Millions of students across the country read the same children’s book this week, as part of a national effort to celebrate early literacy called “Read for the Record”.
In Broward County, an estimated 40,000 young readers got their very own copies of the book “With Lots of Love” by author Jenny Torres Sanchez.
Many of the four and five year olds at Gulfstream Early Learning Center know what it’s like to miss a family member who’s far away — a large proportion of the students at the school, which serves kids from birth to age five, are immigrants or the children of immigrants.
So this year’s pick for the annual Read for the Record day seemed to be a natural fit: it’s the story of a young girl named Rocio who pines for her abuela in Central America after the child moves to the United States with her parents.
On Thursday morning, sixty or so young readers filed into a large classroom on the Gulfstream campus, finding their places on a colorful rug on the floor.
“Everybody say, ‘abuela’," said Lori Canning, the Executive Director of Family and Community Engagement for Broward County Public Schools and the leader of the school.
"What does abuela mean?” she asked.
Dozens of little voices called out, “grandmother!”
Canning is the force behind the annual countywide early literacy event and she was the emcee for Thursday’s read aloud, backed up by a team of teachers and volunteer readers from the community.
“Rocio has a new home,” Canning read. “But she really missed her other home, the little house where she used to live with Abuela, Tía Rosa and her cousins.”
The children hung on every word, learning of all the things that Rocio missed about her abuela — the pan dulce she would sell in her little grocery store, the tortillas she would make by hand, and the way she would call, “Hola, mi amor!” when Rocio visited her every day.
The children erupted into cries of pure joy when teacher’s assistant Victor Amaya appeared with his mariachi guitar to play a song referenced in the book, "Las Mañanitas", a Mexican tune traditionally used to serenade people on their birthdays.
At the end of the story, when Rocio blows a kiss that flies across the world and lands on her abuela’s cheek, the children blew their own kisses.
After the reading, each child got their own copy of the book — plus a maraca to shake as they paraded around the school, led by Amaya and his guitar.
Funding for the books comes from a partnership between between BCPS, the Children's Services Council of Broward County and other early childhood stakeholders.
Building a foundation of literacy skills
“Do you have to leave that book at school?” Canning asked the children.
“No!” they cried.
“Do you get to take it home?” she asked.
“Yes!” they cheered.
“You can put it in your library,” Canning told them. “And if you don’t have a library, you have one book and you can start a library.”
Canning says building a strong foundation of early literacy skills — and providing young children with ready access to high quality books — is vital to their future success as readers and learners.
“Research shows the more books that they have access to on a daily basis, the more times their family reads aloud to them, the stronger that early childhood foundation is built,” she said. “And they have much greater odds of having success in kindergarten readiness, kindergarten entry, third grade reading proficiency ... which then leads into middle school, high school, college or careers and beyond.”
Canning and her team are helping young readers build that strong foundation, one book at a time.
“What I imagine tonight is 40,000 children getting tucked in by their families and choosing this [book] as their family read aloud,” she said. “Talking about the experience, so it doesn't just happen one time, but they will read this book over and over again.”
