Rotary of Wakulla County Gifts Third Graders with Dictionaries

The Rotary Club of Wakulla County decided to make literacy a focus for the 2007-08 year, and  recently headed up a project which put a dictionary into the hands of every third grader in the Wakulla County school system.  The Friends of the Library partnered with the Rotary Club on the project, sharing in the cost of the dictionaries.  Representatives from the Rotary Club visited third grade classrooms in each elementary school, including Crawfordville, Shadeville, Medart, and C.O.A.S.T. Charter School and presented each student with their very own dictionary.  

The dictionary project was conceived by Rotarian Garth Smelser this past fall.  The club enthusiastically embraced the idea, and dictionaries were ordered, along with bookmarks explaining the Rotary Four-Way Test.  The inside cover of the dictionaries was stamped with the Rotary seal and a place for the students to write their names.

Smelser (pictured at right with students) lead presentations in each third grade classroom, aided by several other Rotarians including President JoAnne Strickland, Doug Jones, Amy Geiger, Marj Law, and Mary Katherine Westmark.  Smelser's wife, Julie Fitzpatrick, also helped out with the presentations.  Smelser and Fitzpatrick used several different games and activities to introduce the children to all the different parts of their dictionaries.  The students were asked to locate words at random in the dictionaries, and were then asked to share their word with the rest of the class, along with its definition.  The kids were so into the game that they didn't want to stop at the end of the presentations!  Hands were up in the air the entire time.  Students also enjoyed browsing through the planet, sign-language, and state information sections, and had an especially good time trying to pronounce the longest word in the English language.

The club received thank you notes from all the schools, including this one from a Crawfordville Elementary School student who said, "Thank you so much for the dictionary!  Someday when I come across a word that I don't know what the definition is I will look it up in the dictionary and say, 'Oh, I remember this dictionary from the Rotary Club.'"  And from another student, "Thank you for the dictionary.  It will help me with multiplication.  My mom and I play the dictionary game together.  I think it is a very fun game."

{sidebar id=3} "Each class had the opportunity to spend time discovering what dictionaries are all about and the world of language that dictionaries offer," said Rotarian Garth Smelser.  "With each word they looked up, the students grew more and more excited about learning new definitions.  It was an honor to represent the Rotary Club and a  pleasure to see the kids so thrilled with their new dictionaries."

Rotary President JoAnne Strickland was equally pleased with how well the dictionaries were received by the students.  "I was so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of the presentation team," said Strickland.  "I could not have imagined the excitement expressed by the teachers and the students.  The students were very enthusiastic in learning about their new dictionaries. Garth Smelser, our Rotarian leader for this campaign did an excellent job in presenting the dictionaries to the students and showing how useful a dictionary can be in all their classes.  We are very proud to be able to promote this project and hope to continue it in the years to come."

Click here for a Wakulla.com photo gallery of the dictionary presentations.  

This article originally published on March 1, 2008.

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to post a comment.