Read Across America Day Events held at Curwensville Schools!

CURWENSVILLE AREA
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Volume 3, Issue 1
Literacy Links – Your Home to School Reading/Writing
Connection
Read Across America Day Events held at Curwensville Schools!
Read Across America Day is a reading event created by the National Education Association.
Across the nation, schools celebrate Read Across America Day on the school day closest to
nd
March 2 , the birthday of Dr. Suess. This year, Read Across America Day was celebrated on
st
March 1 .
Here at the Curwensville Area School District, classrooms from the Elementary to the High
School participated in events the entire week to celebrate this important day! Here is a look at
some of the great activities that took place that week.

Natalie Wischuck, a Kindergarten student, was a guest reader
in a second grade classroom
during DEAR time. She shared
her favorite Dr. Suess book in
Mrs. Wingard was a guest reader in
Mrs. Derrick’s 1st grade classroom
during Read Across America Week.
Shown above are students from Mrs. Derrick
and Mrs. Clark’s room reading during DEAR
time. Pictured are Kaleb Lee, Rhys Nestlerode, Chloe Johnson, and Desaray Cossar.


The Curwensville PTC donated a book to every K-6 child at both Curwensville
Elementary and Penn Grampian schools!
o All children, K-6, at both schools received a brand new book to read during the
week and got to keep their book to add to their own home library. All of the books
were carefully chosen to make sure they were appropriate for children at each
grade level. Students were encouraged to read their books, share them with their
classmates, and some books in Grades 3-6 were worth Accelerated Reader
points! A big thanks goes out to the Curwensville PTC for this huge support for
literacy!
Students in both the Elementary and High School participated in DEAR!
o DEAR stands for Drop Everything and Read. The goal of DEAR is to encourage
people to make reading a regular part of their routine, whether they’re reading by
themselves or together with their classmates, parents, or friends.
 At the elementary, DEAR time was held each day at 11:00 for 15 minutes.
During this time, students were able to participate in a variety of activities to
help spark their interest in reading more. Some of these activities were:
 Reading with a friend
 Bringing in their favorite story or reading their new book from the PTC
 Listening to the teacher’s favorite story
 Guest Readers – both students from other classes and adults from the
community came into classrooms and read to the students!
o At the High School, every student in every classroom participated in DEAR on
st
Friday, March 1 , the official date for Read Across America Day. Both adults
and students were encouraged to read during that time to show their
commitment to literacy!
On Friday, March 1st, students at both Curwensville Elementary and Penn Grampian
sang “Happy Birthday!” to Dr. Seuss and received a piece of cake to celebrate his
birthday.
These 6th grade students are reading their
book from the PTC during DEAR time.
Standing (left to right) are Sarah McGarry and
Megan Young. Sitting are (left to right) Jaden
Bloom, Noah Lee, and Brandon Hummel.
Caleb Jackson with his
PTC book.
Eli Bortot with his
PTC book.
Page 2
Literacy Links – Your Home to School Reading/Writing
The Winter Family Fun Fest- A HUGE Success!
On March 2nd 2013, the Curwensville Elementary School held its first annual Family Fun
Fest. This event was open to the entire community. Hundreds of students and community
members enjoyed food, games, prizes, a bake sale, and a Chinese auction. The event also
had a literacy focus with story readings throughout the day and a book sale! Guest storytellers included Misty Bruner (2012 Clearfield County Fair Queen), Margie Yescavage (as
Mother Goose and as herself), Mr. Ken Veihdeffer (Elementary principal) and Mrs. Peggy
Barrett (school board member and teacher for the Children’s Story Hour at the Curwensville Public Library). Overall, the event raised $4,700 for the school, with over $600 of that
profit from the book sales! Every family who bought books also received reading tip sheets
to help support literacy at home.
Many families spent time shopping for
books at the Family Fun Fest.
The Story Teller was a popular
event!
Page 3
Literacy in the High School
After reading about Anne Frank in Mrs. Nicole Rowles’ 9th grade English class, Kaitlynn Sass
wrote a letter to Miep Gies and received a letter back from her!
Mrs. Gies, her husband and three others hid Anne Frank, her father, mother, older sister
and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. When the Gestapo
raided the hiding place on Aug. 4, 1944 and arrested the hidden Jews, Anne’s diary and
writings were left behind. Those writings detailed Anne’s life in those rooms behind a movable bookcase and the hopes of a young adolescent girl. When Anne’s father, the only surviving member of his family, returned to Amsterdam at the end of World War II, Mrs. Gies
gave Anne’s writings to Mr. Frank. He had them published in 1947. Anne’s writings, “Anne
Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl”, has since been read by millions and is viewed as a voice
for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.
Mrs. Gies wrote a warm and informative letter back to Kaitlynn. In her letter, Mrs. Geis answered Kaitlynn’s questions about her experiences with Anne Frank and life during World
War II. Mrs. Geis replied that she was happy that young people were still taking an interest
in Anne’s life and accomplishments.
Kaitlynn Sass holding her letter
she received from Miep Gies.
Kaitlynn has recently been accepted into the Honors Program
at Clarion University.
Check out all the Classroom
Close-Ups and Newsletter pictures at the Literacy Tab under
the Curwensville Home Web
Page www.curwensville.org.
Page 4
Link Up! Your Connection to Ways You Can Boost Your Child’s Reading and Writing
FAMILY STORYTELLING
Since ancient times, storytelling has fired the imaginations of listeners of all ages in every corner of the world.
Generation after generation, families have told stories to entertain, instill values, pass on traditions and express their
hopes and dreams.
Storytelling is highly regarded as an important step toward developing and supporting children’s literacy. When
you tell your children stories, you are building their vocabularies, giving them a sense of how stories work and exercising
their imaginations as they picture the story in their mind.
A family rich in stories has a true legacy to pass along. Here are some suggested storytelling ideas from Reading Is
Fundamental (RIF), a national nonprofit organization that inspires children to read.
 Choose the right story for the audience. Make sure young listeners will be able to follow the plot, and that the
story can be told within the limits of their attention span.
 Read or rehearse the story until you know it well.
 Tell stories you like. If you are not excited about a story, your voice will give away your lack of interest.
Remember that enthusiasm is contagious!
 Use colorful words. Rich, descriptive language will help children visualize the story as it unfolds and you will see
that language show up in their speaking and writing!
 Change your voice. Distinguish among the different voices of your characters by changing your own voice.
Speeding up and slowing down or raising and lowering your voice can show story action and mood.
 Get children involved! They can say the magic words at your cue, chant lines that repeat, or add sound effects. If
you are making the story up as you go along, ask them to contribute.
 Use props. Simple household props can liven up a story and encourage children to retell it themselves. Children
can also make their own stick or paper bag puppets.
 Tell it again! Like a favorite book, a good story can be retold over and over. In time, your children may want to tell
the story themselves.
Source: The Keystone State Reading Association, 2013. http://ksrapa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Families-and-Reading-Packet-2013.pdf
Classroom Close-Ups
Mrs. Wischuck's second graders did a Wordle for their inquiry
project. They loved using technology to communicate their
ideas about what they read!
Pictured are Ben Hutton, Dakota Rauch, Zach Peters, Caleb
Jackson, and Brooklynn Knepp
Mrs. Jennifer Tubbs’ freshmen history class is working on a
project where they had to read quotes, respond to the quote
and then respond to what someone else wrote. Pictured are
Noah Stephens, Ben Junod and R.J. Olson
Elle and Connor, 2nd grade students, presented their Power Point presentations to their classmates as part of their inquiry project. They loved using the
program to summarize their information with pictures and facts!