Kids read to grownups at Stewart

    Stewart Elementary students and their parents enjoyed a night of books, word games and songs at the school?s annual Reading Night on Tuesday. Music teacher Linda Soukup gave the kids a workout in her room, teaching them the motions to the song ?Tony Chestnut.?

    The song is full of homophones, which are words that sound the same but mean different things. Throughout the song, the kids act out the homophones connected to each syllable. For instance, when they sing the ?To-? in ?Tony,? they point to their toe, and when they sing the ?-ny,? they point to their knee.

    Soukup spends about five to 10 minutes teaching the words and actions. As the kids sing and move about, they can see the lyrics on an overhead projector. Soukup said it helps kids connect objects and sounds to words on a printed page, which is the essence of learning to read.

    When the children come across an unfamiliar word, they ask about it. Soukup said most of them have never heard of a chestnut. That?s not surprising, because there is only one mature chestnut tree in the whole county.

    Apart from the singing, students and their parents enjoyed a meal. Guests gobbled down hot dogs, chips, apples and cookies. Stewart Principal Rhoda Harris said that the school does not usually serve a meal at its after-school events. Ordinarily, the school serves snack food. But because Tuesday?s theme was ?Feed your brain,? the staff reckoned that their visitors needed a few more vitamins and minerals.

    Julie Murphy attended the event with her son, Keaton, who is in second grade. They ate the meal and then read a few books that were on the table. The first book Keaton grabbed was ?The Very Hungry Caterpillar.? The book is about a caterpillar who eats more and more each day until he gets sick, at which time he eats a leaf to feel better. The book introduces children to a wide variety of food and teaches them the days of the week and how to count.

    The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the theme of a month-long activity at the school. Pictures from the story will be hidden throughout the school. A new picture will be hidden in a new place each week, and it?s up to the students to find it. 

    Keaton said his favorite book is called ?The Dumb Bunnies? Easter.? The book features a family of bunnies who are very confused about Easter traditions. They put up an ?Easter Tree? in their home and watch a small football on top of their television set.     

    Keaton?s favorite activity Tuesday night was singing ?Tony Chestnut.? He said it was a lot of exercise for both him and his mother.

    ?My mom got tired,? he said.

    ?It made me tired, but it was fun,? said Julie.

    Robbie Taylor and his father Jason were in the school library looking through cereal boxes. It was part of a game they were playing. Robbie had a list of words and was tasked with finding an example of each word on one of the cereal boxes. The words on his list included ?the,? ?is,? ?and,? ?for? and ?to,? among many others. He had filled in every blank but one. He could not find a single instance of the word ?she? on any of the boxes.

For more, see our March 2 print edition.