I always tell potential families what a wonderful sense of community we have at MPA. This past week was a perfect example of our community working and playing together. We had an abundance of parents working together to make things happen and even more who participated on the evening of the culminating event.
First were the parents who spent hours decorating the Kreischer Gym as they turned it into the Middle School Cafe and a historical museum of technology. Some of our students had never seen a manual typewriter before this! While these parents were in the gym, others were busy in the Gallery arranging hundreds of books by topics that would entice any child into reading.
Then every day at lunch we had parents who acted as the shopkeepers for the used books. For many of the younger children this is the highlight of the Book Festival because for 25 or 50 cents they could pick out any book they wanted without a parent to guide them to something more challenging, more informative or more practical. What a sense of independence!
We also had daily drawings for prizes and the number of times your name was entered into the drawing was based on the number of minutes you had read over the last few weeks. This created much excitement and was a wonderful incentive to immerse yourself in books.
On Friday the entire Lower School dressed in comfortable clothes because the theme of the Book Festival was "Get Comfy and Read." Of course since we were "comfy" we had to indulge ourselves with some extra reading. So we paired with our older buddies for a reading assembly. The pairs spend 40 mnutes reading to each other and discussing books. With close to 400 students crammed into the Lower School classrooms and halls it was amazingly calm as the children took the time to share various genres of literature.
Then came the big night. Families joined the Book Festival and shared a meal and activities together. First graders even put on a Reader's Theater for a large crowd. Many books were purchased and most importantly, the sense of community was made stronger through the involvement of parents and students of all ages.
Nansee Greeley
Lower School Director
