Celebrating Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day all week long - Day 1

March started off with two special celebrations. The first one was Dr. Seuss's birthday on Monday, March 2nd, our first day back from the February vacation. This prolific author now has a national event in his honor, which is called Read Across America Day.

March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991

March 3rd is World Read Aloud Day. What better way to celebrate reading than by sharing our love of stories with other classrooms around the country!?! So began Day 1 of a full week of reading and connecting.

Mrs. Rotach's 1st grade class connected with Mary Hundt's 5th graders at West Salem Elementary in West Salem, Wisconsin. The 5th graders read aloud Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit. We noticed how well the older children read, with lots of expression.

Our next connection was with Mrs. Tracy's 1st graders and Sherell Stepp's kindergartners at Gilbert Primary School in Gilbert, South Carolina. Together we read to each other Mo Willems' story That is Not a Good Idea! The children loved chanting the part, "that is not a good idea!"

We learned that their school has exactly the same grade levels as we do, and that is why their school is called a primary school.

Mrs. Yandell's 2nd grade paired up with Crystal Hendrix's kindergartners of Isaac Dickson Elementary in Asheville, North Carolina. Peter Brown's Mr. Tiger Goes Wild! was our read-aloud choice.

In the afternoon Mrs. Rowley's kindergarten class skyped with Misti Sikes's kindergarten children in her school library at K.B. Sutton Elementary School in Forsyth, Georgia. Together we enjoyed Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great! by Bob Shea. We shared information about our schools and our weather.Their school has about the same number of students (511) as ours (475ish), but their grade level range is from PreK-5. Our webcam had an extra long cord, so we were able to bring the camera over to the open door and show the children all our snow. They liked that! Their mascot is the knight.

Fifth graders from our sister school, Founders Memorial, took turns reading aloud from Mo Willems' A Big Guy Took My Ball to Mrs. Day's kindergartners. That was a lot of fun, especially since many of these children used to be students here at EES. Thanks to librarian Sara Jablonski for setting it up at short notice. Our original contact had to cancel because of weather issues, but Sara's 5th graders rose to the occasion and created a fun read-aloud for our kindergarten class.