Bookworms help kids read
GUILFORD — For the last decade Valley Grange Bookworms have been coming to Piscataquis Community Elementary School to share their love of books with second- and third-graders, as the pupils spend time reading to the adult visitors.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
READING WITH VALLEY GRANGE BOOKWORMS — The Valley Grange Bookworms will be visiting with Piscataquis Community Elementary School second- and third-graders on Tuesdays and Thursdays to hear the students read aloud. Grade 3 pupils who will be participating again this year include, from left, Audrey Chadbourne, Ava Goulette, Hannah Firth and Brookelynn Hunt.
After the conclusion of the morning assembly on Oct. 14, the grade 2 and 3 students stayed in the gym to hear Valley Grange Lecturer Walter Boomsma talk about this year’s Valley Grange Bookworm program which was scheduled to start on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
“What happens with the Bookworm program is Valley Grange Bookworms wiggle their way into school and they read with students for an hour every Tuesday and Thursday,” Boomsma said to the youngsters clustered on one section of the bleachers. “What you have to do between now and next Tuesday is think about what book you want to read.”
“I like joke books, hint, hint,” Boomsma quipped.
The Bookworm visits rotate by classroom, with students selected by their teachers to read. “We are probably going to do about 15 minutes so everybody gets a turn,” Boomsma said, saying the students get to pick the reading selection for their Bookworm time.
“I like reading to people a lot,” third-grader Audrey Chadbourne said after the assembly about her favorite part of the Bookworm program.
Three of Chadbourne’s classmates who also participated last year in grade 2 concurred. “Getting to visit with the Bookworms,” is what Ava Goulette said she likes best, and “I like reading to them and spending time with them,” Hannah Firth said.
“I like reading to them and spending time with them,” Brookelynn Hunt said. “Mrs. Lander is my mimi,” Hunt said about Bookworm Janie Lander.
Chadbourne said last year she read a combination of chapter and picture books with the Bookworms, and Goulette said she opted for mostly fiction selections for her turn to read.
“Sometimes chapter books and some regular books,” Firth said about her picks, explaining regular books to be non-chapter titles.
“I read ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid,’ some chapter books and a joke book,” Hunt said.
For a decade and half the Valley Grange has given dictionaries to SAD 4 third-graders – the program has since grown to include other area school districts – and Boomsma said the Bookworm program began as a way for Grange members to stay involved with the students. Boomsma said former Principal Julie Orton suggested the pupils would be more engaged if they read aloud to the adults.