Literacy night helps promote the importance of reading at home
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Hunter Elementary students participate in a book swap during the annual literacy night.
This annual event gives parents and students the chance to learn ways to increase reading at home. Toni Lundskog is the reading specialist at Hunter and said this is always a popular event because it gives parents and children the opportunity to learn more about reading, get a free book and socialize with other families.
“We try to teach families how to make reading a priority for their children,” she said. “It’s a chance for us to give parents ideas for how to make reading easier outside of school.”
This year, the focus is on the different genres of writing. The event will start out with a short presentation.
Families will then have the opportunity to attend three different break-out sessions which will introduce a new genre. Students will participate in a small craft activity that goes along with the genre during each session.
More than 10 different stations will be available for families to choose from for their three break-out sessions. All grade levels are encouraged to attend the event. Lundskog said the stations are designed with activities for all grade levels.
In addition to specific genre stations, there will also be a book walk and book exchange. Students will have the opportunity to take home a free book donated by Scholastic at the book walk. The book exchange encourages students, teachers and parents to bring a book they’ve already read and exchange it for a new one.
“Sending books home with our students and their families helps to promote literacy at home,” Lundskog said. “Reading is so important, and we want to motivate our students’ families to keep reading at home. We also want the parents to know that the teachers at Hunter Elementary support literacy.”
Lundskog said there is a direct correlation between the minutes spent reading at home and test scores. Since the school began more actively promoting literacy both at school and at home, the administration has seen an increase in scores.
“Good readers do most of their reading outside of school. Poor readers do most of their reading in school,” she said. “We want to try to help all our students become good readers.”
