February 5th thru the 9th, Berry Hill’s PTA hosted their annual PARP week. PARP is a National PTA program that stands for Pick A Reading Partner. The PARP program is designed to promote a love of reading in children. This year’s theme was “Read Across America.”
The weeklong PARP program kicked off on Monday and all students were asked to wear Red, White and Blue. Berry Hill’s principal, Mrs. Kolkhorst read “The Scrambled Sates of America” to the entire school. Mrs. Kolkhorst announced a book drive and all books would be donated to the Book Fairies. The students watched a short video about the local organization which collects reading materials for people in need throughout the metropolitan area.
To promote reading at home, the PTA prepared license plate tags and distributed them to all classes. Each night that week, the children were asked to Pick A Reading Partner (PARP). The partner could be a parent, a sibling, a friend, a pet - anyone! Students had to write their name and their partner’s name on the tag and turn it in to their teacher the next morning. To track the student’s participation, the PTA decorated the hallway with a large map of the USA and had a school bus move across the country based on how many license plate tags were collected. Each morning, students were excited to see how “far” the bus had travelled.
Berry Hill’s PTA PARP Co-Chairs Jennie Rosenzweig and Paulina Roth, along with Vice President, Samara Slade, planned a week of great activities for the children. On Tuesday, students were treated to a Laser Reader assembly. On Wednesday, there was a PTA Scholastic Book Fair and each class had an opportunity to win a book for their class by finding a hidden state on the shelves. Thursday, every class had a secret reader visit their classroom.
PARP concluded on Friday and all students were asked to wear their Berry Hill PRIDE shirts. At the end of the day, everyone was called to the gym for the book drive reveal. A whopping 1,606 books were collected! Mrs. Kolkhorst also announced next year’s PARP theme - Reading Under the Big Top. All classes submitted a theme for consideration and the PTA chooses the winner. Under the Big Top was suggested by Mrs. Morra’s 1st grade class. The PTA gifted each class with a special floor-sized puzzle of the USA. Also, the PTA gave all students a special map and sticker activity as recognition of their participation.
