Parents, pupils share activities

MANALAPAN- Kindergarten parents and students shared a day immersed in reading activities at the John I. Dawes Early Learning Center on Dec. 14. Teachers hosted the first Early Literacy Counts event to promote language-based activities that enrich early literacy and reading strategies.

According to a press release, the children and parents rotated to different activities based upon the five areas of literacy: comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and phonics.

One such activity focused on the comprehension skill of questioning. Parents read aloud the story "The Gingerbread Man" with scripted questions added at strategic points. The purpose was to help parents feel comfortable when reading to their children.

Another activity included looking at pictures of subjects and predicates and acting outwhatwas happening. The child and parent then worked together to write a sentence. The emphasis was on building vocabulary.

Marilyn Schwartz, a kindergarten teacher who was instrumental in creating the day, said, "We are blessed inManalapan to have such strong parental involvement. The kindergarten teachers wanted to provide parents with the opportunity to learn more aboutwhat their children do in school. While we all stress the importance of reading aloud to children, we wanted parents to know other ways that they can help at home. It was such a wonderful day."

Principal Melissa Foy said, "This was the first event of its kind in the district where children and parents worked together during the school day on specific literacy activities. Over 400 parents took time off fromwork and put other responsibilities aside and made this day a priority. It was terrific to see parents spending time with their children and learning new strategies and skills to support their child's literacy development.

"This day was important in creating a home-school connection and ensuring our young learners' development in reading. I amlooking forward to having other parentchild events in the future. I want to thank my amazing kindergarten team for planning and facilitating such a great event and the ELC parents for their interest and support," the principal said.