Making reading fundamental

Civic group takes time to read to local Head Start class

One local club is joining with the Community Action Partnership of North Alabama to help promote reading among local children.
For many years, the Hartselle Kiwanis Club has participated in the Reading is Fundamental national program by donating books to Head Start and reading to the classes at the school.
Freda Thompson with the Hartselle Kiwanis Club said they have been active with Reading is Fundamental in the community for a while.
“We’ve been participating in the program for a long time now,” Thompson said. “It’s something that our club enjoys doing.”
Thompson and other representatives of the Kiwanis Club read to the 3- and 4-year-old classes at Head Start last Friday. In addition to being read to in the class, the children also got to take books home, thanks to the club.
“They still need books to read,” Thompson said. “Reading books is very important in the education of children. We just want to help encourage that in the youth of our community.”
Thompson said she enjoys getting to go read to the class.
“It’s just amazing just how hard these teachers work with the kids,” Thompson said. “When I come in to read, the students are almost always paying close attention to me. It’s something I look forward to and I think the children look forward to it too. You can tell that they seem to enjoy it.”

Freda Thompson reads to a class at Head Start on Friday.

Morgan Hudson reads a book about Tigers to a class.