SeDoMoCha families are off to see the Wizard

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Families of SeDoMoCha Elementary School students will once again have the opportunity to take part in a shared reading experience through the fourth annual One Book, One School program. Over the next several weeks the pupils and family members will read and discuss L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and take part in activities during the school day to lead up to a program-ending celebration on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 12.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    SHE’S NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE — Dorothy, played by Alyssa Boyd, reacts upon learning her house landed on the Wicked Witch of the East from the Good Witch of the North, played by Judith Sternal, during the One Book, One School kickoff on Jan. 8 at SeDoMoCha Elementary in Dover-Foxcroft. For the fourth year elementary school families will be reading a book at home together, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, with activities at school and a culminating event on the evening of Feb. 12.

    Students and families took their first steps on the Yellow Brick Road as the 2014 One Book, One School kicked off on Jan. 8. Those who will be reading the book together joined faculty and staff to fill the multipurpose room to pick up their copies of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Each family will be able to keep a novel which is being provided by the school.
    Along with the books, the families also were given a reading schedule and parent guide to accompany the various chapters. The shared reading experience is intended to help students improve listening comprehension, increase vocabulary, understand concepts, lengthen attention spans and create a positive attitude toward books.

Observer photos/Stuart Hedstrom

   THE LAND OF OZ AT SEDOMOCHA — The SeDoMoCha School lobby is decorated to celebrate the reading of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as the selection for the 2014 One Book, One School program.

    The family packets also included a yellow piece of paper cut into a rectangle. “What we want you to do is just put your family name on it, however you want,” literacy teacher Carolyn Clark — dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West complete with green face paint — told those in attendance. “When you come in you can follow the Yellow Brick Road,” she said about the Feb. 12 celebration.
    Completed reading logs will be entered into a drawing on Feb. 12, with a winner chosen from each of the elementary school grades. That evening, from 5-7 p.m., families will celebrate finishing “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” with crafts, games and activities related to the novel. The SeDoMoCha School Organization will be providing pizza, pretzels, fruit and beverage for the culminating One Book, One School night.
    Rachel Page, who retired last year after three and a half decades of teaching, invited all the children to come forward and sit on the floor as she read chapter one aloud. When she finished the students returned to their seats to see the second chapter acted out in a skit produced by grade 2 teacher David Murray.
    “This happens just after chapter one, Dorothy falls asleep and she wakes up and you see what happens next,” Murray said.
    In the skit Dorothy, played by fifth-grader Alyssa Boyd, finds herself in the Land of Oz. She soon meets the Good Witch of the North, played by speech pathologist Judith Sternal, who tells Dorothy how her house landed on the Wicked Witch of the East.
    With a pair of legs sticking out from under a prop house, complete with ruby slippers, Dorothy learns how she set the Munchkins free from the Wicked Witch of the East and how she must then head off to see the Wizard in order to return home.
    The first SeDoMoCha Elementary 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.