It was a fun filled beautiful day at Veterans Park on Saturday. There were lots of brightly colored local school decorated Easy-ups with teachers, staff, and volunteers reading to children of all ages at the 17th Annual Porterville Celebrates Reading. Nearby their families and other kids participated in fun story related activities.
A fun and amusing book called Mustache Baby was being read to children in the Westfield Elementary area. School staff Amber Shilling and Michaela Chambers,who were wearing paper mustaches, helped kids draw and color paper mustaches, which they cut out and wore.
Chambers said the day had really been fun. And she really likes that Porterville Unified School District is making reading more engaging for children.
Lori Scott, a Reading specialist at Belleview Elementary, read The Cool Bean by Jory John to children as they sat listening quietly, while other kids enjoyed a-story-related activities nearby.
During the day all kinds of books were read to kids, and books were given out to encourage reading. Santa Fe Elementary staff read “The Good Egg” by Jory John and Pete Oswald, while Monache High Academy of Hospitality students read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, paired with a craft making little mice out of egg cartons and construction paper.
Vandalia Elementary put on a cake walk, where students won books as prizes, and Strathmore High School AVID students gave children a choice of book to read, from Secret Agent Mater, Pete the Cat, Where Would We Be Without Plants, Redwoods, and The Littlest Dragon.
Plenty of other schools had a choice of all kinds of books to listen too. Porterville Military Academy staff read “The Gruffalo” and there were many, many more.
Kurt Escobar from Porterville Military Academy teaches Spanish at the school and said, “This is a great event for the community. Especially our children who get to interact and experience reading in a fun and impactful way.”
Veterans Homecoming Queen court members Alexea Rojo Andrade and Eve Mochroi Acros were walking by and they stopped to say hello. Andrade said, “I love how the community gets involved at Porterville Celebrates Reading, and I think it shows the love they have for Porterville.”
Bright and whimsical decorations of Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party were all over the Porterville Unified School District Early Education Tent. It was delightful to see. All the decorations were made by hand, said Early Education Specialist Monica Ledesma. “It was a good turnout and the weather was beautiful. And we all love being part of PCR.”
Teachers Assistant and photographer Hector Villarreal read Pete and the Pizza Party to a student who was clearly enjoying the story, who pointed to pictures in the book.
Ledesma said they had more than 200 pieces of pizza and pizza boxes for kids to make and put together in activities, and they were all gone.
Schools and clubs from all over the Porterville Unified School District, the Burton School District attended.
Rebecca Della, who's Director of the PUSD Early Education Program was speaking with Dr. Nate Nelson, PUSD Superintendent. They mentioned that besides PCR the Student Art show was being held at Monache High School.
Underneath the trees students from Sequoia Middle School were playing and practicing classical music.
“We just came back from Monache HIgh School and are playing for fun,” said Kayla Gamez, who was playing the cello. Nicolas Ramos played his violin, and Jaden Sandoval played his viola.
They encouraged to public to see their recital at 3 p.m. June 7 at First Methodist Church on Morton.