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Special guests promote reading at Roy School
Wearing headwear they made themselves, Roy School students cheer the appearance of the Cat in the Hat as he leads them in singing Happy Birthday to Dr. Suess. The Northlake school celebrated Read Across America Day on Friday. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times
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Updated: April 8, 2013 6:38AM
NORTHLAKE — When school starts with a 7-foot tall Cat-in-a-Hat, you know it’s going to be a good day.
That’s how students at Roy School in Northlake kicked things off Friday morning, March 1. At least 29 guests from around the area visited to read to students.
But first a cat of human dimensions, wearing an impressively tall hat, a took the stage in the school gym to lead the assembly in a birthday song to Dr. Seuss. That was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, the author of 46 children’s books. The National Education Association adopted his birthday (actually March 2) for its annual Read Across America Day.
Several of the guests chose Dr. Seuss books to read in the classrooms, though Northlake Mayor Jeff Sherwin used a different strategy to choose four books.
“I grabbed books with a lot of pictures,” he said.
Former Roy principal Brian Knox chose to read Seuss’ Fox in Socks to fifth graders in Room 201 plus another story about a boy who eats books.
Students in other classrooms heard about boa constrictors (fourth graders in room 216), an escape by a dog (third graders in room 218) and pushing a bus uphill (third graders in room 220).
Deputy Police Chief Norm Nissen spent more time answering the questions of fourth graders in room 208 than reading.
“How many burglars have you caught? When is hurricane season? Did you ever want to be a rock star? What was the hardest burglar you ever caught?”
“One that ran,” Nissen responded to the last question. “We both had to stop to catch our breath.”
In room 204 Franklin Park Village President Barrett Pedersen distributed Baby Ruth bars — “only made in Franklin Park” — to the fifth graders after reading.
