Don’t wait for the movie — read the book.
And enjoy a nice boxed lunch from Monongalia County Schools while you’re at it.
That’s the motivation behind the district’s “Summer Sizzler” bus stop program, which runs through Thursday.
The program offers free books to elementary school youngsters, along with those lunches.
Call it a double mission, said Susan Taylor, who coordinates after-school and summer programs for the district.
Sizzler’s aim is to keep kids hungry for knowledge — they can stick with their reading even if they’re away from the school library — while also quelling the belly hunger they may experience while being distant from the breakfast and lunch menu in the cafeteria.
Both are page-turners for Taylor, who began her career in education as a classroom teacher and reading specialist.
Those Bluebird buses with their books and box lunches fanned out Monday for the Sizzler’s first day, with runs to Mylan Park Elementary, Osage, Bertha Hill, No. 8 Road at the U.S. 19 intersection and Vance’s.
Tuesday’s stops will be from 10-10:20 a.m. at Skyview Elementary; 10:30-11 a.m. at the former Shop ‘n Save in Westover; and from 11:15-11:35 a.m. at Granville Park.
Wednesday, the Sizzler buses roll up to the WVU Daycare Center at Krepps Park and Morgantown High School at Edgewood Street — with other stops to follow at Mountainview Elementary, Bluegrass Village and the Kingwood Pike Store.
Brookhaven Elementary, Tyrone Village and Cheat Lake Elementary round out the week Thursday.
Visit Monongalia County School on the web or social media for those times.
The Summer Sizzler is always the traditional academic opening act the Summer Avalanche, with its full-on, learning-enrichment camps that run through July at every public school in Mon.
That’s why Taylor’s desk calendar is always metaphorically turned to June and July, even when it’s January and February, in actuality.
Those are the months she and her staff begin training for the two big benchmarks of summer.
That’s added to the after-school programs her office coordinates anyway, she said.
“It’s basically one big calendar for us,” she said.
The Summer Sizzler is critical as it reaches out to youngsters in the key plots of their learning narratives, a still-at-heart reading specialist said.
By third grade, Taylor and other academic professionals say, students, ideally, should be on a track where they are reading to learn — opposed to learning to read.
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