Hawthorn students to trick-or-treat for literacy tricks
Oct 04, 2021 03:32PM ● By Julie Slama
During the family literacy night on Oct. 28, Hawthorn Academy will hold a book fair as it did in September 2019, as seen here. (Julie Slama/City Journals)
By Julie Slama | [email protected]
Hawthorn Academy is taking a twist on typical trick-or-treating and on the traditional school parades.
On Oct. 28, students and their families can opt to wear costumes at 6 p.m. to trick-or-treat to classrooms on both the West Jordan and South Jordan campuses to learn tricks to boost their literacy skills, said school media coordinator Whittney Clark.
“It will be a fun family literacy night to get together and encourage reading,” she said. “We’ll teach skills and have resources available to the families.”
The school book fair will be held in the library. In addition, Salt Lake County Library System will have student library cards available with parent or guardian signature.
“We want students and families to walk away with how to have more ideas to embrace reading and have the opportunity to have a book in their hand,” Clark said. “As a librarian, a big part of what I do is to keep readers motivated and making books available and accessible.”
Once students have a book in their hands, she encourages at least 15 minutes of reading daily for younger readers and at least 30–45 minutes for older students.
“It’s also important as students begin to read that they listen to others’ read, whether it’s parents, a library story time, or even an audio book,” she said.
At Hawthorn’s library, she will share stories by reading to students, introduce new authors to students, point out new books and discuss stories to relate them to their community and world.
“I want them to try this or tell me why they liked a story or how it relates to their world,” she said. “The library is for them to enjoy reading and discover new worlds.”
This year’s library theme is “Books Create Magic in Our Life,” and she plans to show students the magic of the literacy world through books.
Clark plans to share with them “The Magician’s Hat,” written by former NFL New England wide receiver and Super Bowl champion Malcolm Mitchell, and then, watch the “magic” of tie-dying as colors spread in the water to guide their lesson.
She also plans to share with them “The Floating Field: How a Group of Thai Boys Built Their Own Soccer Field,” by Scott Riley, which shows how others had the passion to build a practice field “magically” on floating milk cartons in Thailand so they could play soccer.
“It’s a fun way, like the trick-or-treating for literacy tricks, to open up our world and keep kids reading,” Clark said.
