Udelmy Martinez\u2019s preschool class could hardly contain their excitement Wednesday morning when a very tall cat in a very tall hat strode into their classroom at the Patton Avenue Learning Center in Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a really big cat,\u201d one child exclaimed.<\/p>\n
The students stared wide-eyed as Diane Fiorentino of United Way of Berks County, sporting a bright blue wig and a red \u201cThing One\u201d jumpsuit, read from Dr. Seuss\u2019 \u201cOne Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.\u201d Beside her stood the Cat in the Hat himself \u2014 Fiorentino\u2019s husband, Chris, in full costume.<\/p>\n
The early learning center in Oakbrook Homes was one of several stops United Way representatives made in Seuss-themed attire as part of the organization\u2019s Ready.Set.READ! initiative in observance of Read Across America Day.<\/p>\n
Volunteers and staff members also visited Kings & Queens Learning Center, 938 Penn St., and two Gov. Mifflin School District elementary schools, Mifflin Park and Cumru.<\/p>\n
Read Across America Day, celebrated annually on Dr. Seuss\u2019 birthday, promotes literacy and encourages children to develop a lifelong love of reading. United Way\u2019s Ready.Set.READ! initiative supports that mission locally. With about 50% of Berks County third-graders reading below grade level, the program focuses on improving proficiency by the end of third grade.<\/p>\n
Ready.Set.READ! includes several efforts to strengthen literacy. Star Readers tutors provide first and second graders with extra support to build reading skills. Growing Readers promotes kindergarten readiness by partnering with child care centers to help retain early childhood educators.<\/p>\n
The initiative also works with Read Alliance to pair high school students with first graders, giving teens paid leadership opportunities while helping younger students make measurable gains in reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Udelmy Martinez\u2019s preschool class could hardly contain their excitement Wednesday morning when a very tall cat in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,6512,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,1114,706],"class_list":["post-129541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-cumru-township","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-shillington","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}