by Maya T. Prabhu | Staff Writer
With tall, red and white ‘‘Cat in the Hat” style hats upon their heads, nearly 30 volunteers spread throughout Lewisdale Elementary School reading various Dr. Seuss books to students for Monday’s 11th annual Read Across America Day.
The reading day, sponsored by the National Education Association, usually falls on or near the birthday of children’s book author Dr. Seuss, who would have celebrated his 104th birthday Sunday. This is the second time Lewisdale has participated in the event, said Leona Bullock, reading specialist at the school. The event kicked off the school’s Read Across Lewisdale Week.
‘‘Reading opens so many doors,” said Leslie Johnson, wife of County Executive Jack B. Johnson, after reading ‘‘Green Eggs and Ham” to Mary Harris’ fourth-grade class. Johnson shared that when she was a child she struggled with reading, but worked hard at it and when she was in high school she took honors English classes. ‘‘Even when you think you can’t do something, when you work hard and stick to it...you can do anything.”
Harris said having people come in from outside the school’s neighborhood gives students a better idea of the types of things they could do as an adult.
‘‘It’s really exciting for them to meet people outside the community,” she said. ‘‘The [children] can find out how reading has helped in their lives...and see that reading is important in any job they do. And they get to meet new people.”
Fourth-grader Kevin Garcia, 9, agreed.
‘‘It was exciting learning about new people,” he said.
Each class was assigned two volunteers who read for about 30 minutes, giving students an opportunity to interact with more than one reader.
‘‘It gives the children a chance to see some of the people in the greater community and see what they do,” Bullock said, adding she was overwhelmed by the number of people who volunteered to read to the students, especially since the school only used word-of-mouth to promote the event.
Pat Neverson of Washington, D.C., said she found out about Lewisdale’s Read Across America Day from her friend who teaches at the school.
‘‘I just love children,” she said. ‘‘I’m a retired kindergarten teacher...so what better way to reconnect with the children?”
Read Across Lewisdale Week featured a caterpillar read Tuesday, where students write down the title and author of their favorite book and drew an illustration on a circle that was placed around the school in the form of a caterpillar; a teacher exchange Wednesday, where teachers swapped classrooms and read to each others students; peer reading today, where intermediate classes read to younger students; and a student share day Friday, students will tell their peers about their favorite books.
Also, each day before the morning and afternoon announcements teachers ‘‘bragged” about their favorite books to spark students’ interest.
E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.
