Kiwanians give HUSD third graders their own dictionary
`This dictionary has more words than our others,` said Jacquelyn, Coyote Springs Elementary School third grader, after receiving her own copy of `A Student`s Dictionary` from members of the Bradshaw Mountain Kiwanis Club Wednesday.
Fellow classmate Anthony said, `I don`t have any dictionary. I`m excited. It`s really special. I will keep it up on a shelf at home (out of reach of my siblings) and use it when I do my homework.`
Jacquelyn and Anthony were two of CSES`s 104 third graders to get their own dictionary. By Friday, the Kiwanians will present dictionaries to all of the Humboldt Unified School District`s third graders. Each dictionary has the student`s name inside.
Paul Schneider, a Bradshaw Mountain Kiwanis Club member, said this is the second year the club has presented dictionaries to HUSD`s third graders.
He said the club hopes the dictionaries will help expand the children`s` knowledge and reading skills.
Schneider said the club`s members decided to start donating dictionaries to HUSD`s third graders after reading about how the district`s reading scores are going up.
The dictionaries, which the Dictionary Project prints, he said, are ideal for the third graders because in addition to words and their definitions, they list all the states, presidents and planets. They also have a section on the countries in the world, with a brief description of each.
`All of the third graders are learning to read and write so it is important they can spell the words correctly and know what the words mean,` Schneider said.
CSES principal Susan Fahrni said, `The importance of reading and the understanding of words in the context of print cannot be over-emphasized. It is for this reason we are so grateful to the Kiwanis club for providing our third-grade students with their own personal dictionaries. Our students are thrilled to have their own copies to use and learn about words.
`The Coyote Springs students and staff are thrilled to receive such an important gift. These dictionaries have contributed to our academic success on the state Arizona Instruments to Measure Standards tests and instill a curiosity for learning new words in our students,` she said.
Schneider said the Bradshaw Mountain Kiwanis Club is looking into the possibility of providing thesauruses to each sixth grader in the HUSD to help them learn other words than the same old ones.
