Jokes, Fairy Tales, Authors Highlight Highmeadow Literacy Night

What do jokes, balancing and fairy tales all have in common? They were all part of Literacy Night at in Farmington Hills.

For two hours, on Wednesday, March 15, students visited several themed rooms where they read, heard stories, made crafts, and in some cases, acted out parts of the books.

Room themes included Joke Books, Fairy Tales and Girl Power. Some rooms featured favorite authors, including MoWillems and Eric Carle. In the Dr. Seuss room, students tried to balance things just like the Cat in the Hat does in the story. Parent volunteers, former students and Highmeadow teachers all helped staff the rooms.

Student Abby Carpenter, 9, enjoyed the evening. “I like the Mo Willems room because it has a craft. And the Dr. Seuss room was really awesome.”

Elise Kravitz, 9, also liked the Mo Willems room. “On the three computers there were Mo Willems games and I liked to play the games on the computer.”

Parent volunteer Nancy Jennings was in the Girl Power Room with some Fancy Nancy and Barbie books and other books with strong female lead characters. “It’s been wonderful. The kids have liked it and it’s a great night to celebrate reading,” she said.

Jaime Pohlman was in the art room helping kids make bookmarks. “The kids seem to be having a great time,” she said. They’re coming in here very excited.”

Deepak Bains attended the evening with his daughter Naveena. “It’s a great way to stimulate reading in the young ones,” he said. “It’s very hands on and shows how much fun reading can be.”

“The strongest message we can send our children is that literacy is important and can be fun too,” said HCC principal Dyanne Sanders. “Coming to an event like this is modeling that.”

This story, with photos, was submitted by a Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch reader. You can share your stories and photos by sending them to editor Joni Hubred-Golden, joni.hubred-golden@patch.com.