Stories Come to Life During Cicero Elementary School's PARP Celebration

Students at Cicero Elementary School were among the thousands of elementary students across the country to celebrate PARP, or “Pick a Reading Partner” throughout the month of March. PARP is a New York State PTA (Parent Teacher Association) program that asks a partner (parent, grandparent, babysitter, older sibling, cousin, friend, etc.) to read with a child for at least 20 minutes daily, stressing the fact that reading can be fun as well as informative. Each year, schools throughout the NSCSD come up with creative themes for PARP month and devise fun ways to participate. This year, because of COVID-19 restrictions, the staff of Cicero Elementary School created the theme of “Even Apart, We READ Together!” and set a school-wide goal of at least 100,000 minutes of reading. To ensure that all students had reading partners, the school held virtual PARP read aloud events each weeknight with special guest readers including their very own mascot, Chipper! Families were invited to keep track of their minutes read by checking off the COVID-19 face mask icons on PARP calendars and were encouraged to show their favorite stories by dressing as characters from those books.

 

Cicero Elementary School Principal Kathy Wheeler was pleased with her school’s participation and the creativity shown by students and staff. She said, “Each year I look forward to PARP month because I love to see the enthusiasm for reading. This year, we literally were able to see the stories that our students and staff loved because they had a chance to become those characters.” Thank you to the Cicero Elementary School community for participating in PARP!