People of all ages filled Clearview Elementary’s cafeteria March 2 to participate in the school’s first Family Reading Night, an event held to help families spend time learning and playing fun reading games together.

 

After everyone enjoyed pizza, retired District 742 teacher Mary Dank taught the group a lesson on how important it was to read with expression, emphasizing, “The way you read is the magic.”

 

Laughing and calling out, kids joined her in practicing to read with emotion, saying the phrase “look at that” in a variety of ways from happy to angry and nervous to disappointed. 

 

Each family was given a copy of the reading game Mixed Emotions, which they preceded to have fun playing together after Dank demonstrated the rules.

 

Jeri Stolley attended the event with her granddaughter, Paige W., who said she wanted to get better at reading.

 

“I enjoy the activities and spending time with her,” Stolley said.

 

“She really wants to learn to read,” said Chuya Santo, who attended with her daughter, Marilinda. “I felt coming here would give us some techniques to help.”

 

Tom and Rose Hoyt were there with their four children for similar reasons, saying they were hoping to get some pointers to help their daughter, who was struggling a bit with reading.

 

“It’s a really good sense of community,” said Angie Schoenrock, who attended with her children Hazel and Oliver. “We came to Math Night and it was a lot of fun.”

 

 “We like to support the school,” said Kayla Valle. “And she [daughter Ivette] likes to come see her friends.”

 

Alyse Garcia and Joaquin Munguia decided to attend with children Zakai and Isaiah M. to create family time memories, as well as to support Zakai.

 

“Anything to help with their reading. I would love to get some tips,” said Sherry Schmidt, there with her children Corey and Brady.

 

After families had spent time playing the game together, Dank read The Cow, a book consisting of just one word, ‘moo,’ to again show the importance of reading with emotion. 

 

The night concluded with the group reading Dr. Seuss quotes together, and as they were leaving kids were invited to take home books, pencils, bookmarks and stickers. 

 

Family Reading Night was sponsored by the PTA. Clearview’s student council paid for the take-home items, and Clearview provided the refreshments.

 

The event was held in part to help celebrate Read Across America and coincide with Dr. Seuss’s birthday.