Many schools in South Jersey have a One Book, One School initiative where every student in the school reads the same book.
The staff at Kirby’s Mill Elementary School in Medford didn’t just want to read one book, however. They wanted to bring a book to life.
Last Thursday, the school hosted a family night event to kick off its “One Book, One School, One Show, One Community” initiative for 2015.
In the next two months, every student at Kirby’s Mill will read “Charlotte’s Web.” However, the teachers and administrators at the school decided to make their program stand out from all the other “One Book, One School” initiatives. Principal Mark Damon came up with the idea of adding a community and show aspect to allow students to interact with the book in a number of ways.
Amy King, a librarian at Kirby’s Mill Elementary and one of the organizers of family night, said the idea was to allow the kids to enjoy moments outside of the book’s pages.
“The initial idea came from wanting our children to have more experiences,” King said.
The community involvement part of the program began at family night. Students and their parents were invited to the school for a night of fun, farm-themed activities such as pie-eating contests, square dancing and a sausage making demonstration. The school even had a real pig brought in for the night.
The purpose of the kickoff event was to not just get the students excited to read “Charlotte’s Web,” but also to get the parents pumped up. King said “Charlotte’s Web” was chosen with the parents in mind.
“We thought this was a book that would tug on parents’ heartstrings, because they will have remembered reading this book, and we thought it was a great opportunity to introduce the children to certain topics,” she said.
The involvement of parents was really important to the school staff. King said the curriculum really requires parents to read with their children at home. She felt this initiative would help bring families together.
“We need the parents’ help when it comes to this curriculum and reading every night,” King said. “Activities like tonight really instill that.”
The show aspect of the program will take place on May 8, when every student at Kirby’s Mill will go on a field trip to DuPont Theater in Wilmington, Del., to see the theatrical production of “Charlotte’s Web.” The student body will take seven buses down to Delaware, enjoy a picnic lunch and then see the show.
“Mark’s idea was he wanted the children to see an orchestra or theater production,” King said.
The students will enjoy a school-wide picnic thanks to the generosity of a local church. The First Central Presbyterian Church, located across from the DuPont Theater, is inviting the school to eat lunch at its facility free of charge.
The biggest challenge Kirby’s Mill Elementary has faced is funding the program. To help raise some money, the school applied for a $2,500 grant with the Medford Education Foundation.
The MEF raises money for the Medford Township schools through a number of fundraisers. All money the foundation raises go back to the schools through grants. The schools are invited to apply for grants each year.
The MEF has a $2,500 maximum for each grant application. However, Kirby’s Mill Elementary’s proposal blew the foundation’s board members away.
“The board was so impressed with the initiative, after a discussion, we decided we were going to underwrite the whole program,” MEF President Tommie Ann Gibney said.
The foundation donated $7,268 toward the program, which paid for every expenditure, including a book for every student, expenses from the family night event and all costs for the field trip to Delaware.
“We’re benefiting every student in the school,” Gibney said. “We were impressed because every single teacher signed onto this. We felt we wanted to be a part of it.”
Gibney described the program as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the students at Kirby’s Mill Elementary. King agreed, saying she hopes the family night event and upcoming trip will be something the students will remember forever.
“This is something the children will always remember about their time at Kirby’s,” she said.
