Rotary program distributes dictionaries to Farmington third graders

• Photo: Dictionaries

Students explore the dictionaries donated to them by the Farmington Rotary. Rotary handed out dictionaries to all third graders in the Farmington School District.
• Photo: Dictionaries

Students explore the dictionaries donated to them by the Farmington Rotary. Rotary handed out dictionaries to all third graders in the Farmington School District.

Talk about it

In a world where technology seems to be doing just about everything for everyone, basic skills can sometimes be lost. Third graders at Farmington schools learned one of those basic skills last month, though, thanks to the Farmington Rotary.

Over the past two weeks, Rotarians have been going into the schools to deliver dictionaries to students. And the kids thought it was pretty darn cool.

Every year, the club looks for ways they can help students increase achievement in school.

Increasing literacy is one of Rotary’s main goals. This particular project kind of fell into the club’s lap, Farmington Rotarian Anika Rychner said. The Apple Valley Rotary Club had purchased dictionaries for a similar distribution in their area, but had extras. The Apple Valley club asked if Farmington’s Rotary would be interested in taking the extras. They were.

Rotarians made it around to all of the elementary schools in District 192. They took turns distributing the books in the third grade classrooms, then had student look up important words like “ethics” and “morals.”

They also showed students some pretty cool things in the dictionaries, which included a basic sign language table, a Braille table and the world’s longest word, which contains more than 1,000 letters.

The dictionaries belong to the students –- not the schools. Kids were encouraged to write their own names inside the cover of the book, and to hold on to it as they continue their education.

The club was pleasantly surprised by the response they received from students and the teachers. The kids thought it was pretty cool they could keep the dictionaries, but teachers asked if Rotary would be able to provide dictionaries in future years, too.

It’s something Rychner and her fellow Rotarians think may become an on-going project.

“This is a way for us to pull up our sleeves and go out and do community service,” she said. “It’s that actual service instead of just writing a check.”

Tags: school district 192, education, farmington