We started this blog with a series on read aloud, touting its benefits and encouraging more families to start this practice in their homes, even with older children. We had a lot of positive feedback and interest from parents wanting to learn more. We couldn’t think of a better way to follow through than with Kings Highway’s first ever, “One School, One Book.”
About a week ago, students were told about the One School, One Book event however, the title of the book was kept a secret by the school’s staff members. To arouse interest and build anticipation, we provided four clues over Cheetah Vision. Hopefully you were able to talk about the clues as a family after they were emailed home on Friday.
Today at a special whole school meeting, students learned that they will be reading George Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square. After the official announcement, staff members performed a short scene from the story to introduce the setting and some of the main characters.
Our hope is to create a shared reading experience within our community. In addition to every family in the elementary school, every employee in the KHS building, including adminstrators, teachers, support staff and building custodians, received a copy of the same book.
Every family can read the book at home according to a month-long schedule and the school will simultaneously have activities and discussions related to the book. Stay tuned for our activity announcements through Cheetah Chat or Schoology. Although we encourage every family to actually read the chapters, celebrity KHS staff members have recorded each chapter which can be accessed on our page. Once your family gets started, we will be starting a bulletin board and post pictures of your family “caught reading.” Every day we will announce a trivia question about the book and post a discussion question on our page as well.
You will want to make sure your family keeps up so that we can talk about The Cricket in Times Square as a community.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this wonderful classic. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.
Tracey Carbone and Jessica Carey
Literacy Teachers at Kings Highway School
