or scenario, which they then showed or read to the whole class. We also asked different students to roll a dice. The number displayed on the dice was the number of solutions that the class needed to come up with in order to solve the chosen problem. The students were hesitant to participate at first. But after encouraging them, they started speaking up and offering different solutions to the problems presented.  

At the end of the activity, we revealed to the students that we were giving them their very own copy of the book “Inang Kalikasan’s Bad Hair Day”. In all three classes, the children were happy to hear the news. They became even more excited when we encouraged them to write their names on the space provided in the book. It was such a heartwarming sight to witness! We gave away a total of 175 books to Grade 5 students. However, they weren’t the only ones who received a book that day. We also gave each of the five homeroom teachers a copy of the book, which they can share with their classes.

We prepared Teacher Kits that contained: a lesson plan for the story, a set of comprehension questions, and a Word Search/Fill In The Blanks activity sheet. We hope that by providing the teachers these resources, they can make the most of the book.  

Imagine what we can do to solve the problem of functional illiteracy if we just spend enough resources on teacher training, quality teaching material, as well as quality and age-appropriate books. A better world is in store for us all if we establish in children a love of learning, strong communication skills, critical thinking, and creativity. Pandoo Foundation is happy to have participated in CANVAS’ One Million Books for One Million Filipino Children Campaign!