Allan Appel Photo
Michelle gets all literary with apples.
Although it could not be independently verified — not even by her mother — first-grader Michelle Mapuvire revealed that she has read Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears A Who 79 times. Not 78 times and not 81 times.
That admission emerged Wednesday at a Dr. Seuss Literacy Family Night at the Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School on Derby Avenue in the West River neighborhood.
First-grader Layla Russ and teacher/organizer Thompson.
There the second annual Dr. Seuss-themed event attracted 265 pre‑K to second grade readers and their parents, families, and friends to the school’s cafeteria.
The room was festooned, ballooned, and gazooned with a dozen stations, each one organized by one of the school’s pre-K-2nd grade team of teachers around a game or activity inspired by one of the Doc’s more than 60 books.
Last year the inaugural Seuss event to promote family engagement, reading, and general academic success attracted 230 people, said kindergarten teacher Kelleigh Thompson, one of the chief organizers along with fellow teacher Julie McLaughlin.
This year the event featured a Dr. Seuss photo booth, the ever-popular face painting — cats as in A Cat In The Hat appeared to be the number one choice for masking — free books for every kid, and dinner provided by the parent teacher organization (PTO).
The PTO worked with the teachers and utilized the school’s Title One funding to help purchase the gazillions of pizzas, wizzas, and dizzas, along with bowls of salad and other elements of the dinner that was being provided, along with the free books. A Lorax bowling alley was set up in the corner of the cafeteria and was attracting some of the most competitive of the first-grade bowlers.
The older kids on the student council staged a bake sale.
Thompson said that The Lorax, whose protagonist speaks for the trees and nature in the eponymous book, is read by everyone in the environment-themed school.
Wednesday night was dedicated to pure Seuss fun. At the Ten Apples On Top table, for example, Michelle Mapuvire was able to pile three apples on top of each other. Then her pal Layla Russ did the same and almost got the fourth on before her creation toppled.
The kids next drew pictures of what they had just done, adding to stick-on dots, one for each apple.
When I asked the teachers why the Seuss books are so perennially popular, they cited not only the famous silly rhyming but also the neologisms and the invention of a fun language.
“As we read it, it sounds so crazy, his own way,” said McLaughlin. She pointed out that once kids hear a word like “pop” in, for example, Seuss’s
<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop_on_Pop”>Hop On Pop,
they can easily substitute a “t” and make top. Then other sounds and words come.In that manner, kids are learning phonics and other skills, without even knowing it.
“Even if they can’t read, they read the pictures,” she added.
Julissa listening with the Cat, aka phys ed teacher Ms. Basini.
Dr. Seuss night — in this second edition — is only one of the family engagement events held throughout the year, said Assistant Principal Eugene Foreman. The others include movie nights, fitness-themed nights, caring and social action nights, and nights devoted to activities around STEM (science and math) subjects.
Teacher/organizer McLaughlin, at right.
While the events are open to all the kids in the school, Dr. Seuss is pitched to the little ones. That pleased first-time attendee Melissa Glazier.
While she waited in line to get her raffle and dinner tickets in the lobby of the school, her daughter Julissa Oliveraswas reading The Cat In The Hat with a parent volunteer and the school’s physical education teacher Elisa Basini, who was in costume and character of the famous Cat.
The evening’s activities bolstered an already strong reading component in Julissa’s life, said her mom. They read three books every night before bed.
“I like to read stories after bed,” Julissa said.
“Before,” said her mom.
At the activity inspired by the yucky stuff in Bartholomew and the Ooblek.
Julissa’s current Seuss favorite — and, full disclosure, this reporter’s top rating for a Seuss title — is Hark! A Shark.
Barnard, a K‑8 magnet school, has 560 students. Its magnet status provides money for a photography club and teacher. Half a dozen members of the club were also running around gleefully taking pictures of the Seussiacs.