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READ IN Week wraps up another year

Thu, 11 Oct, 2018

Schools around the District came together from October 1 to 5 to share smiles and the love of reading for READ IN Week’s 29th year. Media personalities, trustees, MLAs, city councillors, athletes, parents, local authors, District staff and community members all took time out of their day to read their favourite stories to children in our schools.

BRINGING STORIES TO LIFE

District schools found many ways to celebrate READ IN week, such as book character costume days, scavenger hunts, cozy pajama days, and “buddy reading” between students of all grades.

A notable moment was when former Oilers player Andrew Ference read to Lauderdale students as well as getting them set up with the new Free Hockey initiative, a division of Free Footie Edmonton where 300 students will learn street hockey after school for eight weeks without financial or transportation-related barriers. Students got their own jerseys and hockey sticks, plus Ference taught the students how to wrap their sticks with tape.

This year’s theme, “Bringing Stories to Life” was all about making books come alive through dressing up, acting stories out, using props or telling your own story. Through the active participation of community members in schools around the city, stories were brought to life for our kids.

HISTORY OF READ IN WEEK

READ IN Week began in 1990 after UNESCO declared it The Year of Literacy. Historically, the event has successfully promoted the school as an important place for the development of lifelong literacy. It runs the first week of October every year in several Edmonton area school districts.