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Show Thursday, April 19, 2007 0 R E M TIMES Page 7 J ' '" i , , i 17 NEWS AND IDEAS FROM CLASSROOMS AND EDUCATORS Families join in Scera Park's storytelling night Melissa Mayntz NORTH COUNTY STAFF Many schools celebrate reading with assemblies, incentives incen-tives and contests, but for the 460 students of Scera Park Elementary, the best stories are those that come to life. At the annual Storytellers Night on March 29, that is just what happened as eight different stories were featured with fun, live readings. According to Jennilyn Mau-erman, Mau-erman, the school's media specialist, Storytellers Night is the culminating event of the month-long activities during March that focus on reading. "Each day in March involved some kind of reading," Mauer-man Mauer-man said. Different activities included a school-wide celebration of Dr. Suess's birthday on March 2 and a special visit from author au-thor Dean Hughes on March 12 when he discussed the life of an author and how a book is written with interested students. stu-dents. March 12 was also a school read-in when students had time in class to read their favorite books instead of reading read-ing for assignments. To encourage reading at home, Mauerman helped compile com-pile a family reading calendar with daily suggestions for fun reading activities such as reading and making a recipe together, organizing a scavenger scav-enger hunt using newspapers and magazines and celebrating a family theme night with a favorite book. The theme of Storytellers Night, however, was simply to enjoy reading. Guest storytellers storytell-ers chose their favorite books to share, and some opted to read stories they had written themselves. Families were able to rotate to four out of the eight themed rooms during the event, and each room was appropriately named based on the story it was hosting. Some . storytellers even used costumes cos-tumes and props to make their stories come to life. "To see the stories more performed per-formed than just read gets students stu-dents excited that they could enjoy reading too," Mauerman said. By seeing stories performed, Mauerman said, students learn about books they may not normally read and it encourages encour-ages them to explore different differ-ent types of reading. During reading month, students are urged to select books from different areas of the Dewey Decimal System in the school library, which introduces them to science, poetry and award-winning award-winning fiction and nonfiction books, helping them be well-rounded well-rounded readers. According to Mauerman, the most popular topics include the science and animal books. " In addition to exploring new types of stories, the point of Storytellers Night is to involve families at the school and bring everyone together to enjoy reading. "It's a chance for families to spend time together and enjoy good literature," Mauerman said. The event has been an annual an-nual tradition at Scera Park Elementary for more than 10 years, and Mauerman said the biggest challenge can be controlling the crowd and helping help-ing everyone participate in the stories they are interested in. To help organize the event, printed programs describe each story and give a brief biography of the storyteller, and the rooms used are spread throughout the school. Posters help direct visitors to the appropriate ap-propriate rooms. Mauerman credits the efforts ef-forts of PTA volunteer Grace Rex with helping line up guest storytellers and doing other work to make the event the success it has become. In the end, Mauerman said the best part of the evening is simply seeing the effect that the stories sto-ries can have on the families who attend. "The most rewarding part is seeing them enjoy themselves and enjoy a good story," she said. notes Cascade Elementary I Congratulations, Alice Sum-sion Sum-sion The school would like to congratulate kindergarten teacher Alice Sumsion as this year's PTA Golden Apple winner win-ner and thank her for the great work she does for the school. Foothill Elementary I Golden Apple Awards The Golden Apple recognition banquet ban-quet will be held Tuesday at UVSC. Call 227-2465 for details. Hillcrest Elementary I Save Maceys grocery receipts re-ceipts Parents are encouraged encour-aged to continue saving Maceys Mac-eys grocery store receipts to help support the Hillcrest music program. No special purchases are necessary and receipts can be turned in to the main office. Scera Park Elementary I State Core Testing The state core testing window for grades 1-6 is April 23 through May 18. Parents are asked to minimize classroom disruptions disrup-tions and checkouts during this period. Sharon Elementary I Playground manners April's character challenge is playground manners. Students are urged to share equipment equip-ment and include everyone in games to demonstrate good playground manners. Canyon View Junior High I Student-led conferences Student-led conferences with the theme "Celebration of Learning" will be held Tuesday Tues-day from 1:30-6:45 p.m. I Seventh grade career fair Seventh-grade students will attend a health-based career fair at UVSC on April 26. Call 227-8748 for details. Orem High School I CRT begins The testing window for math, science and language arts CRT tests begins Monday. Parents are asked to minimize classroom disruptions disrup-tions and student checkouts. 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