Center Street School Celebrates Literacy

At Herricks, Center Street School teachers and parents worked together to demonstrate that reading is a priority through participation in PARP (Parents As Reading Partners).

Principal Ed Bellomo challenged students to read 46,000 minutes during the week. The event started off with an assembly for the school and teachers acted out the book, “Dooby, Dooby Moo” by Doreen Cronin while Mr. Bellomo charmed the audience by singing all the animal parts.

Recently, teachers and students were treated to a visit from author and illustrator, Chris Soentpiet. He shared stories about how he works and drew pictures of several students to illustrate his technique. Throughout the week guest readers visited to share their love of books with various classes.

One of the traditional highlights of our PARP program is the library sleepover. Students returned to school in their pajamas with favorite blankets and stuffed animals to have a snack and hear bedtime stories.  Much of the excitement came because the children loved seeing their teachers and Mr. Bellomo – dressed in pajamas.

At the closing ceremony Mr. Bellomo announced that the students had met their challenge and actually read 46,579 minutes. He granted a no homework day and sang Old McDonald had a Farm in several languages.