Gift of Words
Posted by Erva Denham
Many children across the nation and the territory have never owned a book. Yet they are full of intelligence and creativity. In these tough economic times "many children" has become "lots of children."
For the last four years, the Rotary Club of St. Thomas II has been partnering with the Dictionary Project through Mrs. Gretta Moorhead and the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands to give a dictionary to each third grade student at the Lockhart Elementary School.
The goal of this program is to assist all students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionary.
The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come. The dictionaries include many interesting geographical , political, and mathematical tables and facts.
Distribution of the dictionaries is scheduled at 9am today November 4th to coincide with District Governor Errol Alberga's visit to the Clubs of USVI North.
Exciting yet this year, our Club has expanded the project to include giving a thesaurus to each eighth grade student at, our adopted school, the Addelita Cancryn Junior High School. The thesauri were ordered on October 22, 2009 and should be arriving in three to four weeks.
This year, there are 265 eighth grade students at our school, and the project is costing the Club $1.75 for each student. It is hard to find a better way to spend Club funds and benefit so many people at such a small price.
The Club's Literacy Chair former teacher of English, PP Erva Denham could not be happier with the Board's decision to add a thesaurus to what is now, officially, our Club's "Gift of Words" Project.
Past studies have shown that children who recieve their own books do much better in school and ultimately life.
The Literacy Chair has other ideas regarding expanding the program to include another gift of words to high school sophomores perhaps Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or an encyclopedia on CD. The costs for such a project are being investigated and will be reported back to the Club.
The hope of the committee is that our Club will be able to help to instill a love of books and reading in our youth by giving our students, two to three times during their school years, a continuing Gift of Words.
The goal of this program is to assist all students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionary.
The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come. The dictionaries include many interesting geographical , political, and mathematical tables and facts.
Distribution of the dictionaries is scheduled at 9am today November 4th to coincide with District Governor Errol Alberga's visit to the Clubs of USVI North.
Exciting yet this year, our Club has expanded the project to include giving a thesaurus to each eighth grade student at, our adopted school, the Addelita Cancryn Junior High School. The thesauri were ordered on October 22, 2009 and should be arriving in three to four weeks.
This year, there are 265 eighth grade students at our school, and the project is costing the Club $1.75 for each student. It is hard to find a better way to spend Club funds and benefit so many people at such a small price.
The Club's Literacy Chair former teacher of English, PP Erva Denham could not be happier with the Board's decision to add a thesaurus to what is now, officially, our Club's "Gift of Words" Project.
Past studies have shown that children who recieve their own books do much better in school and ultimately life.
The Literacy Chair has other ideas regarding expanding the program to include another gift of words to high school sophomores perhaps Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or an encyclopedia on CD. The costs for such a project are being investigated and will be reported back to the Club.
The hope of the committee is that our Club will be able to help to instill a love of books and reading in our youth by giving our students, two to three times during their school years, a continuing Gift of Words.