Joe McKay, Lifetime Learning Program, Greenport, NY
Thanks to you all for making the Dictionary Project a big success in this, our tenth year. We now distribute about 325 personalized dictionaries to Third Graders at 9 schools on the North Fork plus East Quogue and Shelter Island.
Everyone loves the Dictionary Project! … the teachers, staff and principals who help us here at Peconic Landing make it happen, and most especially those radiant, energetic, frequently funny Third Graders.
The words we used in our presentation this year, “decrepit” & “superb” will echo for a long time in our minds. “Old” the kids called out, as we tried hard not to seem decrepit ourselves, and “awesome” they shouted, as one of the many synonyms they could think of for superb! And, of course, finding a five-letter word that begins with the same letter as their own name, gave each of the kids a lucky word for the day, and all of them a chance to become familiar with alias & alibi, bigot & biome, cache & caret, and so on through the alphabet.
Receiving his and her own personal dictionary is a big event in the life of a Third Grader. I hope you take great satisfaction in your contribution to children’s literacy.
We’ll do it again next year!
