Members of the Lewisville Morning Rotary Club spent their January 21st Saturday afternoon preparing dictionaries for distribution at 11 Lewisville ISD Schools.
Every year, Lewisville Morning Rotarians distribute almost 1000 dictionaries to 3rd graders. Why? Because it is a well known fact that the first 3 years of a child's education a child learns to read and the remainder of their education is spent reading to learn. Having a dictionary at their finger tips is integral to that learning process. For some children this will be the 1st book they have ever owned. This year, as in past years we have asked teachers if the printed dictionary is still the most effective choice for those students. Most believe that the printed dictionary is the most effective tool for students to learn word meanings, usage, pronunciation, spelling and forms. Interestingly, one of our members had a conversation recently with a student at Lewisville High School who when he learned the member was from Lewisville Morning Rotary told our member he still has the dictionary we gave him in third grade.
The next step is to distribute the dictionaries. Event Chair Charlene Dierks is in the process of coordinating visits by members to the 3rd grade class rooms in the 11 schools. Schools advise when classes are available to visit, members volunteer to distribute at specific schools on their availability date and visit the 3rd grade classes, hand out the dictionary's and have some fun with the kids demonstrating how to use a dictionary.
LMR member Mark Smith shown here demonstrating dictionary use during a past event.
This year volunteer members will be picking up dictionaries for their chosen schools from the home of Mark Smith. Everything will be ready for our volunteers. We boxed the dictionary's and marked the boxes for each school at the January 21st labeling party. So, volunteers will know how many English and Spanish to English dictionary's will be needed in each class.
As of the writing of this story, we are hoping to distribute to 3rd graders on February 7, 8 & 9 pending scheduling at each school.
Many thanks to our Event Chair, Charlene Dierks for organizing the entire project.
