C.R.E.W. begins at Glenwood Landing / Glen Head School Reading Celebration begins

In January 2018, Glenwood Landing began its month long C.R.E.W. (Curious Readers Enthusiastic Writers) festival with an exciting school wide assembly celebrating almost 30 years of C.R.E.W.

Principal Bridget Finder kicked off the ceremony by running with an “Olympic” torch down the aisle of the Glenwood Landing theatre followed by her staff and faculty dressed in different sports apparel.

This year’s theme is “The Sport of Reading and Writing,” inspired by the upcoming 2018 Olympics. Students will be encouraged to read books about fiction, poetry, non-fiction, biographies, and science fiction, and write about them.

The ceremony was filled with songs and a presentation summarizing all of the educational activities that will take place during the month of January, including theme-related STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) projects.

Some exciting events planned for C.R.E.W. this year include:

• A visit by author Peter Brown, children’s writer of “The Wild Robot.”

• Buddy reading and writing: inter-classes share reading and writing together.

• Guest Readers: a special time when parents and/or family members and friends come to Glenwood Landing to read to the students.

• Olympic and other trivia.

• St. Jude StoryQuest: raising money for children with cancer. Last year, approximately over $1,000 was raised by Glenwood Landing School for this important cause.

• C.R.E.W. Button Contest: a favorite activity where each student participates in drawing the new C.R.E.W. button. During the opening ceremony, the best student buttons from each grade were selected, and the children were called up onstage. The 2018 button contest winner was Avery Fitzpatrick.

While students read and write all year long, the month of C.R.E.W. reinforces these skills by continuing to focus on genres including poetry, fairytales, non-fiction, personal narratives, biographies, memoirs, and picture books. Additionally, many, many library activities will take place throughout the month.

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The annual Glen Head School Reading Celebration began on Jan. 3. Principal Lori Nimmo hosted the opening ceremony with the theme, “Read, Reuse, Recycle!”

“We want to help students see that the knowledge we acquire through books is borrowed from the library shelves, recycled into our own words and reused as a new idea or quality research project that is shared with others,” Nimmo said.

She added, “We will be talking about the need to take responsibility for our environment. The books we read give us the information we need to learn about what may be harming our earth and offer ways we can protect it. The options are endless when you encourage students to discover different ways to recycle, reuse and repurpose materials into useful items or artwork.”

During the next few weeks, Glen Head students will be reading lots of books related to the theme, parents will be visiting as reading partners, there will be a visit from guest author, Peter Brown, and students can shop at the book fair.

Additional activities at Glen Head include:

• Creating a robot out of recycled materials only. The robots will be on display for all to see and used to help welcome Peter Brown as his book, “Wild Robot,” is a favorite.

• Swapping books with other Glen Head School students.

• Creating and inventing something out of recycled materials.

• Visit a library and a bookstore.

• Create a bookmark out of recycled materials.

• Read at a friend’s house.

During the ceremony, Nimmo read “The Tin Forrest,” which exemplified the celebration’s theme. As in the past, students are always encouraged to read throughout the year, but for the celebration, reading logs will be noted and calculated for each student so that totals can be summarized at the end of the month.