Do you have A Bad Case of Stripes?What do members of a PIRC Team, a school resource officer, superintendent of schools, school nurse, school board member, State of NH Education Commissioner Virginia Barry, community businesses and the local fire chief share in common? Officer Buckle and Gloria! The Grapes of Math! Sparks the Firefighter! A Bad Case of Stripes!Yes! All answers are true! Each of these individuals joined forces to read one or more of these stories, making Nashua Ledge Street School - 2010 March Celebrate Reading Month - a great success!If you have the book A Bad Case of Stripes - or other such stories that children love, you've got a great start on an event that could pull in parents and children for an evening of fun. If you have parents and educators working together you have a super spark to ignite an event that will support parents in their efforts to help children read. Just let the fire chief know before you light this fire. Better yet, invite her or him!In January of this past year, a PIRC Team (a group of parents and educators working together with a Solid Foundation®* Trained Coach from PIRC) combined forces with the Ledge Street School Literacy Team. They generated ideas for a March Literacy Month Celebration and sent out invitations to civil servants (such as the ones noted above), to come to this event, read to children, and demonstrate how adults in a variety of community roles consider reading to be an integral part of community life.Publicity was planned and a calendar full of activities was printed in the school newsletter that included themes for each week, specific event activities, and a final community celebration night to cap it all off.Themes included "Drop Everything and Read Week," a "Reading is NO SWEAT Day" (yes, MANY people came looking fit as a reading fiddle with their sweats on), "Hats off to Reading Day" during "Dr. Suess Week", and more! Activities bringing parents and students together included the Classroom Door Decorating contest. There were LOTS of winners for that one!The PIRC and Literacy Teams credit key planning points for what proved to be a very successful month, and final event. For example, invitations were not only sent to families, but were printed in Spanish as well as English, sign-ups were requested in order to obtain and give out books, not to mention cookies! An evening schedule was created that left lots of room for fun songs such as Stop, Drop and Roll (surely the fire chief was well pleased), and other good stories and activities for students. Meanwhile, parents were treated to a workshop dedicated to their enjoyment of reading with their children, and providing them with ideas and tools to support their children's efforts. One of these workshops, Building Blocks for Readers, was provided for parents of K-2 students; the other for parents of students' grades 3-5. A Spanish interpreter participated, expanding the impact of this outreach. These workshops were provided through PIRC, bringing the technical expertise of literacy for parents that schools so much appreciate as they work to increase student literacy.All participants, (250 strong!), gathered for milk, cookies and a raffle that brought the community back together in fun before the evening ended. What's the point of this story? If it's tough to get through A Bad Case of Stripes, you'll surely find that celebration of literacy is the very best remedy. But remember, if it's an evening story; don't forget the milk and cookies for a truly sweet success!* Solid Foundation is a school-based, team process that helps strengthen family-school connections, engage parents in children's learning, and improve student academic and social learning. Working with an External Partner, the school adopts one of three Solid Foundation paths. NH State PIRC provides a trained coach to facilitate Solid Foundation (or PIRC) Teams to help communities assess their school literacy strengths and to provide success in finding and successfully addressing any gaps in student literacy performance. Click here for information about NH PIRC’s Solid Foundation Program.
Do you have A Bad Case of Stripes?
What do members of a PIRC Team, a school resource officer,
superintendent of schools, school nurse, school board member,
State of NH Education Commissioner Virginia Barry, community
businesses and the local fire chief share in common?
Officer Buckle and Gloria! The Grapes of Math! Sparks the
Firefighter! A Bad Case of Stripes!
Yes! All answers are true! Each of these individuals joined forces to
read one or more of these stories, making Nashua Ledge Street
School - 2010 March Celebrate Reading Month - a great
success!
If you have the book A Bad Case of Stripes - or other such stories
that children love, you've got a great start on an event that could pull
in parents and children for an evening of fun. If you have parents
and educators working together you have a super spark to ignite an
event that will support parents in their efforts to help children read. Just
let the fire chief know before you light this fire. Better yet,
invite her or him!
In January of this past year, a PIRC Team (a group of
parents and educators working together with a Solid
Foundation®* Trained Coach from PIRC) combined
forces with the Ledge Street School Literacy Team.
They generated ideas for a March Literacy Month
Celebration and sent out invitations to civil servants
(such as the ones noted above), to come to this event,
read to children, and demonstrate how adults in a variety
of community roles consider reading to be an integral
part of community life.
Publicity was planned and a calendar full of activities
was printed in the school newsletter that included themes
for each week, specific event activities, and a final
community celebration night to cap it all off.
Themes included "Drop Everything and Read Week," a "Reading is NO SWEAT Day" (yes, MANY people came
looking fit as a reading fiddle with their sweats on),
"Hats off to Reading Day" during "Dr. Suess
Week", and more! Activities bringing parents and
students together included the Classroom Door
Decorating contest. There were LOTS of winners
for that one!
The PIRC and Literacy Teams credit key planning
points for what proved to be a very successful
month, and final event. For example, invitations
were not only sent to families, but were printed in
Spanish as well as English, sign-ups were
requested in order to obtain and give out books,
not to mention cookies! An evening schedule was
created that left lots of room for fun songs such as
Stop, Drop and Roll (surely the fire chief was well pleased), and other good stories and activities for students.
Meanwhile, parents were treated to a workshop dedicated to their enjoyment of reading with their children, and
providing them with ideas and tools to support their children's efforts. One of these workshops, Building Blocks
for Readers, was provided for parents of K-2 students; the other for parents of students' grades 3-5. A Spanish
interpreter participated, expanding the impact of this
outreach. These workshops were provided through PIRC,
bringing the technical expertise of literacy for parents that
schools so much appreciate as they work to increase
student literacy.
All participants, (250 strong!), gathered for milk, cookies
and a raffle that brought the community back together in
fun before the evening ended.
What's the point of this story? If it's tough to get through A
Bad Case of Stripes, you'll surely find that celebration of
literacy is the very best remedy. But remember, if it's an
evening story; don't forget the milk and cookies for a truly
sweet success!
* Solid Foundation is a school-based, team process that helps strengthen family-school connections, engage parents in children's
learning, and improve student academic and social learning. Working with an External Partner, the school adopts one of three Solid
Foundation paths.
NH State PIRC provides a trained coach to facilitate Solid Foundation (or PIRC) Teams to help communities assess their school
literacy strengths and to provide success in finding and successfully addressing any gaps in student literacy performance.
Click here for information about NH PIRC’s Solid Foundation Program.
The NH Parents Make the Difference website is a collaboration between the Parent Information Center of NH and the
NH Department of Education. This website is supported with funding from the US Department of Education through
the NH State PIRC grant of the Natonal PIRC program.
© 2010 The Parent Information Center of NH
