Sam Houston Elementary School hopes to encourage young readers with book character parade
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The hallways at Sam Houston Elementary School looked like a library come to life Friday as students celebrated Read Across America with a parade of their favorite book characters.
“We got to walk around and high-five everybody. They got to see our costumes, see what books they might want to read,” fourth grader Ceattle said.
A study from the National Literacy Trust found that just two in five children say they enjoy reading in their free time.
“Reading is like hopping into a new world. It’s so much fun,” Ceattle said.
Patricia Bell, the school’s library media specialist, wants to see that number grow.
“We’ve been working really hard to not only teach kids how to read, but also to choose to read, to love reading,” she said.
She’s made it her mission to get students excited about reading by making it a cool thing to do. One of the most successful strategies so far has been a golden-ticket-only book club for kids caught reading.
It might be a little too successful.
“I’ve had a teacher actually come to me saying, you know, I love that they’re wanting to read during lunch, but you’re getting ketchup on your library books,” she said.
Bell said that encouraging a love of reading at a young age sets students up for long-term success in several ways.
“As reading volume increases, that reading ability increases, vocabulary increases,” she added.
And Ceattle agrees.
“You can read a lot of hard words when you get older,” she said.
