Longview students had a special visit from Superintendent Dr. Lillie Cox as they celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday during the National Education Association (NEA) Read Across America campaign, now in its 13th year. Dr. Cox read the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, which she told the students she chose because she has a blue fish named Roy in her office.
NEA’s Read Across America is a year-round literacy campaign designed to motivate and inspire children to read by making it fun. Every year, around the time of Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2nd, students honor the beloved children’s book author by reading his stories and participating in classroom activities in an effort to promote reading. Schools invite special visitors and community leaders to read aloud to students as a part of the celebration.
NEA’s Read Across America Fun Facts:
Most Colorful and Unusual Use of Seuss Characters:
Seattle’s famous Pike Place fishmongers painted fish blue, yellow, and red. Emulating Seuss favorite One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, they proceeded to toss them back and forth at the Experience Music Project.
Most Flight Time for NEA’s Read Across America:
Garth Brooks, who flew from the Grammy Awards in New York to Tennessee, Tennessee to Oklahoma, Oklahoma to Arizona and Arizona to California to conduct NEA’s Read Across America readings in each state.
By the Numbers:
45 million: The number of children and adults expected to participate in NEA’s Read Across America program in 2010
3.2 million: The number of members of the National Education Association
480,000: The number of red and white striped stovepipe hats that were worn on Read Across American Day
350,000: The number of books contributed by NEA members to restock the shelves of public school libraries devastated by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma
35,000 feet: Highest altitude promise completed by a principal who parachuted out of a plane
100,000: The amount in funds and books donated to public school libraries by The NEA Foundation and the Pearson Foundation,
25,000: The average number of words in the written vocabulary of a 6- to 14-year-old American child in 1945
$15,000: The amount of grant money provided to this year’s Youth Leaders for Literacy winners
2002: The year in which the first A-Cat-emy Award was presented to LeVar Burton, co-creator of the PBS classic “The Reading Rainbow”
250: Number of public schoolchildren who gathered for the star-studded “Reading on the Red Carpet” at The New York Public Library for Read Across America Day 2007
106: The number of meteorologists who traded in their weather hats for a reading hat in celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday on last year’s Read Across America Day
106th: The birthday Dr. Seuss would be celebrating this Read Across America Day
55: The number of national partners of NEA’s Read Across America
50: The age of beloved Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham
48: The number of children’s books Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated during his lifetime
40: The percentage of children who use a technology device to read, most often a computer, according to Scholastic’s “Kids and Family Reading Report”
20: The percentage of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home in 2005
13th: Anniversary of NEA’s Read Across America program in 2010
2nd: The date in March for Read Across America Day 2010
2nd: The date of Dr. Seuss’ birthday in March
1st: The first Honorary Chair of NEA’s Read Across America was Baltimore Oriole Ironman
Cal Ripken, Jr.
