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At Dobbins, you are what you speak
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Lisa Rapp (left) and Suzanne James were happy to be twin Cats in the Hat during the Dobbins Parade of Words on Mar. 2.
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The kindergartners of Elaine Fabrizi’s (far right) kindergarten class chose adjectives like sparkly, lovely, fast, and fancy to show off during their class’s word parade.
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Preslie Bodine chose “fancy” as her word to personify, and her boa, necklaces, and tiara showed her classmates what her word means.
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Lilly Galla had some help from her mom to create her snake costume that included scales and a hat that featured eyes and a forked tongue.
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Ellie Brogan (left) and Mia Marantis used hats as the best way to characterize their words, which were straw and tree, respectively.
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Karen DeVito’s students chose to embody words that dealt with the rainforest. Personifying “forest floor” was Zoe Simon (left), while “canopy” was Emma White, “endangered” was Anthony Koulianos, and “invertebrae” was Carmen Lefour.
By SARAH FOOR
Instead of using a dictionary, the students at Dobbins Elementary took a different approach to expanding their vocabulary: The students became the words.
The Dobbins Word Parade on March 2 was a celebration of the National Reading Association’s Read Across America Week, which focuses on motivating kids to read with events, programs and resources.
Dobbins principal Cheryl Borovitcky opened the Word Parade by telling her students how much she looks forward to the event.
“We love our guests and our assemblies, but I look forward to our Word Parade because all of you are the stars of the show,” Borovitcky shared. “I’m very impressed with the words all of you have chosen today.”
Each Dobbins classroom chose a theme, and each student personified their words with their clothes and accessories. Elaine Fabrizi’s and her kindergartners were adjectives during the parade, choosing words like fast, fancy, rough, and sparkly. Fabrizi decided to embody “eccentric” and wore layers of jewelry, a feather boa, and butterfly wings.
Other classrooms taught the school about social studies and math, while two third-grade classrooms themed their words around the rainforest and the solar system.
“I hope our words help you learn a few new things,” said third-grade teacher Marlene Booher, before showing off her students.
The librarian at Dobbins, Lois Dunnavant, was happy that the word parade and the Read Across America activities made reading and learning fun.
”What I love about this project is that it’s an amazing way to encourage the kids to read more. By becoming their word, they’re learning by doing, and I can see how excited and motivated they have been,” Dunnavant said. “Plus, even I’ve learned some new words today! I know the kids have some amazing new vocabulary that they can use anywhere.”