All across Abington School District, elementary school students and staff participated in Read Across America, which each year is aimed at promoting literacy in fun ways and celebrating the birthday of the legendary Dr. Seuss.
To kick off the annual program, on Friday, March 2, Copper Beech and Overlook elementary schools celebrated by reading a single book within each of their school communities.
Copper Beech Elementary School’s inaugural version of the event, “One Story, One School,” was announced at an assembly last week as Dr. Viola told students they would be reading “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” by William Kampwamba and Bryan Mealer, which tells the true story of a 14-year-old boy from Malawi, Africa, who uses his determination and ingenuity to bring wind energy to his family’s home and village. At the assembly, the book’s prologue was read to students, and there was also a special performance from this year’s school musical, “The Lion King, Jr.”
Happening concurrently at Overlook Elementary School, students kicked off an exciting month of family reading time with a special day devoted to the annual “One School, One Book” initiative. Various members of the Abington community — including representatives from the Abington Township Fire and Police departments, along with government officials and district personnel — came together to read aloud a copy of “Appleblossom the Possum” by Holly Goldberg. Each family received a copy of the book, and throughout the month, all Overlook students will explore the environmental science of backyard animals while they follow the nocturnal marsupial, Appleblossom, and her family. In addition, students will Skype with the author, meet a real possum from Briar Bush Nature Center and create backyard creature habitats, just to name a few of the activities that are planned. In addition, the school community will support Briar Bush by bringing in wish-list items needed to care for the backyard creatures of Abington Township and Rockledge Borough – the perfect way to prep for the arrival of spring.
To continue the celebration, on Tuesday, March 6, Rydal Elementary School hosted its annual Reading Night, where students were “On the Loose With Dr. Seuss.” It was a night to promote reading through fun activities such as:
- Seuss photo booth: A whimsical station was set up where students could take a photo of themselves with a “Cat In the Hat” animal and various fun props.
- Making a Dr. Seuss character hat: Materials were provided to make creative hats inspired by Dr. Seuss, Daizy, or Thing 1.
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go!: A room where students marked places they have been on a map as well as draw pictures of, or write about, what they want to be when they grow up.
- Seuss Bingo: Students played thematic games of BINGO with their friends.
- One Fish, Two Fish game: Primary students used their skills to match pairs of Dr. Seuss books.
- Seuss puzzle room: Children could choose from word searches, seek-and-finds, crossword puzzles, and mazes to complete.
- Seuss reading room: Teachers read their favorite Dr. Seuss books to children.
- Book fair: Children also had the opportunity to purchase books they wanted to read.