Excelsior Rotterdam players read aloud during Children’s Book Week

Excelsior Rotterdam players read aloud during Children’s Book Week

Players of Excelsior Rotterdam went on the road to Excelsior schools in recent days to read to them. They did this in the context of the annual children’s book week. Besides reading ‘The adventures of Woutje Stein’, the football players had to answer many questions and some showed their football and even dancing skills.

The children of the Bavokring hung on Jacky Donkor’s every word on Thursday. The attacker read from ‘The adventures of Woutje Stein’ with great passion, almost turned it into a performance and ensured that the children sat breathlessly listening to him.

“Every year this is a great week for us”(…) “Because of the children’s book week, we will read aloud and we want to reach as many children as possible. In this way, we not only want to show how fun and important reading is, but also contribute to language promotion in children.”

Project leader Excelsior Schools Demi van der Heiden

A total of 83 groups at 19 schools were visited in two days. The 17 players, 2 players and 2 trainers found a total of 1,887 children facing them. In most cases the children were read from Excelsior Rotterdam’s own picture book, but in some cases also other popular children’s books, such as ‘The life of a loser’.

Nikolas Agrafiotis read in group 7 of the Juliana van Stolbergschool from that last book by Jeff Kinney, which is extremely popular among the youth. That Excelsior’s attacker did that well, was evident from a well-meaning comment from one of the girls in that class: “You really read well.”

“During children’s book week we always try to invite guests to read aloud. That could be parents, but someone from the outside is extra special. Especially if it is an Excelsior footballer. The kids love that.”(…) “Our children think it’s great that a football player from Excelsior came to their class”

Minerva Hofdom of the Juliana van Stolbergschool

“We pay a lot of attention to promoting reading and language development, especially because not all children receive this from home. Reading is so important to everything. A boy who is completely crazy about football once said to me: I don’t have to be good at reading, because I will become a professional football player. I then said: but you still have to be able to read your own contract if you are going to sign. He hadn’t thought about that and had to agree with me.”

Minerva Hofdom of the Juliana van Stolbergschool

According to Demi van der Heiden, the fact that famous football players come to read to the class and tell them how much fun and important reading is makes their visit extra valuable, according to Demi van der Heiden: “The players really act as role models, but the visit to the schools should above all be fun. In that respect, we can look back on very successful days.”