Walnut Ridge students love to read

WANTAGE — What a wonderful week at Walnut Ridge Primary School as students celebrated, Feb. 27 – March 3, the “Love of Reading Week.”
The festivities began the week before, when Media Specialist Benjamin E. Joseph read “Green Eggs and Ham,” through a pre-recorded video; and “The Cat in the Hat” visited, danced, and sang the “Keep on Reading” song with students.
Each child was encouraged to read four books, so Walnut Ridge could read 1,500 books school wide. As an added bonus, children who read at least four books entered a drawing to decide how to cut Joseph's beard and hair.
Throughout the week, students also read Dr. Seuss Books and wore funny, silly clothing on different days. Ultimately, they celebrated Dr. Seuss's Birthday, March 3, by: enjoying Pajama Day, eating real green eggs and ham, and hearing author Rachelle Burk customize presentations for: Pre-K, K, and first grade.
The School and Community Association (SCA) found and brought Burk to Walnut Ridge through fundraisers.
Burk enthralled first graders as they answered questions and spotted red clown noses on the presentation screen. Pretending not to notice red noses appearing on: baby, monkey, adult, and frog pictures behind her, Burk continued teaching, as students screamed with laughter – and paid close attention to her words.
Using her magic board, she said, “Everyone with a good imagination has one of these,” — she drew a head. “Raise your hand if you have a head? Good, good, most of you.”
She then drew eyes and encouraged the students to really see beauty — to inspire — and really weird, gross stuff — to research.
Burk drew ears, talking of people who teach new things and make students want to learn.
Next, she drew a mouth, for singing songs, telling stories, and asking questions. Burk said, she hoped the students drove their parents and teachers crazy by asking a lot of questions — a sign of curiosity — leading to finding out more, getting smarter, and going far in life.
She then pointed to her drawing saying, “If this were a curious person, coming to a new school with new faces, he would want to look around.”
The children started screaming, “Eyes!” as the eyes on her magic board moved back and forth.
Burk said, “OK, whatever,” pretending not to notice, “Oh, I get it. You are showing me you have a great imagination.”
More screams.
In many more entertaining ways, Burk taught the first graders about finding ideas and asking the question, “What if?” to inspire imagination. Burk also encouraged the students to: get to know people who are different, try new things, use everyday experiences in writing, and “Read, read, read.”
She also read portions from her own rejection letters, in order to teach the students to be better writers.
One publisher wrote, Burk's story, “Tree House in a Storm,” “felt very average.” She asked the students, “How can I turn my average story into a great story?”
One child said, “Make it more wow.”
She then explained how she used creativity, with more detail, plus better and exciting words. For example, Burk changed, “It rained hard.” — to — “Wind, rain, and lightning whipped and flashed like an angry dragon.”
Burk added, each time she revised her story, she learned more, and her story got better and better. Finally, her book was published.
Burk contributes articles to Highlights Magazine, Scholastic Classroom Magazine, Scholastic Science World Magazine, and has published seven children's books.