Reading the game at Riverview

This is the Lunchtime Book Club, and is one of the many reading or literacy programs at the school, some of which should be familiar to regular readers of this column so we decided to take a closer look and recently had the pleasure to sit in on a lunchtime session and get the story on the various programs at the school from librarian Jennifer Holmes-Paxton.

The lunchtime club, which was an instant hit according to Jennifer starting at 15 in October of 2005 and now has 53 students, usually meets on Mondays and Tuesdays. Students get recognized for reading 20 books in a month. The students, which are from grades 3 to 6, discuss different books they’ve read, and have it placed in a newsletter that they are responsible for producing.

Mrs. Holmes-Paxton, as librarian, has started other programs at the school. She started late last school year an adult book exchange, normally on the second Wednesday of the month, which is open to the community. The goal of this is to encourage adults to read by exchanging books that they heave read for books that they haven’t read. The next exchange will be this coming Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the school library.

A new program, which has just started, is Books for Babies. This is for the families of Riverview which will be given a gift bag of books and info on the importance of reading right from the start. The families must register the birth of their newly born to Jennifer to get this highly informative Gift Bag, which we were shown on our visit.

One program, a volunteer-based one which is run by Hilda Williamson, is in its 5th year of operation. Called the Special Friends Literacy Program, its goal is to motivate and assist children’s interest in books while experiencing the joy of reading. Twice a year, this group has a book exchange where students trade in for books that they have already read.

Starting this month, Riverview has hooked up with Learn and Laugh Together, a new community-run outfit which encourages families of pre-school age children to attend different activities and events presented by various centers and schools in the area. Riverview is holding a weekly activity where families will be welcomed by the school on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30a.a.m. More info on this project can be obtained by contacting Natalie Roper at 514-825-6423.

Riverview, which encourages its Grade 6 students to read to students of the 1st cycle in small groups through its Reading Mentors Program, also holds a big literacy week in the month of May. They open the school one evening during that week to the families and members of the public and invite them to participate in sessions of “Paper Making” and “Bookmark Making”, and to also buy books at the Scholastic Book Fair.

All these reading programs were bolstered last year by the big $150,000 grant from Chapters Books, which has been used to improve the state of classroom and resource room libraries, with all students benefiting, and, thus one can truly say, “Reading’s the Game at Riverview.”