Dr. Seuss in the spotlight

Dr. Seuss week began with community leaders reading their favorite Dr. Seuss book at the Ritzville Public Library on the morning of Feb. 27. Along with the readings at the library, the Ritzville Grade School hosted a Family Reading Night with a Dr. Seuss theme.

Every day, from Feb. 27 until Mar. 2, local community members read at least one story to students from Ritzville Grade School in the library basement. The week readers began with Mayor Linda Kadlec and Superintendent Rob Roettger reading their favorite story to the kindergarten students.

Commissioner Rudy Plager, Ritzville Police Officer Hunter Klewin and retired grade school librarian Sandi Atkinson all took turns reading to the first grade class on Feb. 28. On the morning of Feb. 29, Mike Lynch and hospital commissioner Jerry Snyder read to the preschoolers.

The only afternoon session of the week took place on Feb. 29, with Dr. Marty Sackmann and retired teacher Warren Cogswell also reading to the preschool class. Janis Rountree and Vel Babbitt read to kindergarteners during the morning session on Mar. 1 and Kylie Fullmer, library director, read to the second grade class on Mar. 2.

Ritzville Grade School hosted Family Reading Night on Tuesday, Feb. 28, which filled the school with local families. The evening started with a green eggs and ham dinner, followed by various activities in the classrooms and gymnasium.

The Cat in the Hat made a special appearance at the event, being none other than the superintendent himself, Rob Roettger. The Cat in the Hat posed for photos with students, and adults, throughout the entire night.

There were multiple readers at the event, including the Mayor, Sergeant Mark Cameron and Gary Kelly. Along with the readings, Fullmer ran a Dr. Seuss themed Jeopardy contest in one of the classrooms and Carol Templin ran the Oobleck Science activity. Dallas Killian and Henry Bake ran a game called “Might I Bite?” in one of the classrooms and the computer lab opened for reading games and activities.

A craft room, ran by Marnea Bake and Cari Galbreath, had been set up allowing the children to create their own Dr. Seuss accessories, many of them making a bow tie that resembled the tie the Cat in the Hat wears. The gym had a craft area, book swap, and the health department had a ABC dental teeth awareness table, all set up for patrons to visit at their own pace.

Families rotated rooms about every 20 minutes in order to participate in as many activities as possible. All of the children had raffle tickets that they had to collect three stickers in order to enter the ticket for the chance to win door prize items. Readers awarded each child with a sticker when they visited the reader’s classroom to hear the story.

The final activity for Dr. Seuss week took place on Monday, Mar. 5 at the Ritzville Grade School cafeteria. The kindergarten through fifth grade students participated in a birthday celebration for Dr. Seuss, complete with birthday cake for the author. Evergreen Implement also donated money for the event so each student received a goodie-bag, which had a Dr. Seuss themed pencil, bookmark and sticker.