Theresa Dardanell

Fun hats were everywhere on the first day of Read Across America week at Thurmont Primary School (TPS).

Students celebrated the March 2 birthday of Dr. Seuss with a week of fun activities, focusing on a different Dr. Seuss book each day. Of course, the book on Monday was The Cat In The Hat. For the book, Green Eggs and Ham, on Tuesday, students wore green clothes.

Wacky Wednesday was the obvious book choice for the Wednesday book, and everyone had fun wearing their clothes inside out or backwards.

To go along with the book Fox in Socks on Thursday, crazy socks could be seen peeking out of shoes. Unfortunately, the activities for Friday were canceled when the Nor’easter forced schools to close.

Along with reading the books and wearing corresponding clothes, teachers provided fun activities, based on the books and the characters in the stories. In Mrs. Hamscher’s Kindergarten class, children wrote about their favorite and not-so-favorite foods when they talked about Green Eggs and Ham. On Crazy Hat Day, they wrote sentences to describe their hats.

Mrs. Hamscher said, “We love Dr. Seuss in Kindergarten!” Second grade students had a chance to vote for their favorite books and first grade students did a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activity, using stacking cups to make a hat.

Read Across America week is an annual reading motivation program, sponsored by the National Education Association.  Principal Karen Locke said that because reading is the number one predictor of student’s success, children are encouraged to read every day, and parents are provided with tips to help their children with reading. Books are everywhere at TPS, not just in the library.

Along with the books available in the classrooms and in the library, the TPS Book Nook is filled with a variety of free books for students to borrow.

Carly Hahn, Brayden Rickerd, Shane Smith, Clark Lasher, and Madilynn Wachter, wearing their special hats on The Cat In The Hat Day.

Photo by Theresa Dardanell