Dozens of parents, students and staff joined forces for Literacy Night at the Southwest campus cafeteria Thursday. Literacy Night is a fun way for schools to give parents and their children a time and place to read, write, learn, and share ideas with committed teachers.
The event featured the appearance of mascot Clifford the Big Red Dog, named for an American children's book series about a giant red dog of the same name. He walked around posing for pictures with impressionable young students and even took some time to read to them from the hundreds of books featured at the event. A Scholastic book fair took place at the nearby library.
In addition to the educational aspects of Literacy Night, there was plenty of entertainment. Children took the microphone and did a karaoke-style "Rapping With Phonics" while inventing their own dance style along the way. And there was plenty of food and raffling of tickets to reward parents who took the time to attend.
And, of course, families engaged in plenty of games, meant to expose students to a variety of skills and reading strategies that help create better overall comprehension in an engaging way.
Southwest and Early Childhood Education also provided reading handouts and strategies highlighted by a one-page description called PRIDE. Here's what it said:
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Preview, predict, prior knowledge
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Read and reread (Read it twice)
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Identify key idea (Stop and jot)
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Don't forget to answer the question in the book
- Evidence underlined
Does your work have PRIDE? Show PRIDE in your work!
Thank you, parents, for bringing your children to this very important event.