The Cat in the Hat, who also happens to be a Central High School student, stopped by Humboldt Elementary School Thursday morning.
Annaka Kellogg is a Senior at CHS and part of the National Honors Society. She said she got involved when she found out the event included reading and wearing a costume.
“David Jordan, one of the people that helped arrange this is one of my business teachers so he asked if I’d be interested and then was asking if I knew anybody who would dress up and I was like, uh, me,” Kellogg said. “Once he told me what it was for, which is the NEA’s Reading Across America… my parents always read to me, especially Dr. Seuss books and so I think that reading’s very important because not only does it help in school but also opens your mind to get to explore different things and I think it’s really important to teach kids from a young age the fun in reading.”
The Cat in the Hat visited classrooms at Humboldt while other National Honors Society students from CHS read to first-graders. A similar reading event took place at Edison Elementary School Thursday afternoon.
J. Eric Simmons is the local St. Joseph National Education Association Vice President and Central High School Teacher. Simmons said NEA puts on the Read Across America program in all 50 states and wanted to bring it to students in St. Joseph.
“Our local St. Joseph NEA Chapter decided to put this together as a pilot for two of our elementary schools this year for the first-graders and then popping in to the kindergarten rooms just to have them see the Cat in the Hat,” Simmons said. “Next year, hopefully we can move this into something bigger and continue to expand and reach more of our St. Joseph School District students.”
Simmons said the purpose of the program is to help students become lifelong learners.
“These high school students have already told me that they loved doing this and participating in this event. I hope they continue to want to come back and help us with this more,” Simmons said. “It’s a good thing for them to also solidify how important it truly is for them as a high school student to read. By coming down to the elementary school and showing them, the students here, why they read, why do our high school students read, why is it important for them to read. It solidifies within themselves why they fell in love with reading in the first place.”
The beginning of the Read Across America program kicked off on March 2nd, coinciding with the birthday of Dr. Seuss.