Story by Grace Golubski, THS Journalism Student

The Turner School District values books and how powerfully they can influence young learning. Reading even the smallest of books carries lifelong benefits. In an effort to get more books in elementary students' hands, over the last several years the district has implemented the One School, One Book program across all its elementary schools.

One School, One Book is a school-wide program that provides a shared reading experience for students and their families. Every teacher, student, and family in each elementary school is given a copy of the same book and are encouraged to read with parents at home. Each school also creates activities and projects based around the theme of the book.

This year, the book of choice for Turner Elementary is Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater. The hard-working librarians across the district put a lot of work to create an exciting experience for each student, especially for the book reveal day. Chad Cross, Curriculum Administrator at Turner Elementary, says, ”Our librarian, Ms. McGuire, does an amazing job organizing everything for OSOB. Ms. McGuire spends time researching, reading, and pricing books that are suitable for all reading levels and have a storyline that all ages would find entertaining. As you can imagine, it's a difficult process to meet all these criteria. This year, we launched our OSOB about Mr. Popper's Penguins on National Penguin Awareness Day, which was an incredibly fun way to kick off OSOB! Students and staff dressed up as penguins when we launched, and we've placed penguins all over the school.

Our secretaries decorate the office in a penguin theme, teachers decorate their rooms and hallways in penguin theme, we engrain penguin facts of the day in morning announcements, teachers align lessons around penguin themes, etc. It's truly a fantastic way to build a theme throughout the school.”

One School, One Book has proven successful every year. This is USD 202's fifth year participating in One School, One Book. Michelle Davis, librarian at Oak Grove Elementary said, “I think it brings our home and school communities together. Our goal is to have families read more together, not just during One School, One Book time.” One School, One Book is a community experience. Involving parents and encouraging students to read aloud at home allows parents to be interactive with the school and promotes students becoming effective readers. Rose McGuire, librarian at Turner Elementary said, “Involving families to be part of this program helps to bridge relationships between home and school. It is my hope that through this initiative parents will continue to read to their children at home and also continue to stay involved in our school.”

One School, One Book builds a culture of reading in and outside of the classroom. Not only are families provided with an opportunity to bond with their students, but students are building on current academic skills they will benefit from throughout all years of learning.

The One School, One Book reveal day was an exciting one at Turner Elementary! Upon arrival, students were greeted by Curriculum Administrator Chad Cross dressed in a penguin suit. As they walked through the building, they saw penguin decor spread throughout. Teachers spent part of the day on penguin activities to build even more excitement for reading Mr. Popper's Penguins as a school community.