Area students get new books to get them reading

HOUSTON, Minn.–  New books are in the hands of hundreds of young students in our area. 

Americorps members helped deliver new books to pre-schoolers all over the southern part of Minnesota including at Ridgeway Community School in Houston.  It’s all part of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s new “Reading Rocks” program.

The Foundation is giving out hundreds of books to kids to get them reading at school and at home.  “Reading is so essential for young children.  They say a statistics of up to 50% of children are not prepared to go into Kindergarten.  We want their vocabulary to be up to 45,000 words.  This helps to get parents aware to read, literacy, and to get it into the homes,” says Heather Estes from Americorps.

Pre-schoolers also made a craft-project to go along with the book they received.