Third-graders Get Dictionaries from Rotary

PARSIPPANY — During the month of November, the Rotary Club of Parsippany-Troy Hills is distributing dictionaries to all the third grade students in the Parsippany-Troy Hills School district. The annual Dictionary Project is part of an ongoing literacy program sponsored by the Rotary Club, which has resulted in more than 16 million dictionaries being distributed to third-grade students across the country. The students will personalized each book with the Rotary bookplate inside. The goal of the project is to assist the students in completing their school year as good writers and creative thinkers by expanding their vocabularies and reading skills, said Peggy Mader, Secretary of the Rotary Club of Parsippany-Troy Hills. “We believe that a dictionary is perhaps the first and most powerful reference tool that a child should own. Its usefulness goes beyond the spellings, pronunciations, and definitions it lists. It is a companion for solving problems that arise as a child develops their reading, writing and creative thinking abilities. Students benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness inspired by the maxim ‘look it up.’ Teachers benefit by knowing that their students have consistent access to a tool for homework and in-class explorations,” said Rotary Club of Parsippany-Troy Hills President Maurie Mader.