Children and parents gather for Family Literacy Night

Resting on her mother's lap amongst a dozen other elementary school children and parents, the second grade girl listened intently to the Dr. Seuss book, "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish." While the kids were interested in the story, it was its teller - the Cat in the Hat himself, or rather herself - who was most intriguing.

Vicki Sierman, a reading specialist at General John A. Logan Elementary School, dressed up as the "Cat in the Hat" and read to groups of children from pre-kindergarten to third grade as part of the Celebrate Reading event at the school in Murphysboro. The event was held Wednesday night to promote WSIU's project that encourages literacy among elementary school children. The project, the Bridges School-to-Home Literacy and Technology Initiative, is the result of a public partnership between public television stations, elementary schools and parents, said Shari Biggs, a WSIU staff member.

With approximately 60 children and parents in attendance, Biggs told the audience that parents are essential to the success of the Bridges project. Rebecca Apgar, a parent and former teacher, was attending the event with her 3-year-old and a 6-year-old.

"We come to the reading nights because reading goes across everything, so the earlier you can get them to enjoy and love reading, they're going to do well in school the rest of their lives," Apgar said. In the media center activity, an array of children sat at computers with headphones on and interacted with educational software on the Bridges project website. One child worked with his mother at piecing together dinosaur skeletons as part of the game, "Digging Up Dinosaurs," which is one of six games on the website.

Janet Cramer, a teacher at the school, was in the library to help children in reading from the assortment of books that were laid out on tables. Cramer said the Bridges project is an effort to send books home with children and encourage reading and learning outside of school.

As part of the Bridges project, each child was allowed to take home a Reading Rainbow media backpack for a week. The backpack contained a book, whose subject pertained to one of the six games on the Bridges project website, as well as supplementary CD software, VHS tape and DVD to help further assist the child in learning to read. Toward the end of the event, all the groups gathered in the cafeteria for cake. Each child was also allowed take one book home for free.

"Nobody took the book!" one boy exclaimed in exaltation, after grabbing the book, "I Was a Sixth Grade Alien." He had been eyeing it from the beginning and was worried it wouldn't be there when it was time to choose his free book. Beth Spezia, WSIU Outreach and Education Coordinator, said the event was a big reading celebration and also an effort to aid parents in supporting their children's education.

"Events like this are designed to pull parents in and get them involved in helping their children become fluent readers," Spezia said. "Parents are critical."