Edna C. Stevens School Holds Literacy Night

by Mark Jahne

Editor

Literacy is considered a key component of early education so it was no surprise that Edna C. Stevens School hosted a Literacy Night the evening of Feb. 6.

This annual event brings dozens of families to the school that serves grades pre-kindergarten to 2. There was a wide variety of fun activities offered in the library, cafeteria and classrooms.

Second graders gather around a table in the school library to meet authors Tim Smith and Nicole Carta.

“It’s an opportunity for families to come and play games with their children and do some fun reading strategies,” Principal Lucille Ditunno said.

She gave teachers Jen Jones and Celeste Stearns credit for organizing the event.

Ditunno encourages parental involvement and added that many of these activities can be done at home. Among those on hand was Emily Mills, the children’s librarian at the Cromwell Belden Public Library. She read a book aloud in the cafeteria and staffed a table.

“It’s good to get the face of the library out in the public,” she said.

Mills used the opportunity to promote the library’s programs and collections. She said she works closely with the teachers at ECS.

Families that visited the school library had the opportunity to meet authors Tim Smith and Nicole Carta. Their book “The Monsters Jitter Park” is planned to be the first in a series of books for children. Smith also did the illustrations.

“We both work at a child care center,” the Dolphin Days Learning Center in Durham, he said.

Authors Tim Smith and Nicole Carta were there to promote their book “The Monsters Jitter Park.”

Smith’s mother Tammy is a longtime teacher at ECS. The pair wrote the book in a manner that is designed to help children deal with anxiety.

“Our series will be about all kinds of emotions,” Carta said.

Second graders were busy writing poems based on human senses.

Children in a first grade classroom were busy making heart-shaped pizza art. Teacher Karen Ambler explained what was going on in her nearby classroom.

“We have a variety of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten activities for the families to enjoy,” she said. “All of them are hands on and interactive.”

Emily Mills is the children’s librarian at the Cromwell Belden Public Library.

Kindergarten teacher Amy Carta (no relation to the author) led a word exercise at a table in the cafeteria.

“The kindergartners are focusing on CVC words,” she said.

She explained that these are words that have a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant. Everything happening around the school that evening was delivered as play-based learning.