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The Rotary Club of Mission Bay has been distributing dictionaries to every third grader in the Mission Beach and Pacific Beach Area for over 9 years. We added two elementary schools in Clairemont to better represent our member communities three years ago and last year with the assistance of a District Grant we added Thesaurus distribution to title one schools.
Our goal is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. Schools are greatly suffering from budget cuts and lack the appropriate funds for classroom resources that lead to an increase in literacy levels for students. Dictionaries are useful tools for third grade students because third grade is usually when students start utilizing them for their studies. With this donation, each student has the tools necessary to use in the classroom or at home as needed to complete assignments. Dictionaries are an aid to learning definitions of words, spelling, pronunciation, grammar and the use of words in a written and spoken language and are the key to good communication, education, career and personal growth and self-confidence.
A literacy grant would allow us to continue the distribution of a Thesaurus in addition to a Dictionary to students at Title One Schools. As students begin advancing their writing and reading skills, these tools will come in handy to make sense of unknown words or to spell the words correctly, allowing the student ample opportunity to widen his/her vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Schools are contacted as soon as school is in session and the number of students is confirmed. An order is placed for books. Once the books have been delivered, the club brings the books to a meeting and labels are placed in the books by all of the members. They are counted out into the number needed for each school and deliveries are scheduled by the assigned Rotarians. Books are distributed to each third grader and in cases where third grade may be combined with a higher or lower grade; every student in the combined class receives a book. We attempt to deliver all of the books before November as they are needed for the class curriculum.
Students are encouraged to write a thank you note to the club to show the new words they have learned.
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