Towamensing Elementary celebrates Dr. Seuss and kicks off 'Read Across America'

Whether it's a cat in the hat, or green eggs with ham, no one had a way with words like the beloved author Dr. Seuss. His silly rhymes and illustrations has been tickling children's funny bones since his first book was published, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" in 1937.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904 and now schools throughout the United States celebrate his birthday every March 2 which kicks off the popular "Read Across America" program.

Towamensing Elementary School celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday Tuesday with special activities throughout the day, beginning with treating the students to a laser light assembly.

Danny Snyder from Lancaster of Prismatic Magic presented a laser music video show geared to encourage children to read.

"Did you know that the word 'laser' is an acronym? L is for Light, A for Amplification, S for Stimulated, E for Emission and R for Radiation. We want you to be an AVID reader," he told the assembly.

A screen was lit up with the bright laser colors of the word, AVID, which was also an acronym for A for Ask, V for Visualize, I for Interpret and D for Decide.

"If you follow those four directions when you read, you'll be a phenomenal reader," Snyder said.

The laser light show took the students through some fun word exercises. This was followed by a musical laser show that had all the children singing enthusiastically along to Taylor Swift's "Love Story," Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," and "911" by Wyclef Jean. This was followed by a music laser video of Shrek to "Then I Saw Her Face." The students loved it.

When it was over, Snyder thanked the students for "rocking the word with our program." He also told the students to be sure to "thank your parents for supporting the PTO who brought this program to you today."

There were guest readers throughout the day that visited classrooms and read a book to the students.

Speaker of the House Keith R. McCall read to the combined 4th grade classes of Kris Hoffner and Sue Deem.

McCall is the 136th Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He is the first Speaker from Carbon County in the 327-year history of the General Assembly.

He told the students a little about what he does.

"I speak on behalf of the people. I represent the 122nd district in Carbon County of 60,000 people. The Representatives make the laws," he said.

Then he to help explain how that works, he asked the children, "How about we pass a law to have school only 100 days instead of 180 days?" to which all the students agreed and clapped.

"Yeah. I could do that," he told them. "It might be a good idea to you and me but I've got to get the 203 other representatives to agree that it's a good idea, too. Then I've got to get 26 senators to pass it and then the governor to sign it to make it a law. But I don't think I could get that made into a law. There would be a lot of debates and I think they would say you need 180 days to receive a good education."

He then told the students that as the Speaker of the House he has a lot of responsibilities.

"I'm proud that your mom and dads voted for me."

Then he read to them "How Full Is Your Bucket" by Tom Rath, Mary Reckmeyer and Maurie J. Manning.

It was also Spirit Day and the students could dress as a story book character and/or have wacky hair.

At 2:30 p.m., all the students gathered in the hallways to silently read as the beginning of its "Read Across Towamensing."

Stacey Olewine, Towamensing's reading specialist said the school will be doing creative activities with each class with the idea of promoting a love of reading.

"The school's theme this year is pirates, so the activities will be centered around that. Some of the classes are dressing up as pirates," she said.

Pirates, Grinches and Cindy Lou Who's will all be walking the halls with many Cats in Hats this week at Towamensing in celebration of reading.