Students from local preschools visited Shawnee to partake in crafts.
On March 5 Shawnee High School hosted its 20th annual Read Across America celebration in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Club, Future Educators of America Club and Child Development classes hosted 60 young students from local preschools in the Media Center. Administrator Ryann DiNatale and student Grace McKinley welcomed the students to Shawnee. Steve Lee, Medford Lakes Representative to the Board of Education, led off the event as our guest reader, narrating “The Cat in the Hat”. The preschool students then rotated to different groups of Shawnee students, who read children’s books and played games with them. At the conclusion of the event, Jake Strong performed magic tricks to the awe and amazement of the preschool students.
Ashley Gerber reflected on the event with the following statement, “The importance of reading to children while they are young and showing them the importance of continuing to read as they get older cannot be overstated. Studies show the impact that early education and reading have on students being life-long learners. Our goal today was to show that reading and learning can be fun as well.”