Reading Events Bring Excitement to Sunrise Drive

March 2023  

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of reading and excitement for the students of Sunrise Drive Elementary. 

The week of March 27 was P.A.R.P. (Pick a Reading Partner) week run by the Sunrise Drive P.T.A. This year’s theme was Sunny’s Candy Land and featured dress-up days, contests, book giveaways, and culminated with a visit from author and illustrator Young Vo. 

Vo wrote a picture book called Gibberish about a child who moves to the United States from another country and everything everyone says- from the school bus driver to his new classmates-sounds like gibberish. The story is based on the author’s childhood and ties into the March Diversity S.T.R.I.D.E.S. character trait. During his visit, Vo discussed how Gibberish is based on his move to the United States from Vietnam when he was a child and his experiences learning a new language and trying to meet friends in a new country. The presentation was filled with hilarious animations, memes, and entertaining anecdotes about the publishing process. In addition to being an author, Vo is also an animator, so the students were excited to hear about how a children's book is illustrated using a computer and to find out that he’s worked on video games and movies. 

Once P.A.R.P. week was finished, it was announced that students successfully completed the P.A.R.P. reading challenges. To celebrate, on April 28, a select number of students and teachers had the opportunity to spray Sunrise Drive Principal Dr. James Foy with silly string. 

In addition to P.A.R.P., on the week of March 6, students were able to participate in the S.T.R.I.D.E.S. program, March Madness: Diversity Edition. Classroom teachers received diversity read-alouds recorded by members of the Sayville Public Schools community for their students to view. The students were asked to vote for their favorite book and, based on their votes, the books progressed through a March Madness bracket until the ultimate winner, Every Night is Pizza Night by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt., was announced. This was Sunrise Drive’s second year using March Madness as a theme for one of the S.T.R.I.D.E.S. character traits. Last year, the school focused on books about empathy. At the end of March Madness, the school partnered with Big Brothers, Big Sisters for a charity drive on March 29. The drive collected new or lightly used clothing as well as gift cards for families in need.