For some, the dictionary is their first
Published in the February 4-17, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Rotary Club of Morgan Hill member Ken Hulick passes out dictionaries to Barrett Elementary School third-graders Jan. 27.
Third graders in the Morgan Hill Unified School District received a lexiconic gift last month when the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill presented 900 brand-new dictionaries for them to look up words and build their vocabulary.
Among them were 89 third-graders at Barrett Elementary School who entered the campus library and received their dictionaries from members of the Rotary Club.
Olivia Kaundinya, age 8, squealed excitedly when she was handed her hard-bound McMillan dictionary by Rotary member Don Nguyen and promptly opened it up to see words accompanied by high quality illustrations.
The dictionary will help her build her vocabulary so she can better understand information when she’s reading or communicate with people through writing and conversation, she said.
“You learn about words so that you can know about things so that when somebody comes and you ask about something, you can give them hints and you don’t to go, ‘I don’t know,’” she said.
Olivia’s mom Sam encourages her daughter to look up words when she’s reading. The Rotary dictionary gift will help other children appreciate the wonder of words, she said.
“I think it’s awesome. I think a lot of these kids don’t have the opportunity for a dictionary without the Rotary,” she said. “So I think it’s an awesome thing that they give them. The dictionaries are not cheap and they’re good quality.”
Barrett third-grader Aliyah Clarke, 8, said the dictionary she received is her first one.
“I was happy to get it because some words are kind of hard for me and I like it that we have this book so I can find out about some words,” she said. “I was thinking that this is cool because there’s different words I can look up.
Zane Hensley, 9, spent several minutes exploring the pages of the dictionary to discover new words to help him improve his reading and writing skills.
“I think it’s important (to learn new words) so you can learn and grow up and teach your kids and teach other people and maybe help them out when you grow up,” he said.
Rotary Club member Don Nguyen believes dictionaries can help children improve their learning by giving them more words to help them understand concepts and information. He often spends time with his 5-year-old son Christian teaching him new words.
“Rotary wants to help the kids in any way they can, and not every kid can afford a dictionary,” he said. “When you give a child a dictionary, they’re going to want to open it up and read it. Not every child goes to Google or Wikipedia to look things up. It’s always nice to have a paper book to open up and read. It’s different than a computer.”
Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing, also a Rotarian, said that the club provides the child-friendly dictionaries because they provide a basis for student learning to write and read better.
“Obviously, by encouraging reading and looking words up in a dictionary, we’re encouraging them to become better readers and a stronger vocabulary and have better life skills,” he said.
The Rotary dictionary presentation program was started four years ago and is co-chaired by Rotary Club members Samia Reichel and Janene Towner-Chernoff. The club does fundraising for the program.
“Reading is the gateway to good learning,” Reichel said. “Kids who learn how to read early do better in school and every other subject that they learn. Reading is so important.”
Barrett third-grade teacher Jen Myers said that the Rotary-purchased dictionaries help with the Common Core standards that students are now learning.
“We have a huge chunk in word studies that we as teachers are responsible to address with our students,” she said. “So by having these dictionaries, it makes it so much more accessible to the kids.
