3rd Graders Receive Free Dictionary from the Elks

3rd Graders Receive Free Dictionary from the Elks

     Third grade students in MVSD’s 10 elementary schools are grateful to the Alhambra/San Gabriel and Duarte Elks Clubs for their kindness and generosity in presenting each of them with a free dictionary. 

     The Elks distributed over 600 dictionaries in MVSD as part of the Elks’ nationwide Dictionary Project.  In total over 4,000 dictionaries were given to third graders in San Gabriel Valley area schools by the two local clubs.  Since its implementation 24 years ago, The Dictionary Project has put over 21 million dictionaries in the hands of students world-wide.  The project’s 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. The dictionaries given to MVSD’s students were personalized with each student’s name and delivered by members of the Duarte Elks Club No. 1427 including John and Donna McEntire who were accompanied by Elroy the very popular Elk puppet.

“The Elks value education and we are very happy to give back to our community and support students with their educational endeavors,” said Donna McEntire, Elks member and retired MVSD teacher.   “We’ve been delivering dictionaries to Mountain View’s third graders for over 10 years.  It’s a labor of love and we are happy to provide such a great learning tool for you to use at home and at school.”

     Students were thrilled to hear about all the great resources within the dictionary and couldn’t wait to get theirs. 

     “This dictionary is a wonderful resource book full of information to help you learn,” said McEntire.  “It has information on our 50 states, maps of continents and countries, a list of all U.S. presidents, a multiplication table, information on the planets and solar system, the Periodic Table of Elements and even shows you how to do sign language.  We want you to be lifelong learners and use this dictionary to keep learning.” 

     McEntire shared that there are over 35,000 words in the dictionary and by using the dictionary students can improve their vocabulary and find powerful words, learn definitions, and the parts of speech.

     “Five of the largest words in the English language are in this dictionary,” she said.  “There are words with 48 letters in them and the longest word takes up an entire page and has 1,909 letters.  Let’s hope that word is never on a spelling test,” she said laughing as the students gasped at the word’s length.

     Joining the students in their excitement were the teachers and administrators who were grateful for the generous donation and know the great impact the dictionaries will have on their students. 

     “This is an extraordinary gift the Elks have given you,” said David Chen, third grade teacher at Baker School addressing the students.  “Thank you Elks Club for your generosity and all the work you do to support students and education.”

     Samantha Holguin, a Baker School third grader was very excited to receive her very own dictionary.

     “I can’t wait to learn all about the planets,” said Holguin.  “I love space and the section on the planets is definitely my favorite part of this dictionary.  It was very nice of the Elks to give us these great dictionaries,” she said.

     The dictionary give-away is done in third grade because that is when dictionary skills are taught in most schools.  Additionally, in third grade students transition from learning to read, to reading to learn.       

    Once in their hands, the students excitedly flipped through the dictionary and shared their enthusiasm for the many learning opportunities found within the pages. 

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