One Book, One Patton draws school's community closer
A robot named Roz brought an already close community within District 25, even closer this past month.
All students, parents, teachers and staff members of Patton Elementary School participated in the One Book, One Patton effort where everyone was encouraged to read the book "The Wild Robot" featuring a robot named Roz.
"I used to read to my kids all the time," said Sarah Harte, parent of two Patton Panthers. "Then once they became independent readers, they got too old to be read to. It felt so nice to get back on the couch together again and take turns reading to them, and having them read to me."
This effort was lead by Paton's LMC Director Idelle Melamed and Patton's Advanced Learning Facilitator Kristin Maksymec. Each family was given a book, courtesy of the school and the Patton PTA, and Melamed and Maksymec put together a reading schedule and various discussion topics and activities for the families to follow.
And the community dove right in, participating in discussions with their families and each other at Patton community events.
"It was fun to be able to walk up to someone (in the Patton community) and start talking about what we read the night before," said Joanna Esposito, Patton parent. "It was also a great way to meet new people as you had a common topic to talk about."
Parents and families also felt the benefit of this movement within their homes.
"Reading 'The Wild Robot' ceased to be about homework and became more of a family activity that we looked forward to each day," said Lisa Ulrych, a Patton parent. "Everyone gets something out of reading and I think that we forget to make time for books."
The program lasted just over a month and concluded last week with a schoolwide Skype session with Peter Brown, the book's author and illustrator. The students showed off robots they made and asked Brown many questions, including one question that led to some exciting news. Brown is working on a sequel to 'The Wild Robot.'
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