Tag: schools

Horse Tales and Florida Literacy Week

Horse Tales Literacy Project had a big week! Lots of excitement and fun for everyone (even for the mounted police)!

Here is the article in the local news – Orlando Sentinel;

Many youngsters, particularly boys, who struggle to read find that much of the reading material available is not interesting to them.

Organizers of “Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida!” a statewide reading initiative that runs from Jan. 23 to 27, are trying to keep that divide in mind. A kickoff event held at Sadler Elementary in Orange County earlier this month involved a visit by a race car themed with this year’s “Take the Lead and Read” motif.

And on Tuesday, the Arabian Nights Dinner Theater in Kissimmee will be hosting first-graders from Ivey Lane Elementary School in Orange County to meet the Black Stallion. (They’ll also get to see the ”Take the Lead and Read” race car).

As part of the Horse Tales Literacy Project, students got to meet a horse at their school before they started to read a book about horses. According to Lindsey Von Broembsen with Horse Tales Literacy, a nonprofit that uses horses to encourage reading, the Ivey Lane students have read “Little Black, A Pony” by Walter Farley.

The Arabian Nights visit will precede their introduction to a second book, the sequel, “Little Black Goes to the Circus.”

The students will get to learn about horse care at the Arabian Nights event. They will meet four horses to learn about horseshoes, feed/hay, grooming and tack (saddles and bridles). The students also have the opportunity to read to a horse at each station.

“Letting them see them as real horses connects them to what they are reading and motivates them to read,” Von Broembsen said.

One of my favorite books about literacy, “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys” by Michael Smith, makes the point that students, particularly boys and struggling readers, will make the effort to read if they connect with a book. Initiatives like this are perfectly aligned to get youngsters interested in reading.

Thanks for reading … and writing!

Tim Farley