Dr. Seuss Carnival celebrates literacy

By: 
Esther Noe
The annual Dr. Seuss Carnival and Literacy Night returned to Hill City Elementary School March 3. This event is sponsored by the school’s Parent Involvement Parent Teacher Organization group and run by its chair member, Rachelle Winter.
Despite the snowy weather 175 people attended the event, not counting volunteers. Elementary families crowded into the school and went from room to room playing carnival games. The children especially enjoyed seeing their friends, talking to teachers and winning fun prizes. 
Once again, The Cat in the Hat came back for this event. He wandered through the halls, jumped into games and spoke in rhyme from time to time. There were many squeals and giggles as the children interacted with him. However, The Cat in the Hat seemed oddly perplexed by the children who kept calling him Mr. Chase. 
This year the new carnival games included the Wheel of Words, Grinch Disc Toss and Plinko Part of Speech. Some of the other events included ABC Bingo, Fishing for Opposites, temporary tattoos, face painting, literacy bag games, Duck Pond Rhyming, Toss a Vowel Sound, Verb Hop, Dr. Seuss Movie Room, cookie walk, book exchange and Synonym Toss. 
Each game challenged the kids to remember different parts of literacy. 
“Its fun to see,” said Winter. “The kids get to show off and show their parents how much they know.”
Running these games was myriad of volunteers from parents and teachers to middle school and high school students looking to gain volunteer hours. 
“It takes a lot of people to make the event go smoothly,” said Winter. 
A few middle school students said they liked volunteering because they got to be in the elementary school again. It gave them a chance to interact with the younger students, see their old teachers and spend time with friends. 
Meanwhile, senior Mya Houser ran the Duck Pond and said, “I really like seeing how excited the kids got when they realized the ducks they picked had rhymed.” 
As a teacher, Donna VanNess said, “It’s fun. I get to see families and kids, and the little ones get to know you too.” She added that she especially enjoys getting to interact with parents on a casual level.
However, the carnival is only the culmination of a week-long celebration of literacy. The elementary children also celebrated Read Across America Week and Dr. Seuss’s birthday. There were dress-up days, literacy projects and guests came to read books. 
The Scholastic Book Fair was running all week as well. Winter, who also serves as the literacy aid/librarian at the elementary school, said the book fair is used as a fundraiser for the school library. 
Scholastic sends boxes of books, which are usually newer titles, along with a machine to calculate the totals. Children and parents can then purchase books through the fair, and Winter purchases requested books for the school library. 
After the sale the remaining books are sent back to Scholastic and Winter gets Scholastic dollars in return to order more books for the school library. 
A generous family also donated money so that every child in the elementary school could purchase a book of their choosing from the book fair.
“They were very excited to get their books this year,” said Winter. 
The book fair was still going on during the Dr. Seuss Carnival and Literacy Night and children were able to wander through the maze of books with their parents. Many proudly purchased books or posters and left with smiles on their faces. 

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