Books on parade at Brogden

Second-grade students at Brogden Primary School celebrated Halloween a different way this year. They dressed up as the character of their choice and paraded around the school.

Rachel Jones said she had introduced the "Books on Parade" idea last year and decided to take it a step further.

"The students had to read their book every night, with a set of questions to answer about the author, the characters, and the story," she said.

On Friday, students came to school in costumes that ranged from Cinderella to Cruella DaVille in "101 Dalmations" and Johnny Appleseed. Ms. Jones adorned a mop headdress to portray a character in the book "On Top of Spaghetti."

Elizabeth Grantham and Linda Shaw's classes also joined the line of students who paraded around the hallways as classes lined the walls to watch. Mrs. Jones told her students to hold up their books and to be ready to answer any questions from the audience as they strolled past.

Once the parade route was completed, students returned to their classrooms and Mrs. Jones' group readied to take turns giving oral book reports.

"This is all preparing them for third grade," she said of the assignment.

"Any way you can get them to read, they enjoy."

By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 29, 2004 01:59 PM