Tabernacle Elementary School celebrated Read Across America week.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
That famous quote by Dr. Seuss summarizes the motive behind Read Across America Week at Tabernacle Elementary School.
The school celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a week full of activities to get the students engaged and excited about reading.
The week began with “If I Ran the Zoo Day” where students dressed up as their favorite zoo animal, snuggled up and read a good book, Whoville Hair Day, Dr. Seuss Character Day, and hats off to Dr. Seuss where students sported their crazy hats in honor of the author.
Fourth-grade teacher Jillian Raleigh prepared her class for Read Across America Week by basing her lessons around different authors in the weeks prior, while reading various chapters of various books to get them exposed to multiple writing styles.
“Reading is one of the most important skills they’re going to need to know. They need to be able to understand the information and getting them excited in reading is one of my favorite things,” Raleigh said. “To see the pride on their face when they’ve finished a book and to know that you helped them find a love of something that they didn’t experience before.”
Raleigh said she feels reading should be highly valued and she acts as a model for the students by always carrying a book with her and introducing the book she’s currently reading to her students.
“I make sure that they know that I value reading just as much as I want them to value reading,” Raleigh said. “I just want them to have a love for it. One of the things that I found is when I found my love of reading it made it easier for me to read. By reading more books I was exposed to more vocabulary, I was exposed to a wider variety of knowledge.”
She encourages her students to have a “just for fun” book to read along with the book they’re required to read for class. She said that by having an easier or more enjoyable book for them to read, it fosters their fondness of reading and allows their love for reading to continue on into adulthood.
Fourth-grade student Anthony Tirico says he enjoys mystery and fantasy books due to the suspense at the beginning and the satisfaction he feels once the mystery is resolved at the end.
“Everyone has their own genre they like, so even if you read a book and you don’t like it, just find another one — there will be a book for you,” Tirico said. “Say you’re having a bad day, you just need to read a book to pass the time and it’ll make you feel better.”
Fourth-grade student Abby Cutts said Read Across America Week has increased her love of reading and that reading is important to continue to grow and gain knowledge.
“I like graphic novels, they’re just really good books to read,” Cutts said. “I like to make connections with a lot of books, with the authors and what they’re talking about in the book.”
Both students said their vocabulary skills have improved drastically throughout the years, advancing from picture books to chapter books.
Through it all one thing has stayed the same — they still love Dr. Seuss.
