It was "Read Across America Day” Friday at Nevils Elementary School. Students and staff packed the gymnasium for a rally to encourage everyone to read and celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss.
In fact, many students were sporting their own version of the “Cat in the Hat’s” hat to greet the school’s own “Cat” – Anita Wiggins, who retired after 25 years as media specialist/librarian for Nevils.
While many schools held the event on Monday, March 2, Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday, Nevils chose to hold it on Friday, when more of the community could participate. It was a festive occasion: the hallways were lined with Seuss banners, and students, staff, and many visitors were dressed in some shade of red in honor of the day.
To begin things, the Cat read Seuss’ “Horton Hatches the Egg” while Nevils staff performed the piece for the students.
Nevils music teacher Ms. Shannon Black and all the students sang the Read Across America song led by Statesboro musician Chris Mitchell and his guitar.
The song declared: “We're so proud of our whole school, we're reading books across America, you know reading's really cool.”
Before students returned to their classes, Principal Julie Blackmar led a recitation of the “Readers Oath,” in which they pledged to “make reading my way of feeding my brain what it needs every day.”
The Cat then showed off an enormous cake that the students, she promised, would get to eat later in the day.
Read Across America is sponsored by the National Education Association, and is intended to motivate children to read more, and to encourage parents to spend time reading with their kids. Now in its 12th year, the 2009 event will get more than 50 million American school children and their parents to sit down and read one of Theodore Geisel’s books.
Seuss’ books are extremely popular, and his characters (such as the Grinch and the Lorax) and places (like WhoVille and Solla-Sollew) have quickly become part of American literary history. Every classroom at Nevils was filled with a wide variety of Seuss’s books for the visitors to read, and children were quick to suggest their favorites.
In fact, many students were sporting their own version of the “Cat in the Hat’s” hat to greet the school’s own “Cat” – Anita Wiggins, who retired after 25 years as media specialist/librarian for Nevils.
While many schools held the event on Monday, March 2, Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday, Nevils chose to hold it on Friday, when more of the community could participate. It was a festive occasion: the hallways were lined with Seuss banners, and students, staff, and many visitors were dressed in some shade of red in honor of the day.
To begin things, the Cat read Seuss’ “Horton Hatches the Egg” while Nevils staff performed the piece for the students.
Nevils music teacher Ms. Shannon Black and all the students sang the Read Across America song led by Statesboro musician Chris Mitchell and his guitar.
The song declared: “We're so proud of our whole school, we're reading books across America, you know reading's really cool.”
Before students returned to their classes, Principal Julie Blackmar led a recitation of the “Readers Oath,” in which they pledged to “make reading my way of feeding my brain what it needs every day.”
The Cat then showed off an enormous cake that the students, she promised, would get to eat later in the day.
Read Across America is sponsored by the National Education Association, and is intended to motivate children to read more, and to encourage parents to spend time reading with their kids. Now in its 12th year, the 2009 event will get more than 50 million American school children and their parents to sit down and read one of Theodore Geisel’s books.
Seuss’ books are extremely popular, and his characters (such as the Grinch and the Lorax) and places (like WhoVille and Solla-Sollew) have quickly become part of American literary history. Every classroom at Nevils was filled with a wide variety of Seuss’s books for the visitors to read, and children were quick to suggest their favorites.