Schools
Encinitas School Scoop: 'Beach' Reads
Local campus has a new program that promotes a fun reading experience for students.
When students at Park Dale Lane Elementary finished lunch on a recent Wednesday, they closed up their lunch boxes and ran as fast as they could away from the playground. Forget kickball, the jungle gym, or shooting hoops — these kids wanted to read.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, the school is the site of Book Beach. A new program implemented at the school, the idea behind Book Beach is simple. During lunch on those two days, kids — first-through third-graders on Wednesdays, and upper-graders on Fridays — can grab a book from a cart or a magazine from a cooler on the amphitheater stage and find a beach chair or umbrella on the nearby lawn to kick back and read for about 20 to 25 minutes.
It’s part of the school’s new focus on literacy and the arts, says Kathie Jenuine, a first-grade teacher who oversees the program along with second-grade teacher Pat Keene and reading specialist Kris Hare. “It’s a breath of fresh air,” she says.
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About 50 students attend each session of Book Beach. Before students arrive, the lawn is set up with beach chairs (parents were solicited for donations), towels and sun umbrellas. A lifeguard chair, donated by local business Bamboo To You, is a perfect spot for a teacher to oversee the group; Principal Tim Reeve has put in an appearance there as well. On this day, students gathered in groups under the umbrellas or squeezed into beach chairs in pairs. Others gathered near Jenuine in the lifeguard chair, while Keene read with a student while eating her lunch. Keene says the excitement for reading that Book Beach generates translates in the classroom: “We had a book party in our room, and all the students chanted, ‘We are readers.’ This is something that will last the rest of their life.”
Top Teachers
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The 2012 San Diego County District Teachers of the Year will be honored at “A Salute to Teachers” show at Balboa Theatre on Oct. 1. Among them will be two from our area: Cathy O’Neill of Flora Vista Elementary represents the , and Burt Brion, from Digueno Middle School, is the honoree from the
Picture Perfect
Students still have time to enter the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve sixth annual amateur photo contest. The contest, open to all ages, has six categories, including one just for youth entrants. All photos must be taken at the reserve and turned in by Nov. 4 to the Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s office, 1966 Olivenhain Road, Encinitas. Olivenhain.com.
