The Power of Literacy: March is Reading Month
As a Kindergarten teacher and a bookworm, I love the month of March. No, it’s not because I particularly love St. Patrick’s Day or the NCAA Tournament of March Madness. I do appreciate the beginning of spring and the increased daylight, but the real reason I love March is because it is Reading Month!
It was such a treat to really be able to celebrate Reading Month in some ways that made us feel more like “the before Covid times.” Even though we are all still masked up, it was so rewarding to see students engage in reading this month.
The first highlight for our students was having a guest reader student from the University of Michigan share stories about leaders in STEM every week via Zoom! This began in February to celebrate and recognize Black History Month pioneers and inventors and we continued it during the month of March. I’m so grateful to this partnership that benefitted my students and even taught me a thing or two! Did you know that the classic children’s toy for a hot day, the Super Soaker, was invented by Lonnie Johnson? Our lovely guest readers shared this story among others this month.
The second highlight was having our students from upper school come to read with our lower school students. It was so exciting to see the peer to peer interactions between students. Kindergarten A Crew read with the Fourth Grade Crew and it was lovely. A particularly heartwarming interaction happened after school with myself and a student. Student: “Hey I’m looking for the student I was reading with earlier. I wanted to finish reading with him.” Me: “Everyone went home by now, but I’ll be sure to tell them that you were looking for them.” Insert heart eyes emoji for all that compassion and cooperation!
Finally, as someone who LOVES her library card, it was so awesome to have students get to meet and have a guest reader, a librarian from our community. Ms. Crystal shared a fun story with students at lower school. They were so engaged with her visit and loved learning all about the fun and amazing things at the library.
I’m so grateful for how much we enjoyed Reading month this year, and I can’t wait to see how fun it will be next year.