Students celebrate Read Across America week with activities

Students from the Bellefonte Area School District celebrated a week dedicated to Dr. Seuss – Read Across America. With a goal to promote the love of literacy, while honoring the late longtime children’s author, students collected points for all the books they read – many including books by Dr. Seuss. They also participated in a variety of activities throughout the week that came with theme days and read-aloud sessions with guests.

At Bellefonte Elementary School, student athletes from Penn State visited classrooms to read books to students in kindergarten through fifth-grade. When tennis player Olivia Rohrbacher walked into Amy Wilson’s second-grade class, students were in awe, as they were with the other college athletes who visited the class.

She enthusiastically read the Dr. Seuss story “Gertrude McFuzz” and then participated in a questions and answer session with the students who asked her everything from what her favorite color and prehistoric animal are, to what her favorite book is. Rohrbacher was among several Penn State athletes at the school involved in soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, gymnastics and more. They even signed a poster that said, “We are, Penn State.”

Benner Elementary School also held a similar event, but with student athletes from Bellefonte Area High School. On Friday, head coach Mike Maney brought his wrestling team to visit the school and read to students.

Bellefonte Elementary ended the week with an assembly to announce the number of points the school collected in total for all students who logged in time to read – 4,496, which exceed the goal by nearly 2,000 points. The assembly also included a pep rally-style event with members of the marching band, cheer squad and baton team from Bellefonte Area High School.

To continue with Read Across America celebrations, students at Marion-Walker Elementary School will be getting visits on March 6-7 from authors and have a read-along event with an Andy the Armadillo from Texas Roadhouse.

Read Across America is an annual national reading campaign created by the National Education Association to promote reading and to celebrate the life of the author known as Dr. Seuss.