EL elementary schools to hold Bingo for Books night
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LIVERPOOL TOWNSHIP -- The staff at North and LaCroft elementary schools have been busy stuffing thousands of books into bags for students to take home with them to encourage them to read.
Students who attend the Bingo for Books night from 5 to 7 p.m. April 13 at North Elementary, 90 Maine Blvd., will receive a book bag filled with 15 to 20 age-appropriate books and a stuffed animal who is a character in one of the books to be a reading buddy.
The event, which is for students from North and LaCroft elementary schools and their families, is free and will feature free books, pizza, raffle prize baskets and Bingo in which families can win even more books to take home and build a library with. There will be over 500 books to give away as Bingo prizes. There will also be 10 Kindles given away at the event to encourage reading. There will be a Kindle for one student in each grade level at each school.
The stuffed animals were purchased through the Kohl's Cares program which gives money back to charities, which according to Jenna Cope, principal at North Elementary School, is a good thing because through the purchase they are able to give back.
The event is a family event and students must be accompanied by their parents.
The event is paid for by a $57,000 State Title One School Improvement grant.
Kindergarten teacher Carly Magnotta said when they held the event last year the staff worked with families to teach them how to teach their students how to read at home. If the students were struggling a bit, they were able to come with their families to last year's event, Taco Bout Literacy, and work their way through different stations centered around building reading skills.
So last year was about building the skills to read and this year's event is all about building a home library with the books to read, Magnotta said.
"It's all game-based fun kind of stuff, but they are still learning," Magnotta said. "We wanted to get books. We know a lot of our students don't have books at home, plus it's just fun to build your library at home."
"It's been different every year. We kind of try to switch it up to keep everybody fresh and on their toes," said Brittney Marino, kindergarten teacher at North Elementary School. "We don't want it to be the same program every year. We kind of want it to be something exciting when everyone can't wait to see what we do next. So yeah, this is our latest creation and I just think it's awesome."
The staff has been busy promoting the event to students. To encourage families to attend, teachers have been sending home tickets for the raffle to win prize baskets with prizes for both students and parents.
In addition to the Bingo for Books night, North Elementary will be holding a series of events centered around reading during the week. Each day at a set time the entire school will drop what they are doing and go out into the hallways for 15 minutes of reading. Each day of the week will be a different spring themed day such as rainboots day or rainbows and flowers day. Students that are present in school each day during the week and document their reading will be entered into a drawing with one lucky student getting to pie the principal with a cream pie.
"The kids are very excited," Cope said.
Also with the grant money, the school will be hosting a math night on May 11 with a board game theme where parents will play board games with a twist with their students. The games will involve a math twist such as Jenga in which the students will have to solve a math problem before removing a puzzle piece. All the students attending the math night will go home with a bag full of board games.
Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com