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Record-setting vocabulary
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Preschoolers at Millcreek Children’s Center earned their spot in the record books.
About 30 3- through 5-year-olds at the center participated Thursday in the world’s largest vocabulary lesson. PNC hosted the effort to set the Guinness record.
The Millcreek preschoolers were among about 4,000 children in 37 cities across 15 states and Washington, D.C., to participate. An exact number won’t be available for a few days.
“We’re in the books,” announced Ted Schmidt, PNC regional president for Youngstown, to applause from the children.
They were excited to learn the news even if they didn’t grasp the full impact.
“We set a record,” said Payton Gordan, 5. “That’s all I know.”
The lesson included songs and vocabulary words from “Mr. Tiger Goes Wild,” by Peter Brown. Teacher Jennifer Peyer read the book to the 4-and-5-year-old group with help from Sandra Clark, an assistant teacher. The book teaches the lesson, through protagonist Mr. Tiger, that children don’t have to try to be like anyone else. They can just be themselves.
Children donned tiger masks and roared and clawed along with Mr. Tiger in the story.
The event is part of PNC’s Grow Up Great early-childhood education effort.
“Studies have shown that the more words you learn, the better you do as you go through school and through life,” Schmidt told the children.
His words of encouragement earned him an admirer in the crowd.
“You’re handsome,” Nyla Harvey, 4, said.
Stripes, wilderness, magnificent and patience were the day’s vocabulary words.
Stripes are those lines on a tiger, explained Brenden Owens, 5.
Magnificent is something “wonderful or beautiful,” Payton instructed.
After the lesson, students enjoyed a snack of cheese, potato chips and carrots, representing a tiger’s tongue, fur and teeth, respectively, while Ryan Pastore of PNC, client and community-relations director, cellphone pressed to his ear, awaited word on the record.
Witnesses from a marketing firm attended the lesson at each site for verification.
Pastore said that before the effort, no record for a vocabulary lesson existed. This is the first.