Webutuck’s month of reading focus is outer space

WEBUTUCK — Space is the place to be if you’re a student (or teacher) at Webutuck Elementary School: the PARP (People as Reading Partners) reading initiative kicked off this month with the typical bang known as Theme Day.For the past six years, the PARP program has encouraged children to read for at least 15 minutes each day with their parents. Each Friday for the entire month of March, the students bring in their checklist, certifying that they have met that reading quota at least five of the past seven days. Students who complete the checklist get special prizes each week, and at the end of the four-week program, a certificate for participating.More recently, the “One School, One Book” program had added a fun twist to the PARP experience: One book is chosen to be purchased for all of the students in pre-kindergarten through third grade, made possible through budget funds as well as private donations.The book this year is “The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet,” by Eleanor Cameron, and 300 books were purchased for each of the students.Theme Day transforms the school to reflect the book chosen that year. Outer Space Adventure was the official title of what amounted to a lot of hard work by teachers, staff and parent volunteers, who decorated the halls and classrooms of Webutuck Elementary as a giant solar system.Theme Day is more than just a dressed-up school day. Students rotate through 21 stations during the day, where teachers have different projects and activities that have to do with space.Most teachers wore special T-shirts with planets on them; one even donned a costume space suit for a special reading about the moon.“Every single staff member is involved,” explained librarian Beth Murphy, who heads the PARP program every year (teacher Lynn Buckley coordinates the “One School, One Book” drive). “Quite a few stayed late this year and helped decorate the place.”Murphy said that over the years the program has encouraged more and more students to participate in the PARP goal of reading at least 15 minutes a day. Last year was the record high — 89 percent participation — but that hasn’t stopped Murphy from continuing to set the bar higher and higher.“Space is something we don’t delve into much here,” she explained. “For most of the students, it’s a completely new subject. So for today, every room they go into is a new adventure, and they are sucking in all this information without even realizing it.”After Theme Day, Murphy followed up with a quick anecdote, via e-mail, about how special and unique the day really is.“I was thinking about a librarian conference I attended, where everyone had to share amazing feats they attempted to get kids reading,” she wrote. “I was last for some wonderful reason, and when I told them about Theme Day they were in awe. They could not believe that our teachers would all agree to another project that required tons of extra work. They wanted to know how I convinced them to participate.“My response: I am truly blessed to work with such wonderful teachers. Our teachers are out of this world. Newbie or veteran, everyone I have ever worked with here at Webutuck has been willing to do what ever it takes to make an event truly memorable for our children. I guess we really love the jobs we hold.”PARP will continue for the rest of the month of March. Buckley explained that she will be giving out questions to the students at the end of each week about “The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet” that she hopes will stimulate conversation between parents and their children about the book. The book begins with a newspaper ad for adult-free spaceship constructors. The first question is: Does this ad spark your imagination? Where does your imagination take you?