Preschool students at St. Rose gather around Ladybug and Sara Hilyard.
Dean Brown | The Lima News
LIMA — On Friday, St. Rose School “was going to the dogs.” Usually a phrase to describe deteriorating conditions, at St. Rose it created an air of excitement and anticipation.
Four therapy dogs and their handlers attended school in the morning to encourage students to read. The dogs interacted with students for two hours in the morning. Teachers planned group activities for the students in which reading to the dogs was a major part.
Teacher Erin Falke, who was the head of the committee planning events of the week, said, “Reading is the foundation of learning. It carries over into everything we do, math, science, engineering.”
Falke is also training a therapy dog. The kids love it when she brings her dog in to school. So the committee thought that it would expand the idea and bring in more therapy dogs.
Events were held throughout the week to promote literacy. Monday was “Story Stroll & Stem”. Students started their walk in the Parish Hall and ended in the Library. There students took a bag of “trash” which was used to make a sculpture. Pictures of sculptures were placed on the school’s Facebook page. The sculpture with the most likes wins a special treat.
Tuesday’s theme was to dress up as book character for a book character parade. Wednesday was wear your favorite hat day. Thursday’s activity ,“Stop, Drop, and Read,” allowed students to stop whatever they were doing and read for 10 minutes whenever they heard the song “Who Let The Dogs Out.”
All these led to Friday – “Cuddle up with four paws and a good book, PJ day.”
The National Education Association launched Read Across America in 1998 to celebrate reading. Given Dr. Seuss’ impact on the reading world, his birthday, March 2, was declared Read Across America Day. This also begins Read Across America Week (March 2-6) and Read Across America Month.
