Don’t wait for the movie – read the book.
And enjoy a nice snack box from Monongalia County Schools while you’re at it.
That’s the motivation behind the district’s “Summer Sizzler” bus stop literacy program, which runs June 10-13.
The program offers up free books to elementary school youngsters along with those snacks.
Call it a double mission, said Susan Taylor, who coordinates after-school and summer programs for the district.
Sizzler’s aim is to keep kids hungry for knowledge – they can maintain a reading schedule even if they aren’t at the school library – and they can quell the hunger they may experience while being distant from the breakfast and lunch menu in the cafeteria, as well.
Both are page-turners for Taylor, who began her career in education as a classroom teacher and reading specialist.
District school buses – or, “cool buses” in Sizzler-parlance – with their books and snack boxes, will fan out to Mylan Park Elementary, Osage, Bertha Hill, No. 8 Road at the U.S. 19 intersection and Vance’s.
Other stops will be at Skyview Elementary, the former Shop ‘n Save in Westover and Granville Park.
Look for Sizzler-sojourns to Krepps Park and Morgantown High School at Edgewood Street – with other stops to follow at Mountainview Elementary, Bluegrass Village and the Kingwood Pike Store.
Brookhaven Elementary, Tyrone Village and Cheat Lake Elementary will round out the run.
Visit Monongalia County Schools at boe.mono.k12.wv.us/ for route days and times.
The Summer Sizzler is always the traditional academic opening act the Summer Avalanche, with its full-on, learning-enrichment camps that run through July at every public school in Mon.
That’s why Taylor’s desk calendar is always metaphorically turned to June and July, even when it’s January and February, in actuality.
“It’s basically one big calendar for us,” she said.
The Summer Sizzler is critical as it reaches out to youngsters in the key plots of their learning narratives, the still-at-heart reading specialist said.
By third grade, Taylor and other academic professionals say, students, ideally, should be on a track where they are reading to learn – opposed to learning to read.
