Reading Superheroes Get Ossining Kindergarteners Excited to Read

Ossining Superintendent Raymond Sanchez stumbled as he made his way onto the Park School stage Dec. 4. Carrieann Sipos, director of elementary teaching and learning, supported him as he made his way over to a chair and slumped into it.

This was no ordinary day in the life of the superintendent and the curriculum leader. They had transformed into “Reader Man” and “Reader Woman,” wearing red capes, sky blue shirts adorned with gold “RM” and “RW” stars, and red masks. Their mission was to get kindergarteners excited about using their reader superpowers to conquer larger words and bigger books.

But as they “flew” over Ossining to get to Park, Reader Man lost his reading powers. “The travel has made him weak. He will have a hard time reading books,” said Wendy Trager, instructional coach at Park and the on-air reporter explaining the “crisis” in a video the district made. “He’s huffing and puffing and, oh my goodness, he’s about to fall down.”

After Reader Man was seated, Reader Woman implored kindergarteners to help him regain his powers. They sang their “Super Readers” song and activated all the reading “superpowers” they learned – Pointer Power, Reread Power, Partner Power, Picture Power, Snap Word Power, Sound Power, Persistence Power and Book Talk Power. Reader Man finally recovered. “Thank you for giving me my powers back. Are we ready to do some reading?” he asked, receiving an enthusiastic response.

Ossining School District officials are passionate about getting children motivated to read at an early age, and this was a fun way to kick off the “Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles” unit. The curriculum, which Park started teaching this year, is part of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project the district has adopted.

Throughout the previous unit, children acquired more and more reading powers and practiced them, Ms. Trager said. “They learned that if you use all of your reading powers together, you can tackle any tricky words that come your way,” she said.

The superintendent and Ms. Sipos read the “Gingerbread Man” to children, who joined in each time the runaway cookie shouted “Run! Run! As fast as you can! But you can’t catch me. I am the Gingerbread Man!”

They told students they need to activate their super-reading powers every day so they can be super readers.

Principal Cynthia Bardwell thanked the Park School PTA for donating a new book for each kindergartener to take home.

Mary Catherine Hillman’s class made Super Reader Masks and wore them to the assembly. They traded in tickets they earned for following the 3 Ps (Be polite, prompt and prepared) for a mask. They received a jewel for their reading mask for each additional ticket they earned.

Kindergartener Zeriyah Williams gave Reader Man and Reader Woman a thumbs-up for their performance. “They were good because they read us a book,” she said.

Student Jada Rose Harvey said she enjoyed watching the video the most “because they were flying.”

Ms. Trager pitched the idea of bringing the superheroes in the reading unit to life and asked the superintendent and Ms. Sipos if they were game. She organized the event and a colleague at Park helped make the costumes.

“She went above and beyond to make this a very special event for our children,” Ms. Sipos said of Ms. Trager.