By Sara Hall
Kids in Newport Beach schools got lost in a snow covered world on Thursday.
The children’s book, “The Snowy Day,” was read aloud to students in classrooms across the city Thursday as they participated in the annual Read for the Record Day. The book, written by Ezra Jack Keats, is a tale of a boy exploring his neighborhood after snow has fallen during the night.
The story was read to students in classrooms across America, including the preschool class at Harbor View Elementary School in Newport Beach. Newport Mesa Unified School board member Judy Franco was on hand to read the book to the class.
“This is always nice,” said Franco, a retired teacher, about Read for the Record Day. “It takes me back.”
Franco said she has participated in the Read for the Record Day for many years and said it is a great way to encourage kids to want to read.
“They get interested enough to want to read by themselves,” she said.
The children see how an adult is eager to read a story and it gets them excited, Franco said, excited enough that they want to read their own story. Franco, who read to her own children, said she likes to see how children begin to read on their own and how many grow up loving books.
“It’s a remarkable thing that happens when you read children a story,” she said.
The Read for the Record Day is a nationwide campaign to set a new world record for the largest shared reading experience on a single day. According to the organizing program behind the project, Jumpstart, 2.5 million children were expected to participate this year. The day dedicated to reading is a celebration that “brings together adults and children to showcase the role reading plays in a young child’s life,” according to a Jumpstart statement. The project is presented in partnership with the Pearson Foundation.
“Reading is so important,” Franco said. “It can take you on adventures and to faraway worlds.”
