Olympian Shawn Johnson, Mayor Steve Gaer Among Local Celebrities Reading to WDM Students Friday

A press release from West Des Moines Community Schools:

Students throughout the West Des Moines Community Schools will be having fun with reading for Read Across America Friday, March 2.

Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss.

What's your favorite Dr. Seuss story? Tell us in comments.

Crossroads Park Elementary has invited some local celebrities to an all school assembly beginning at 9:15 a.m. Shawn Johnson, Channel 8 reporter Patrick Bell, West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer and Lutheran Church of Hope Pastor Mike Householder will visit the school to read to the students.

Crestview Elementary will also have a special visitor that day. Coach and author Ryan Sloth will visit the school and share his Sammy Sloth books with students. Ryan Sloth is a former Iowa State and Barnstormers football player. Students at Crestview will also be playing Guess the Seuss Quote throughout the week. A quote from a Dr. Seuss book will be announced each day. Each class will guess which book the quote is from, with each correct guess being entered into a drawing for a class prize.

Some of the other schools in the district have their activities for the day centered around Dr. Seuss. Clive Elementary is in the midst of a reading contest with classrooms reading as many Dr. Seuss books as they can this week.

Classes that have read seven Dr. Seuss books by Friday are invited to participate in a school-wide Bingo game. The school has also challenged its students to read individually, recording their reading minutes at home to receive prizes. The class with the most individual reading minutes wins a Dr. Seuss birthday party Friday afternoon. Students at Clive are encouraged to dress as their favorite Dr. Seuss character for Read Across America Day.

Students at Phenix Elementary will be having some fun with Dr. Seuss in their music classes. Kindergartners and first graders will be getting lessons from the Dr. Seuss book “Fox in Sox,” playing games that help name recognition with three-letter words. They will also take the rhyming words and use them as substitutes when they sing the song “I’ve a Pair of Fishes.” Second and third graders will be learning vocal warm-ups in music class using Dr. Seuss’ ABC book, concentrating on the letters A, M and O.