Families Celebrate the Joy of Reading at Literacy Night

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 10:00 AM

Families Celebrate the Joy of Reading at Literacy Night

For Family Literacy Night 2017, Martha’s Table transformed into Camp S’More! Students and their families enjoyed the great outdoors (and indoors) with fun activities designed to promote literacy, while taking new books home to build their home libraries.

The evening began with our students casting off. Young anglers were assigned words, and fished for the letters to spell them out using magnetic rods.

Meanwhile, volunteers helped students get their hands dirty, drawing sentences from a hat and sculpting the subject and predicates with clay.

And what would camping be without trail mix? Volunteers, students, and families banded together to make bags of healthy trail mix for our neighbors to be distributed on McKenna’s Wagon, our daily mobile food truck.

The night was also an opportunity for families to take home books to build up their home libraries. Donated books from First Book, a local Pi Beta Phi chapter, and our Amazon Wishlist (purchased by generous supporters) were piled high on tables, giving students and their families a wide selection of options bring back to their own bookshelves.

Amidst all the fun, games, and complimentary books, the event was a great way for teachers and staff to get to know parents, and show what their children experience in our Healthy Start education program. John Cahill, our Out-of-School Time Program Coordinator and one of the lead organizers of the event, explains that building relationships with families is essential for a child’s success. “We want parents to be our partners in their child’s growth and development–so it’s critical that we give parents the tools and resources they need to be great caregivers, especially when they might otherwise lack access.”

Thank you to our staff, volunteers, and families who played a role in this amazing event. We can’t wait to see you again soon!