Annual Gift of Words to Our 3rd Graders by The Rotary Club of Goshen NY

Posted by Vince McCormack on Feb 13, 2019

Annual Gift of Words to our 3rd Graders (Rotary Dictionary Project)

February 13, 2019....All the Third grade students at The Goshen Intermediate School received their very own Webster's Dictionary for Students, donated by the members of the The Rotary Club of Goshen, NY.

Pictured here are Suzie Peacock, Allen Zick, Mark Garguilo, Cliff Kelsey, Rolly Peacock, BettyAnn VanLeeuen, Vince McCormack and Chris Ashman. Our Goshen Rotarians were escorted by Principal Matthew Wentworth as they visited each Third Grade classroom to give students their brand new dictionaries. (Bilingual Spanish-speaking students also received a Spanish-English version.)

Allen Zick presented the students with information about how to use the dictionary to find out the definitions, spelling and pronunciation of words in the English language. The dictionaries will help students with vocabulary development, spelling, and increasing their word knowledge. Students also learned a bit of history about Noah Webster, who was a teacher in Goshen in the 1800s who created the Webster's Dictionary as a resource for his students.

The following is the letter distributed to the Third Grade Student's Parents:

To: Parents of Third Grade Students

From: The Goshen Rotary Club

The DICTIONARY PROJECT is designed to aid third grade teachers in their goal to see all their students leave at the end of the year as good writers, active readers, and creative thinkers. Our purpose is to provide third grade students in the community with their own personal dictionary. The dictionary is for the children to keep, so they can take it with them into the fourth grade and use it throughout their school career.

A dictionary is perhaps the first and most powerful reference tool a child should own. Its usefulness goes beyond the spellings, pronunciations, and definitions it lists. It is a companion for solving problems that arise as a child develops his or her reading, writing, and creative thinking abilities. Students benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness inspired by the maxim “look it up”. Teachers benefit by knowing that their students have consistent access to a tool for homework and in class explorations. The project is an opportunity for children to expand their vocabulary and for many to actually own a dictionary.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

Sincerely,

Allen Zick

Dictionary Project Chairperson