School News
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 April 2015 03:02
The week of April 13-17 is nationally recognized as "The Week of the Young Child." It is sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which is the world's largest early childhood education association.
Mayor Thomas Brown of Bentleyville reads a book to the children. |
The purpose of "The Week of the Young Child" is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize early childhood programs. It promotes education and literacy and gives the children opportunities that they might not know about.
At Kiddos Center for Learning in Bentleyville, this was celebrated all week long and into the following week. There was a different guest reader every day, sometimes there were even two in one day. They had the police, a Dental Assistant, the Washington Wild Thing's mascot, a bank teller, the Frownie Brownie and the Mayor of Bentleyville in the first week and the Army and Marines the following week. Director Gina Covelli was given the task of getting just one person from the community to come out and read to the children and she and teacher Melissa Barbacow went way beyond that!
When Mayor Thomas Brown arrived at the center, he was greeted by a welcoming banner made by the children of the center. The children were told in advance that someone very special from the community was coming in to read to them a very special book to continue celebrating "The Week of the Young Child."
They were very excited to have the mayor come down. He read the story Number One Sam by Greg Pozzoli. He was very interactive with the children, asking questions about the story to get them involved. Afterwards, he talked to the children about what he does and answered any questions that they may have had, whether about the story or about what he does. Mayor Brown took some photos with the children, and on his way out, said that he really enjoyed reading to the children and would come back any time that they would need him.