Wednesday, Mandi Morgan’s second-grade class at Ridge Elementary School in Mentor left the classroom to go read outside on National Read a Book Day.
They are the first to use the new Story Walk, a literacy project that displays a children’s book outside on a number of different posts that they can walk along and read. This one is just off the playground.
The kids read "The Cool Bean" and said they thought it was cool they had this new opportunity to grow their love of reading.
The idea came from seeing the Story Walk at the Mentor Library. Now, they’ll be at all seven Mentor elementary schools and the school for students with autism.
Teachers can use them as they’d like. So can kids at recess or anyone else.
"Just getting them up and moving during a story because normally you’re sitting and quiet, but they got to be up and part of it, and they were excited to see what was going to happen next," said Morgan. "Some of them couldn’t wait, and they just went to the next one to see.”
Morgan has been teaching for 15 years and says right now, an important goal is regaining the ground lost in reading during the pandemic.
"I think something like the storybook walk is just going to bring joy to reading and make them excited about it again," she said.
The joy is evident on their faces.
"I just love reading," said Noah Glavan, a second grader.
It is also evident in the stories they tell about their experience with the Story Walk and the lesson learned by reading "The Cool Bean," which the kids say is about kindness.
"Do what you think is right, and you’re perfect the way you are," Glavan said.
It was a community effort that made the Story Walks possible. Funds came from the Mentor Public Library, Friends of Mentor Public Library, Mentor Schools Foundation, and each of the building's PTAs donated.
Also, the Mentor Teacher Association and Mentor Classified raised money for the raffle prizes, which are new books featured in the Story Walks, that the kids can win for reading them all at the end of the year.
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