Abu Dhabi: Hundreds of kindergarten students will soon pen down novels of their own as part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi’s efforts to promote reading as a daily activity, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) said today.

The activity is scheduled as part of Abu Dhabi Reads, a two weeklong campaign that was launched in the capital on Sunday by the Adec, the emirate’s education sector regulator. The fifth edition of the annual initiative will stress that reading allows for the broadening of ideas, and enables people to leave indelible marks on their communities and the world.

“Reading has now become a daily habit for many of our students, especially as a result of the regular reading-related activities organised at schools, and the advances in technology that have made reading and writing even more accessible,” said Dr Ali Al Nuaimi, director general at the Adec.

“Like every other year, Abu Dhabi Reads [will once again] highlight the importance of reading to our youth and our community, and this will, [in turn], help our youth contribute to the development of the economy,” he added.

This year, the campaign will reach out to thousands of students enrolled from kindergarten to Grade 5 across the emirate.

The novel-writing initiative, entitled My First Novel, is in fact being introduced for the first time during Abu Dhabi Reads. Its launch follows a successful campaign at a private school last month. During the pilot, 77 students aged between four and five years wrote or sketched their own five-page novels over a two-week period, Dr Sara Al Suwaidi, Abu Dhabi Reads committee head and acting manager of P-12 curriculum and assessment at the Adec, told Gulf News. These works were then published and stocked at the school’s library so that other children could be similarly inspired.

“The students showed surprising imagination during the pilot exercise. We hope this emirate-wide activity will therefore allow all kindergarten students to explore images and words as they craft a short story related to their curriculum,” Dr Al Suwaidi said.

All public and private schools have also been provided with a list of reading-related activities that they can organise, the official said. Among these is Drop Everything and Read, a scheme where students must stop whatever they are doing at a specified time and engage in some voluntary reading. Parents will also be invited to read their favourite books as part of Parent Reading Day, while teachers and school leaders can talk about their favourite literary works on Favourite Book Day.

In addition, schools must organise Booknics, during which parents can bring along picnic lunches and share a book and a meal with their children.

“Children begin learning at home before they ever reach the classroom, which is why it is important that parents are involved in reading to their children. We hope to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships this year, which have proven to boost academic performance and social-emotional skill development among students,” Dr Al Suwaidi said.

Other activities include visits to the upcoming Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, and Character Day, in which all school students and staff come dressed as characters from their favourite book.