CCSD news: Read Across America Week

Read Across America Week is celebrated each year during the week of Dr. Seuss's birthday – March 2. In honor of Read Across America Week, our schools hosted fun activities, invited in guest readers, and have had a week of dress-up days to celebrate and promote reading.

Students at Northside Early Learning Center enjoyed the week of dressing up, but having Dr. Seuss's books read to them was by far their favorite thing about Reading Across America Week. Not only was Dr. Seuss an author but also a cartoonist and illustrator so his books have bright and colorful images to go with the quirky way he wrote them. His books are truly one of a kind which makes them fun for younger students.

One of the Dr. Seuss books Sandy Wassmuth read to her students last week was Fox and Socks on Crazy Sock Day.

“The kids kept telling me to read faster because it sounded sillier that way,” Wassmuth said.

The giggles would fill the room as she read and their faces would light up with pure joy as she would read faster.

“Seeing their enjoyment for reading and eagerness is truly what this week is all about,” she added. 

Lahontan Elementary school librarian Megan Smith worked hard to make this week special for students and decked her library out in Dr. Seuss.

“I love reading and hope to pass that love onto the children that come to my library, which is why I always make it a fun environment for them,” Smith said.

She also invited guest readers to come in and read with students during their designated classroom library time.

“Read Across America Week is a good opportunity for me to bring in other readers from our community to share their love of reading with our kids as well,” Smith added. Although there is so much fun to be had and many things to love about this week, Smith said her favorite part is STOP, DROP, and READ.

“Every morning at 10:15 a.m., I announce it’s time to STOP, DROP and READ over the intercom and everyone in the school stops what they're doing and reads for 10 minutes. It has been a fun way to get the entire school involved,” Smith said.

There is too much to possibly fit into just one week so LES decided to celebrate Read Across America Week the entire month of March.

“I will have different activities happening in the library every week and we will have our book fair and literacy night as well,” Smith said.

Students also will have more fun dress-up days to look forward to in March such as Crazy Hair Day, Polka Dot Day, Wacky Wednesday and more.

E.C. Best Literacy Specialist Linda Rasmussen began planning Read Across America Week in January and said it is one of her favorite weeks during the school year.

“It is a special time set aside to reflect on how reading affects each of us. Literacy opens a whole new world and that is what this week feels like it does for our students and staff,” Rasmussen said.

The staff at ECB made the dress-up days fun for their students by dressing up with them.

“The Best staff always goes into everything with their heart and when it comes to dress-up days they are all in. They truly do a remarkable job making school special and fun for our students,” said Principal Keith Boone.

This year Reading Across America Week also correlated with literacy night and the book fair which made it even more special because parents were able to get involved as well.

“My favorite part of this week was gathering with the families at our literacy night and getting to watch the kids enjoy and share literacy and reading with their parents,” Rasmussen said.

At Numa Elementary School student council members met in January and brought several ideas and suggestions to the table for Read Across America Week. After lengthy discussions students were set on two dress-up days, Reading is Cool Day and Favorite Book Character Day, and then they came up with an idea that would require participation from the entire student body – grade-level traveling stories.

Students drew sticks to determine whose class would get to start the adventure story, how it would flow, and whose class would write the conclusion. Each grade level is co-writing a traveling story so in the end there will be two adventure stories that Numa hopes to print and have available for parents at their book fair and literacy night later in March.

“We were so excited they came up with this idea and thought it was a great way for them to use their creativity and develop a finished product both as a class and as a grade level,” said Counselor Noreen Swenson.

Other ways students celebrated Read Across America Week were sharing their favorite books by posting titles on the board in the library, decorating their classroom doors in ways that highlighted reading, and showing off their favorite books.

“Our students truly took ownership of this week,” Swenson said. “They not only included a few dress-up days but also came up with some out-of-the-box activities. They were very creative and thoughtful when planning this week which is more than we could ask for in our students. It has been fun to watch them grow and flourish this last year.”