A flurry of excitement permeated Hamilton Creek Elementary as the regular cycle of a school day was replaced by activities designed to encourage a love of reading.
It was Friday, March 6, and students at Hamilton Creek were celebrating Read Across America week with activities centered around books by author Mo Willems, who created the “Elephant and Piggie,” “Knuffle Bunny” and other well-known series.
As such, Hamilton’s theme this year for Read Across America was “Read Mo’ Books.”
Throughout the week, kids read Willems books, “building up” to the big event on Friday when they participated in a variety of activities related to the stories they read, said Reading Teacher Mandy Seibert.
The activities, shared throughout the gym, library and classrooms, touched on some sort of topic related to Willems books.
In the gym, students were found making paper bird nests, origami book corner covers, stuffies and other arts. Some were noisier in their activity as they shook plastic baggies to make homemade ice cream.
Games and drawing activities were performed in classrooms, and the library gave students the opportunity to read and to create their own little story book.
Media Assistant Liz Bitterman said Willems books are “extremely popular,” so much so that she had to start keeping the library’s collection in a back room to make sure they had enough for everyone to borrow.
According to Bitterman, the former media assistant always went all-out for Read Across America week and, following COVID, Seibert has been trying to build it back up to what it used to be.
“She’s been really instrumental in bringing that vision back,” Bitterman said of Seibert.
The purpose of Read Across America, Seibert said, is to encourage a love of reading, “to celebrate reading and all the things reading can do for you.”
