Classroom hamster will help families read together through One Book, One School

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — SeDoMoCha Elementary School families will once again have the opportunity to participate in a shared reading experience with the sixth annual One Book, One School program. Through the second week of February students and family members will read and discuss Betty G. Birney’s “The World According to Humphrey” and then be able to attend an ending celebration on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 11.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

HAMSTER ON THE LOOSE — SeDoMoCha Elementary grade 2 teacher David Murray and Hannah Vail, portraying a father and daughter from the book “The World According to Humphrey”, watch as the title character played by Natalie Cavanagh follows a trail of lettuce back into the cage during a skit as part of the One Book, One School shared reading program kickoff on the evening of Jan. 6 at the Dover-Foxcroft school. Over the next month students and their families will read the chapters together at home, with an ending celebration to the sixth annual One Book, One School scheduled for Feb. 11.

Families were introduced to title character Humphrey, a helpful classroom pet hamster, at the One Book, One School kickoff on the evening of Jan. 6. Those who will be reading the book together joined administrators and staff in the multipurpose room to pick up their copies of the novel, which they will be able to keep.

Attendees also were given a reading schedule and parent guide with questions and vocabulary words to accompany the 15 chapters. Completed reading logs can be returned for grade level prize drawings. The shared reading experience is intended to increase literacy awareness within the community and to get families reading together more at home, while creating fun and memorable connections to the school community.

“We choose something a little lighter this year, compared to what we have done in the past,” grade 3 teacher Jessica Dunton, who is leading the 2016 edition of One Book, One School, said at the start of the program. She explained with Humphrey being a classroom hamster, pictures of staff and students’ pet were on display in the lobby.

As families read through “The World According to Humphrey” each K-4 classroom will have its own (pretend) classroom pet. The various pets will take turns visiting each family, and parents are encouraged to share pictures or have their children write or draw about what they did with the animal visitors.

“Our school was lucky enough to get the author’s permission to put the audio readings online,” Dunton said, saying the conclusion of the kickoff would have a video message from Birney in southern California to the SeDoMoCha Elementary community. Dunton also thanked the parents as “it’s the reading at home that makes this worth doing.”

Grade 2 teacher David Murray and students Hannah Vail and Natalie Cavanaugh, as a girl whose father brought the hamster home for the weekend and the protagonist respectively, then performed a skit from “The World According to Humphrey”.

“These are some dynamic personalities you are going to read about, it should be fun,” Dunton said, saying the three performers captured the personalities of the book characters.

A tradition of the One Book, One School kickoff evening is retired teacher Rachel Page serving as a guest reader. Page invites all the children to come forward and sit around her rocking chair as she reads the opening chapter aloud.

The first SeDoMoCha One Book, One School took place in 2011 as students and families read “A Castle in the Attic” by Elizabeth Winthrop and then enjoyed a medieval feast after they finished the novel. A year later “The Indian in the Cupboard” by Lynne Reid Banks was the program selection and the ending evening event featured a Western motif and activities. In 2013 One Book, One School featured E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” and this novel led up to a night at the fair. In the ensuing year the selection was “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, with a trip to Emerald City concluding the program. In 2015 families all had a golden ticket with Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.