Glow Read Night on Thursday at Lindbergh

By Jazmine Knight

Lindbergh Elementary hosted a Glow Read Night on Thursday to support literacy while incorporating a little fun.

The halls of Lindbergh were filled with tables of age appropriate literacy activities.

Kindergartners utilized magnetic letters to spell out words. From there, teachers had students switch out letters to create new words. For example, changing the word “big” to “bag” to “rag.”

First graders played roll and read where students roll a giant dice and read words in the selected column.

Things get a little more complicated for the upper grades. They worked on adding prefixes and suffixes to words and played games like boggle.

As students and parents continued throughout the school, they ended at the gym which had hopscotch, glow in the dark mask decorating, drawing stations and scooters for the kids.

Ryleigh Nurski, first grade teacher and PTA president, says Glow Read Night is more than just a fun time for students. It also serves as an opportunity for parents to learn components of the district’s new phonics program so parents can help their students at home.

“Everybody needs to know how to read,” said Nurski. “If they’re working on literacy skills at home and they’re working on literacy skills here at school, then, they’re going to be better readers.”

Representatives from United Way and the Washington Public Library were in attendance. Additionally, books were donated by St. Joseph Reads to be handed out to kids.

“We’re living in a technological world. So, to have those physical books for kids to read is a huge thing,” Nurski said.

Caspian Roland, a Lindbergh student, chose Wings of Fire for his free book. He says his favorite part was playing in the gym.

“You’ll have the time of your life and it’ll be awesome and fun,” he said.

Serafina, Rubi and Evelyn, third and fourth graders at Lindbergh, say they had a great time at Glow Read Night. They even shared their favorite parts about reading new stories.

“You really get to connect with the story,” Serafina said. “[I like] talking about the story,” said Rubi.

On the flip side, the girls say they struggle with big words and chapter books. However, using strategies they’ve learned from their teachers they plan on reading more at home to combat those challenges.

As a first grade teacher, Nurski says the hardest part about teaching literacy skills is getting students to know letters and sounds.

“Once they know the sound, then it’s kind of just decoding and then blending the words together… then the rest kind of comes together,” she said.

Nurski encourages more parents to attend more Glow Read Nights in the future. Not only does it bring the Lindbergh community together but the goal is to make parents feel more welcome at Lindbergh.

“Let them know that we’re here to support them. We’re here to support their kids,” she said.