On Friday, January 28th/11 St. Christopher School highlighted literacy by celebrating Family Literacy Day. The theme for this year’s event was Play for Literacy. Activities included: Primary students working with Junior students in order to share a favourite book; collaborative posters created from the shared reading and displayed in the gym; students engaged in board games and word games that encourage literacy development; and, the entire school completing a giant crossword to wrap-up the day’s activities. Current research points to the importance of play in supporting literacy. ABC Life Literacy Canada suggests that, “Games provide a fun outlet for children of all ages to engage in activities that provide opportunities to improve reading and comprehension skills.”

The day was a great success for students, teachers and parents! A huge thank you to Mrs. Di Gioseffo for co-ordinating and organizing the day.

Arrrrrrrrrrgh! Ahoy Mateys! PIrates landed at St. Mary in Capreol to celebrate Family Literacy Day. The Pirates-in-training listened to stories all about Pirates. They then had a great time lmaking different Pirate crafts. They were able to follow a treasure map to a treasure (which included gold dubloons and gigantic jeweled rings), design a Pirate Flag, use the computers to make a Pirate self-portrait, learn how to talk as a Pirate, and make a Pirate puppet. Pirate snacks were provided. Many thanks to the staff for making Pirate Literacy Day such a success!

Sudbury Wolves Assistant Captain Mike Lomas and defenceman Frank Schumacher surprised the students of Corpus Christi School on January 27th for Family Literacy Day. Each read a book to the student body. “Don’t laugh at me” to reinforce “Peaceful Schools” and “Mother Earth to promote Dearness Conservation. Students were enthusiastic and excited to receive individual autographs from both Sudbury Wolves players. GO WOLVES GO!!!

Family Literacy Day centres around having fun while learning. To celebrate, the Junior Kindergarten students at St. David Catholic School read books and drew pictures of their favorite characters with their families. All families read, laughed and enjoyed each other’s company while talking about literacy and better developing oral language skills.

Pictured is four year old Kadin Demers reading his favorite story with his dad Matt. When asked about the best part of Family Literacy Day, Kadin excitedly responded, “reading the melting story with Daddy, having hot chocolate and wearing my pajama’s to school”!

After the children read with their parents, they had the opportunity to show their family members their performance portfolios which contain all their “best work”. The students were able to explain why they chose those pieces for their portfolios.

Lindsay Michel, junior kindergarten teacher states, “It was beautiful to see families reading their favorite books and hearing the students using terms like ‘author’ and ‘illustrator’. The students were very excited to share their hard work in their performance portfolios and speak with their families about what they have been learning. Today, it was a wonderful to see the students and their families share in the joy and appreciation of learning literacy. You could feel that real sense of community that we have at St. David – I was very proud of our students and truly enjoyed the positive relationship building opportunity Family Literacy Day offers schools”.