One Book unites an entire school

Lovell Elementary starts its second year of the One School, One Book reading program

Lovell Elementary School is having its second year of a One School, One Book reading program for students, parents, teachers and faculty members. This reading program helps encourage students and their peers to read the same book together as a fun adventure and to share the same enthusiasm for the story they are reading at school. Students were to bring the book home to read with their parents and talk about what they read in the story. 

The book that Lovell Elementary students are reading is “Adventures of a South Pole Pig” by Chris Kurtz. According to the website school library connection.com, the story’s plot is about Flora, an adventurous pig. When Flora sees a team of sled dogs, she dreams about being a sled pig.

When given the chance, Flora leaves the farm on a ship. She is there to help the sailors get something to eat, but Flora has other ideas. She becomes friends with Oscar, the lead sled dog, and Sophia, the cat. When their ship sinks, Flora works with Oscar and Sophia to pull a sled and bring food to the captain, a sailor and the brave cabin boy.

The Lovell Elementary students showed excitement and deep interest in the book they were reading together as a fun adventure with their peers and parents. This reading program helps students build a bond both in the classroom and at home.

“On February 4, Lovell Elementary kicked off the One School, One Book program with breakfast with buddies,” said second-grade teacher Ashlee Burton.  “Our students can bring home one book per family, and each family gets to read the book together at home.”

According to Burton, the purpose of this reading program is to build relationships with students and for parents to be involved in their children’s school activities.

“Our staff wanted to help strengthen the connection between home and school,” Burton said. “The teachers discuss with parents the benefits of reading aloud at home and send calendars to students to keep track of how many chapters they read for the month of February at home and school.”

According to readtothem.org, the benefit of reading aloud is that it helps students acquire new vocabulary, grammar and syntax skills in academics.  Reading helps students focus and sharpens their brain power whenever they pick up a book. The other benefit of reading helps students become verbal and social, which gives a shared experience of building connections at home or in the classroom.

Each time a student reads a book, they will experience the emotional side of reading a story and remember the feeling of what it is like to read the story in each chapter. It helps students understand the empathy of reading where they can experience new ways of seeing the world.

“We all read the same book both the staff, kids and parents,” said Lovell Elementary librarian Gwen Walker. “Our principal recorded a chapter aloud so students can listen, and we have high school students and parents who volunteer to help our kids. It is a big group effort to make this program work.”

According to Walker, the students showed excitement reading their assigned book, and they look forward to reading what will happen in the next chapter. She said students also took home a stuffed pig as part of their reading project.

“The students get to take home a stuffed pig and write a journal page about it and what they did with the pig,” Walker said. “Two hundred twelve families have taken the books home, and some of the Lovell High School students have volunteered to read some of the chapters. The custodial staff from the middle school also participated in reading some chapters along with our food service director.”

Walker said Lovell Elementary students would also speak to the entire school in the morning about new vocabulary words where students can earn rewards each time they used the words.

“Each morning during announcements, the students would do new vocabulary words on the intercom,” Walker said. “The students would win prizes if they used those new vocabulary words throughout the day.” 

Community involvement has played a key role in the reading program’s success, which opens doors to sharing the love of reading as a way of building bonds and relationships.

“I think it is a great opportunity for students to read the same book together with their families,” said Lovell Elementary principal Christopher Jensen. “There is something cool about people participating and building momentum in reading. I believe building momentum and interest are the two most important parts of getting everyone involved in reading a book.”                                                      

Jensen said the purpose of this reading program is to show students that reading is fun and a great adventure each time someone reads a chapter. He said it is all about fun and getting everyone interested. 

“Reading programs like this are not intended to increase reading scores,” Jensen said. “The intent of this program is to increase the students’ desire to read and gain interest in books.” 

Jensen said he enjoys reading the book that the entire school is reading. He said he spends family time with his children at home, and they both read a chapter together.

“I have been reading the book with my two sons, and they are quite engaged in reading the story,” Jensen said. “I and my sons read one or two chapters every night, and they always ask, ‘Can we read the book tonight?’”

On Tuesday, March 4, Lovell Elementary will be having a celebration day for the conclusion of One School, One Book program. Participants will get prizes throughout the day. For additional information on the One School, One Book program, visit the Lovell Elementary School website at https://www.bgh2.org/o/les.