326 Barringer Rd.
Ilion, NY 13357
Phone: 315.894.8420
Fax: 315.894.0153
Principal
Students hit a home run with PARP
Parents
As Reading Partners (PARP) is a “Home Run for Everyone” at Barringer
Road Elementary. The Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs inspired great
readers!!
Who would have thought that the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs Baseball Team would inspire a whole community to read, read, read? Well that is exactly the case this year as Barringer Road Elementary collaborated with the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs baseball team to fuel the excitement of an “Opening Day” atmosphere at this year’s PARP celebration. Students eagerly read from the first pitch through the final inning March 12-30, 2012 during the 3 week event.
Parents as Reading Partners, otherwise known as 'PARP,' had a good old fashioned baseball theme this year. “Inspiration is the key to finding that special passion for reading and encouraging our students to read,” says Kathleen Deck, one of the PARP coordinators. “What better way to inspire both parents and students than to involve local up and coming individuals who excel at sports and community service?”
The PARP program not only included parents as reading partners for the students of Barringer Road Elementary, but the entire three weeks of events incorporated student athletes from Ilion High School and Herkimer County Community College, local law enforcement officers, and Firefighters. All of whom donated their time with the students in order to focus on reading and to bring an element of fun to reading comprehension.
“PARP celebrates the importance of reading in our everyday lives. The program really gets the students motivated to read. Spending just 15 minutes a day reading with your child helps ‘grow a reader’ and raises the potential for academic and lifelong success” says Mary Day, Librarian and PARP coordinator.
As the weeks progressed, the students in each
classroom accumulated reading minutes to see who could read the most.
Several awards and wonderful prizes ranging from autographed
baseballs, Baseball Hall of Fame tickets, Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawg
t-shirts, mini baseball bats, and free tickets for all PARP
participants to a Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawg game on Friday, June 15!
The students at Barringer Road Elementary will be honored at the
Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawg's baseball game by having that particular
game designated as “Barringer Road Readers Night.” Thank you so much
to The Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs!
In addition, the class who read the most minutes won a special visit from Home Depot employees. Home Depot volunteers came to our school with aprons, hammers, nails, and paint to lead the students through constructing their very own wooden box. A fun project that can be used as a place to keep baseball cards for current and future big league stars!!! Thank you Home Depot of New Hartford.
The book Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball served as the feature reading for a “one book for all” exercise in which the daily announcements included a trivia question with prizes and awards for correct answers. Every classroom teacher read the book to their class, thus building a sense of community reading and interest.
The PARP program continues to be an integral part reading development at Barringer Road Elementary School. The PTO and the teachers should be commended for another solid year. Everyone really worked hard and the students had a great week of reading fun.
We would like to thank each and every individual who took time out of their busy day to come and read to our students. Special thanks goes to all the Barringer teaching professionals who jumped right in to embrace the program and go out of their way to help organize the program - it was a great team effort by all!
Hope to see you at the ball game on Friday, June 15, 7:00 pm at the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs Field, Veterans Memorial Park, Little Falls, NY. You will be amazed at how much fun a night at the ball park can be as we celebrate the great job Barringer Road students did reading during PARP!
