PPC’s ‘One School, One Book’ debuts

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More than 450 local families will be reading the same book for the next two weeks, as part of Perryville Primary Center’s focus on improving literacy skills in our classrooms and community.
The event kicks off today, Thursday, March 25, when primary students, staff and families begin reading “Toy Dance Party” by Emily Jenkins. Each family received a copy of the book during the March 23 Drive Thru Reading Family Fun Night.
The story is about three toy friends — a stuffed buffalo named Lumphy, a stuffed stingray named StingRay, and a bouncy ball named Plastic. In this book, the second in a series, the story revolves around the three friends, whose little girl has gone on vacation but left them at home. The friends experience adventures and travails including a blizzard, the scary vacuum, and a dance party with a washing machine to find their little girl.
This is part of the “One School, One Book” project sponsored by Read To Them, a non-profit organization promoting family literacy. This is the second year PPC Librarian Michelle House has held a One School, One Book event. In early March, students and teachers read the first book in the series, “Toys Go Out.”
To build excitement about this year’s books and reading adventure, House sent videos to classrooms with clues about the first book. Classrooms recorded video guesses after each day’s clue was shared.
“The clues included a stuffed backpack with something brown hanging out, three mice, the movie ‘Toy Story,’ and that the first book was part of a series,” House said. “On March 2, which is Read Across America Day, all adults in our building received a copy of ‘Toys Go Out’ and we read the book as a school family.”

Each day, teachers read a small part of the story to students. “The story was explored through vocabulary, trivia questions, and other projects,” House said. “We finished the book on March 19.
“This week, we are uniting home and school by sharing the next book in the series, ‘Toy Dance Party,’ with our families. Every PK-Grade 2 family received the book with a schedule of which pages are to be read each evening at home, while we celebrate and explore the book at school.”
This home-school connection is vital to building the literacy skills students must master to succeed in school and life. In the report “Family Literacy Programs: Who Benefits” from the Ohio Literacy Resource Center at Kent State University, it is noted that children’s achievement increases with projects like like this: “One review of 53 studies showed, beyond dispute, that student achievement results from increased parent involvement in education.”
“We know that reading aloud to children is the single most effective parent practice for enhancing language and literacy development,” said Principal Emily Koenig. “This investment in encouraging our families to read together will directly improve the literacy of our students. At the same time, we’re providing an opportunity for family connection, conversation and enjoyment.
“We’ve loved reading the first book together as a school family, and the children are very excited to share this next book with their parents and families.”
Families will finish reading “Toy Dance Party” on April 16, and will have completed six family activities prepared by Mrs. House. “They will color bookmarks, make animal masks, build a water squirter, have a zoo animal snack, wear their masks for a dance party and paint.
“We’re having fun and learning and hopefully, we’re helping children and families fall in love with reading together,” House said. “It’s really the greatest gift we can give a child.”