We’re always looking forward to hearing how our Kits partner programs are progressing and what the students have been reading.

During a recent visit to Worldreader’s office, Caren McCormack from The Kilgoris Project handed us an update about what’s happening with the Kindles in their schools, and in this case, at the Intimigom Primary School. Here are few excerpts from the report:

So far, the students’ favorite books are: Juma the Hunter; Joy and her Friends; Inkishu: Myths and Legends of the Maasai; Lulu’s Birthday, and I Know Your Name.

Teachers said they are ensuring that the students read more by:

• Including the Kindles in the schools’ timetables and having classes 1-5 use them daily,

• Ensuring that the Kindles are always charged, and

• Encouraging kids to read during breaks, at lunch time and in their leisure time.

Students at the Kilgoris  are communicating in English and Swahili, and are writing better compositions.

A student named Paranai, in class 4, said this is what she like about the e-reader, “You can time yourself while reading because it [the e-reader] has time.”

Caren also gave us a hand-written essay from Jonathan Odupoi Kukutia, a class 5 student at Intimigom Primary School.

Jonathan Odupoi Kukutia, a class 5 student at Intimigom Primary School, reads on his Kindle.

Jonathan wrote, in English, a 1.5-page essay about what his typical day is like. Besides being a thorough description of his day, the essay shows comprehension and imagination, Caren told us, which are important aspects of teaching children to read and write.

Here are a few lines we liked that show Jonathan’s creative flair:

“I wake up at five o’clock. I go to bathe. My mum makes tea for me. When I finish bathing I come to the dinner room…I drink [the tea]. After that I wear my school uniform. I run to school as fast as a deer.”

“When we finish English, the maths* teacher comes inside the class. My maths teachers is as tall as a giraffe, black as coal. He gives us an exercise. After that we go to a short break from nine thirty to nine fifty.”

“My lunch is as sweet as honey. After my [lunch] I go to the office to arrange books on the shelfs [sic]…because I am a librarian prefect.”

“I like my school because it as good as gold.”

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*Maths, like math, is an abbreviation for mathematics, and is the preferred form in the U.K., Australia and many other English-speaking places. Math is mostly commonly used in the U.S. and Canada.