CONTACT:
Joan Whitson, Early Literacy Coordinator
904-342-2267
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHOTO CAPTION: The VPK class at Family Partners Child Care Center in St. Augustine, proudly display their hot rods built out of boxes as part of the theme for Florida Literacy Week.
To read the full article featured in St. Augustine Record, click here: http://staugustine.com/living/2013-02-02/literacy-week-celebrated#.URQIM4FK75o
Local Child Care Centers Revved Up Their Engines During Literacy Week
PALATKA, Fla., January 24, 2013 – In celebration of Florida Literacy Week, held January 14-18, child care centers and early learning programs like Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK), participated in a simultaneous, state-wide reading day.
On January 16 at 9:30 a.m., everyone was asked to read “The Hot Rod Hamster,” by Cynthia Lord and Derek Anderson. The book is an interactive, rhythmic, rip-roaring, race to the finish-line story where a hamster creates a sizzling hot rod with a little help from his furry friends and the reader. The Early Learning Coalition of Putnam and St. Johns Counties (ELC) provided the book to each center, along with a packet of activity ideas to do along with the book. Centers were then asked to send photos of their activities to the ELC to be posted on their Facebook page. View the pictures at facebook.com/elcpsj.
Their reading minutes were also tracked as part of the state-wide Million Minute Marathon, whose goal was to reach a million minutes of reading time during literacy week.
“We are proud to see, on a local level, the high importance child centers are putting on reading,” says Joan Whitson, Early Literacy Coordinator for the ELC. “Reading books to small children is one of the single most important things a parent or caregiver can do to help a child learn the skills they need to succeed in school.”
For more information, please contact Joan Whitson at 904-342-2267 or jwhitson@elcpsj.org. Visit www.elcpsj.org to learn more about the Early Learning Coalition.
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