Elementary schools across southeastern Manitoba are celebrating I Love To Read Month this February.

Laura Rekrut is the Principal at New Bothwell School. She says reading is one of the most important things we ever learn and notes when children can read confidently they can start to enjoy it. She says the teachers at New Bothwell School have really embraced I Love To Read Month.

"We have the family read day event that is happening on Tuesday where we are inviting parents and family members, friends to come and visit the person that they want to read with. It could be grandparents to come to the school and we set up a time for them to read at the school."

Rekrut says they are also running a book exchange in their library, having moments throughout the day where students drop everything and read, and will have a number of special assemblies.

cipal Shelley AmosShe notes they will start small with a bunny, then move onto a duck, a calf, and a pony. She notes they will kiss the animals at a special assembly at the end of the month and the students are already excited. She says a love of reading almost always starts at home.

"There is a little saying I like, ‘readers are made on the laps of their parents’ so we hope that they are all encouraging reading and doing lots of reading before they get to school. We know that literacy is one of the most important things. It carries over into every other content area that we do and anything that we do with our life and our career and it should be about joy and making meaning."

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