Manor Oaks School encouraged its students to foster a love of reading through a Pick a Reading Partner program, held from Jan. 18-29.
PARP is a statewide reading program that is meant to be a collaborative effort among parents, staff and the community to build a reading partnership between the home and school. Students signed a contract to promise to read together with a family member for at least 15 minutes each day, at least four or five times a week.
This year’s theme was “Every Hero Has a Story.” Principal Jane Ruthkowski, in partnership with the PTA and the PARP Committee, organized the program and created various in-class and at-home activities to coincide with the theme.
The program kicked off with a virtual assembly. Then, each day during the first week, classes were treated to virtual mystery readers. Some of the guest readers included
Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Morrison, Deputy Superintendent Michael Frank, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jim Svendsen, Board of Education President Jennifer Kerrane and board of education member Danielle Messina. Teachers, parents and family members were also guest mystery readers.
Mystery readers were part of the morning announcements, as well. The reader would reveal pages of the schoolwide book of the month, “Dex: The Heart of a Hero,” and the students would guess which staff member was featured.
During the second week of PARP, the students celebrated everyday heroes with a spirit week. Students took pictures of their heroes at home to share on the school’s bulletin board, wore shirts with text to celebrate reading, wore school colors, picked a book with a character that has a hero they admired and dressed up as their favorite everyday hero.
PARP closed with a schoolwide read-in and a virtual closing assembly called, “The Magic of Reading.”
