Rotarians Deliver Dictionaries to Bahia Vista Elementary School
Posted by Mary Sackett
For the third year, Rotarians from the Rotary Club of San Rafael Harbor brought Christmas to Bahia Vista Elementary third grade students.
On December 17th Harbor Rotarians handed out dictionaries to all four third grade class rooms at Bahia Vista. Dictionaries were also given to the teacher of each class. Principal Juan Rodriquez accompanied the Rotarians to each classroom, and introduced a very special guest, Harbor Rotarian and Principal of Davidson Middle School, Dr. Harriet Mclean. Over 90% of the students at Bahia Vista flow to Davidson to begin 6th grade.
Bahia Vista has launched a program to encourage the students to strive for a University education. Each class room adopted a University, and the students can rattle off the mascot, and schools colors. The team pennant and a sample diploma adorn the bulletin board. The first class room we delivered to was Gonzaga, the class knew basketball.
The next class room was University of San Francisco. We asked the kids what they want to be when they grow up... a couple of veternarians, a couple of teachers, a scuba diver (which the principal redirected to ocean science). Tom Sutton stated that both he and his son were graduates of USF and asked the children to accompany him in the USF cheer, which they gleefully did. Mark DeLangis pointed out that he went to law school at USF School of Law, and encouraged the students to think about law school.
The next class room was University of California, Los Angeles. Principal Rodriguez is a UCLA grad, and he happily quizzed the kids on the relevant facts.
The final class room was Cal State, Chico. The Wildcats had some questions for us. Many of them had cousins, siblings and friends at Davidson Middle School, and wanted to make sure they had Principal Mclean's name so they had bragging rights at the dinner table. Just before we announced what we were doing, a student shot up her arm "my cousin told me we are going to get dictionaries."... as we left the room a young man said, "818 pages."
In each classroom, the students had heard of the Halloween Movie Night and Pickleweed, and many of them had attended movie night.
Mary Sackett saw her Little Sister Stephanie later in the day, and received the full report. Her class spent the day learning how to look things up in the dictionary. Her only complaint, the dictionary made her back pack very heavy. Only a week earlier Stephanie had asked Mary for a dictionary to help with homework.
All four classrooms had perfect attendance. We left a box of books in the library, to add to the dictionaries donated to the library in the past. The principal hopes to have a full set in the library soon. We look forward to handing out dictionaries to third graders at Bahia Vista for years to come.
Bahia Vista has launched a program to encourage the students to strive for a University education. Each class room adopted a University, and the students can rattle off the mascot, and schools colors. The team pennant and a sample diploma adorn the bulletin board. The first class room we delivered to was Gonzaga, the class knew basketball.
The next class room was University of San Francisco. We asked the kids what they want to be when they grow up... a couple of veternarians, a couple of teachers, a scuba diver (which the principal redirected to ocean science). Tom Sutton stated that both he and his son were graduates of USF and asked the children to accompany him in the USF cheer, which they gleefully did. Mark DeLangis pointed out that he went to law school at USF School of Law, and encouraged the students to think about law school.
The next class room was University of California, Los Angeles. Principal Rodriguez is a UCLA grad, and he happily quizzed the kids on the relevant facts.
The final class room was Cal State, Chico. The Wildcats had some questions for us. Many of them had cousins, siblings and friends at Davidson Middle School, and wanted to make sure they had Principal Mclean's name so they had bragging rights at the dinner table. Just before we announced what we were doing, a student shot up her arm "my cousin told me we are going to get dictionaries."... as we left the room a young man said, "818 pages."
In each classroom, the students had heard of the Halloween Movie Night and Pickleweed, and many of them had attended movie night.
Mary Sackett saw her Little Sister Stephanie later in the day, and received the full report. Her class spent the day learning how to look things up in the dictionary. Her only complaint, the dictionary made her back pack very heavy. Only a week earlier Stephanie had asked Mary for a dictionary to help with homework.
All four classrooms had perfect attendance. We left a box of books in the library, to add to the dictionaries donated to the library in the past. The principal hopes to have a full set in the library soon. We look forward to handing out dictionaries to third graders at Bahia Vista for years to come.