Literacy night Glow fun and a love for literacy at LES!!
Fun, games, new memories, glow goodie bags, free books, and literacy! All of these
things and more were experienced by all during Literacy Night at LES. Families gathered
with teachers, students and LES staff to do an amazing array of fun literacy based
games, crafts, and activities. From floor scrabble, bracelet and bookmark making, to
glow in the dark bowling and story yoga, fun was had by all! Our families, friends,
students and the amazing LES staff members came together and made life long
memories while learning and having FUN!
At LES we had a simple , yet incredibly important, goal: for families to know that
they are partners with us here at LES in their child’s education. It is an extremely
important job, educating our future, and we absolutely must do it TOGETHER. We
sincerely hope that from this event we are able to have an impact on students, teachers,
and families by helping everyone come and see that reading is not only important, but
fun! Through games and activities we hope that we can all have an understanding that
Literacy doesn’t mean just opening a book. It is exploring new worlds, people and ideas.
It is a way to expand imagination and creativity. It is a way for parents to create a new,
special bond with their children. We are becoming a multi-literate society where books
are just one of many forms of reading that we consume daily. From games, and
advertisements, to even the packaging our children’s toys and our food comes in. These
are just a few of the endless ways that literature and reading are used in our daily lives.
Some of the many positive impacts that come from a love of literacy are empathy,
accessibility, supported cognitive development, and the ability to ascend to a higher level
of education. Isn’t it amazing how you can understand someone else’s perspective,
thoughts, and feelings through a book? It opens up our minds, and hopefully our hearts.
The world is an open door for those that develop a love for literacy, they can read in
order to learn ANYTHING they might choose.
If you would like to foster a love of reading at home here are some tips to help you
and your child be successful. Do it simply. Set aside a small amount of time every day to
read books aloud or together with your student. Occasionally point out words in the text
you are reading. Read a story that they enjoy or a book that your child has chosen from
their local or school library that they are interested in. This can help your student with
their oral vocabulary, which is a big part of the battle when teaching a child to read. If a
word is not in a child’s vocabulary it can be a struggle for the child to recognize and
understand the word automatically in text. By reading aloud to your child you are
expanding their vocabulary while they are having fun! Years ago we used to discourage
“Sound it out” when a child was stuck on a word, and instead asked children to use other
clues such as pictures or memorization of a particular word. Please do not do this when
teaching your child to read. Instead most words follow a “rule” or sound pattern, so the
more we teach children these rules of our language, the easier it will be for them to read
and explore a whole world of opportunities. Then taking the decoding or “Sound it out” work out of reading , children are then able to work to understand, or comprehend text. Also it allows them to develop phonemic awareness or the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language. We here at LES hope everyone had a blast at Literacy Night, as we did, and we hope that you are inspired to try new and fun ways to promote the love of literacy in your home! Together we can move mountains and accomplish anything we dream of! Let’s go LES and let’s go Bullpups!
