Halstad Woman’s Club Dictionary Project

 The Halstad Woman`s Club provided dictionaries for all of the Norman County West Elementary School third grade students at the beginning of this school year. Students have used the dictionaries throughout the year in reading, spelling, and writing classes. The dictionaries include a wealth of information beyond words and deftnitions. They teach the students pronunciations of words, parts of speech, and correct word usage in sentences. They also have a U.S. map, weight and measure ment tables in English and Metric, and Roman Numerals.

Students found the dictionaries to be very useful and interesting. The students were excited to learn that they would be allowed to keep the dictionaries for future use. This was the fifth year that the Halstad Woman`s Club presented dictionaries to third grade students. The students will be writing thank you letters to the club`s members.

Note from The Dictionary Project: The following letters were sent to us by the GFWC Halstad Woman`s Club.

Dear Dictionary Project Staff,

Our Halstad Woman`s Club learned of your wonderful project in 2005. At the beginning of the last five school years, our club has presented a dictionary to each Norman County West Elementary third grade student. The elementary school is located in Hendrum, Minnesota, and serves several small towns in western Norman County.

Our school is small–only about 25 students in third grade each year. We estimate we have donated about 125 dictionaries to those students during the past five years.

During each of the five years we have participated in this project, every third grade student has sent a hand-written letter to the Halstad Woman`s Club thanking the club members for giving them their very own dictionaries. The third grade teacher, Mrs. Carol Locken, also expresses her sincere appreciation in a letter each year. I am enclosing the letters we received this year, along with photos of this year`s third grade students using their dictionaries.

Our club is delighted to be a part of your superb program. We appreciate being able to order the dictionaries from you at such a reasonable cost. We are honored to be a part of The Dictionary Project!

Sincerely,

Sharon Larson, President

Halstad Woman`s Club GFWC

Dear Club Members,

Thank you for providing dictionaries for all of my third grade students again this year. As you can see from their letters, the dictionaries have been used often and were very much appreciated. In my class, I encourage the children to find answers. The dictionaries are very useful in class, because I know everyone has access to one and can follow along when we are beginning dictionary skills. Later, students find information independently as they need it. The message that you convey by giving all the third grade students dictionaries is that you care about them and their learning environment. This is a very powerful message. Thank you for making this an annual project.

Sincerely,

Carol Locken