Mentor Elementary School First to Use New Story Walk Ridge Elementary School in Mentor was the focus of a news story on News 5 Cleveland this past September. Mandi Morgan’s second-grade class was the first to use the district’s new Story Walk, a literacy project that displays a children’s book outside on a number of different posts that they can walk along and read. They chose “National Read a Book Day” as the day to begin using this new opportunity. The book was called “The Cool Bean,” and taught the students about kindness. The school got the idea from the Mentor library who has something similar. Now, all seven elementary schools, along with the school for students with autism, will have a Story Walk.
The Story Walks were truly a community effort. Funds came from the Mentor Public Library, Friends of Mentor Public Library, Mentor Schools Foundation, and each of the building’s PTAs donated. The Mentor Teacher Association and Mentor Classified raised money for the raffle prizes which are new books featured in the Story Walks that the kids can win for reading them by the end of the school year. You can watch the News 5 Cleveland story by clicking here.
Morgan told News 5 Cleveland, “Just getting them up and moving during a story was great because normally they are sitting and quiet. With the Story Walk, they got to be up and part of it, and they were excited to see what was going to happen next. Some of them couldn’t wait, and they just went to the next to see.”
Educational Service Center (ESC) of Northeast Ohio
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