Schools
A Good Sport: Principal Dyes Her Hair Blue
When students exceed their reading challenge, the Principal shows up as Thing One and Thing Two.
Read Across America was celebrated in Livingston by a principal who dyed her hair blue in honor of the Dr. Seuss mop-headed duo, Thing One and Thing Two. But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all …
Across Livingston Public Schools, there were visits by the Cat in the Hat, and his fans in tall red-and-white striped hats, and at Burnet Hill, a celebration so enthusiastic it sparked a flash-mob-reading-dance party.
The schools were paying tribute to Dr. Seuss, whose real name is Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of classic children’s books including “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham.” (See a slide show of photos from all the celebrations of the LPS website)
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At Hillside, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” was the theme for students to discover characters who overcome challenges. And discover they did – motivated to see Principal Cara Szeles dye her hair blue if they met reading goals.
The annual Read Across America event encourages children to keep reading and learning. As The Cat in the Hat proclaimed in “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut,” “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
The students at Burnet Hill have surely traveled the world. Their teachers challenged them to read 500,000 pages by spring break. But those numbers kept growing, with teachers displaying the numbers 828,174 at a reading celebration-spontaneous dance party.
Mt. Pleasant Elementary opened the door to learning – literally – with creative decorations at the entrance to classrooms that made books come to life. Harrison teachers performed Reader's Theater for the entire school. Riker Hill invited special guests for a Read-a-thon. At Collins, students at one point dropped everything to read.
The mission at each school: make reading fun. Really fun.
Why all the fuss? Students who read for fun do better in school and better on standardized tests, research shows. But more than that, reading is just plain magic. When children turn the pages of a good book, reading ignites their imaginations. Like imaging their principal with hair dyed blue like Thing One and Thing Two.
