BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK – With games like Fitness Candyland, Dictionary Race and Sight Word Bingo, who wouldn’t want to learn to read?
John Adams Elementary School held its second annual Literacy Field Day to promote reading as both a fun and educational activity at the school on Friday.
“The main reason we do this is because it is fun for kids, but they also learn from it. It’s an educational day different from a regular field day because this is more of a content area in language arts. The whole day, everything the kids do is language arts-based in any way, shape or form,” third-grade teacher and field day coordinator Eric Paulson said.
All students from grades K-5 participated in 13 of nearly 30 stations designed and set up by teachers and staff members. Dewey Who? led kids on a Dewey Decimal System scavenger hunt. Kids Pictionary took a literacy-based approach to an old-time game. Write Right was a homophone-based game combining the card games Rummy and Go Fish!
Second-grader Lexie Salomone enjoyed the dictionary race in which two teams competed to find a listed word first.
“It was very challenging for me,” she said. “It was kind of hard to find the beginning letter.”
Raam Chinnaya, a first-grader, preferred drawing his favorite scene of “Little Red Riding Hood” on a huge class mural, writing poetry on the sidewalk and playing bingo.
“It’s different from class,” he said of the all-day event. “We do more stuff than in a regular day.”
The field day celebrated the culmination of various monthlong celebrations of reading. The children created turkeys for Thanksgiving and footballs for the Super Bowl, and wrote about the books they read. They celebrated National Poetry Month by writing their own poems in April. They also listened to children’s author Wendy Pfeffer during an assembly in May.
It also combines different subject areas, allowing students to delve into all of the academic areas. For example, Fitness Candyland provides a physical aspect; the Holocaust program approaches history; the computer activity explores technological ways to create stories; and Charades adds a performance aspect to traditional reading activities.
“It’s a win-all for everybody. … We’ve worked hard, and this is how we are going to celebrate, with an educational day,” Paulson said.
To add to the celebratory activities, Chartwell’s Dining Services provided a barbecue lunch for the entire school and the Parent-Teacher Association provided an after-lunch Italian ice for each child.
“It is a thank you to the kids for all of their hard work,” Paulson said.
In order to continue the learning process over the summer, students can continue their pursuit of reading by visiting the local library.
“The best thing to do is go to the public library because they have programs that are phenomenal [and] it is a very cost-effective way of getting a book,” Paulson recommended.
He also said that kids should keep a journal of what they read since writing is an especially important part of reading.
“Reading is going to come along, but writing sometimes takes practice,” he said.
Fourth-grader Ryan Long agreed with the importance of reading over the summer.
“After I finish a book I’m just going to start a new one. I like reading,” he said. “[It’s important] so you can get a good education and get into a good college and get a good job and make a lot of money.”
Being that this year saw more parent involvement in the field day, next year more additions will be sought after, such as having an author appear during the festivities.
“The teachers, they’ve been phenomenal … cooperating and planning the whole [day]. It’s been a cooperative effort by the teachers in making this happen,” Paulson said. “Who knows what next year will bring?”