Rainbow Schools invite parents/guardians to celebrate Family Literacy Day

Tuesday, January 27th is Family Literacy Day across Canada and Rainbow Schools invite parents/guardians to join the celebration.

“Family Literacy Day gives us another opportunity to engage parents/guardians in literacy learning along with their children,” said Jean Hanson, Director of Education for Rainbow District School Board. “By modeling good literacy practices, parents help children develop strong reading and writing skills.”

“Parents/guardians are encouraged to make reading together a family priority,” added Director Hanson. “We invite everyone to visit rainbowschools.ca for a series of literacy tip sheets and videos of teachers demonstrating reading strategies parents/guardians can use at home.” (Click on parents. Click on Reading at Home. The tip sheets and videos were produced by the Rainbow District School Board Parent Involvement Committee with funding from the Ministry of Education Parent Engagement Office.)

Here are more tips for parents to celebrate Family Literacy Day at home:

• Encourage your child to create a custom dictionary. Buy your child a notebook and ask him/her to write two to five new words a week.  Look them up in the dictionary together to strengthen your child’s vocabulary and memory.

• Ask your child to read a newspaper article to you.  Talk about the article and why it’s important.

• Make read along cassettes of your child’s favourite books.  Have every family member read the parts of different characters.  Listen to the cassettes in the car.

• Stay up later on weekends to read in bed.  Have each family member explain his or her choice of reading material.

• Every few weeks, plan a regular date to visit the local library with your child.

• Start a family journal.  Encourage every family member to write a few thoughts about their day.

• Create a family newspaper.  Assign each family member one or more family events and write an article about it.  Use photos or your child’s artwork to illustrate the articles. When your newspaper is complete, send copies to friends and relatives.

Here are some of the Family Literacy Day activities taking place in Rainbow Schools:

Pirates will be the theme of Family Literacy Day at Ernie Checkeris Public School. Parents and students have been invited to dress up for the occasion.  Reading and writing activities will focus on pirates.   The day will culminate in the gym where each class activity will be shared with the entire school. This takes place from 12:30 pm to 3 pm.

At Westmount Avenue Public School, reading will open a world of adventure. Four community leaders will read their favourite books to students in each classroom, followed by a discussion. Parents will be encouraged to bring their favourite books to school and to talk about their favourite books with their children and other students. In the afternoon, there will be a book picnic at the school.  Parents and children will sit on blankets and share their love for literacy.

Lansdowne Public School Staff and School Council will present a Family Literacy Fun Night on Tuesday, January 27th from 5:30 pm to 7 pm.  Families are invited to come out and meet other Lansdowne families and participate in fun family literacy activities that will help students succeed.  Activities will be presented by the Lansdowne staff and the West End Best Start Hub.  The Greater Sudbury Public Library will also be available to showcase programs available to families.  There will be great literacy tips.

Larchwood Public School will host a Family Literacy Lunch on Tuesday, January 27th from 12:45 pm to1:30 pm. Following lunch, there will be special classroom activities with special guests.

At R.H. Murray Public School in Whitefish, parents have been invited to read to their children throughout the day.

“Read and Relax” is the focus of Family Literacy Day at A.B. Ellis Public School from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Parents/guardians are invited to come and read with their children and his/her friends. Everyone is encouraged to bring a pillow or stuffed animal to make reading time comfy.

Princess Anne Public School has planned a number of activities for Family Literacy Day, with a special book reading by Principal Randy Wallingford at 12:30 pm, followed by a school sing-a-long in the gym at 12:40 pm. There will be a Cuddle Up and Read Session from 1 pm to 1:45 pm.  Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbours are all invited to come and join their children for lunch. Guests should pack enough lunch to share and bring a blanket and pillow from home to cuddle up and read in the gym. The school will supply baskets of books. During the last learning block of the day, students will participate in different literacy activities around the school with a buddy.

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Media Contact:

Nicole Charette, Senior Advisor,
Corporate Communications and Strategic Planning,
Rainbow District School Board, 674-3171, ext. 7217.