PRE students celebrate Grandparents Day
(Photo by MARY MALONE) Grandparents attended school with their little ones at Priest River Elementary on Monday morning, celebrating the school’s annual Grandparents Day event with breakfast and coffee, followed by reading in the students’ classrooms.
(Photo by MARY MALONE) Grandparents attended school with their little ones at Priest River Elementary on Monday morning, celebrating the school’s annual Grandparents Day event with breakfast and coffee, followed by reading in the students’ classrooms.
(Photo by MARY MALONE) Grandparents attended school with their little ones at Priest River Elementary on Monday morning, celebrating the school’s annual Grandparents Day event with breakfast and coffee, followed by reading in the students’ classrooms.
PRIEST RIVER — National Grandparents Day is held the first Sunday after Labor Day each year in honor of the love, wisdom, guidance only grandparents can provide.
While the national holiday was on Sunday, Priest River Elementary celebrated on Monday with the third annual Grandparents Day coffee and breakfast. Each year, grandparents are invited to arrive with their students, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and coffee, and then go with the kids to their respective classrooms for reading when the bell rings, said PRE Principal Connie Kimble.
“This year, we had many grandparents volunteer to read to the entire class,” Kimble said in an email to the Daily Bee. “We also had some grandparents ‘adopt’ other kids for the morning which was a lovely thing to see.”
About 100 grandparents attended on Monday, which Kimble said is a record number for the event. Although it is only the third year for the breakfast, Kimble said a luncheon had been held in the past, so Grandparents Day is a longtime PRE tradition.
“This is such an important community event because we are a family-oriented school and we love having our community involved in the education of the children,” Kimble said. “Children don’t just learn at school.”
As a Title I school, she said, it is critical that families partner with PRE staff and students in the education process, because when parents, grandparents and other family members read to kids, they develop a “deeper appreciation for the adventures involved in exploring books.”
“Reading is a foundational skill to all other academics, so any opportunity we have to involve parents and grandparents in reading to their kids is an opportunity we seize with heartfelt joy,” Kimble said.
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.