Reading on the River Parent Retreat

We had a blast on our Reading on The River Parent Retreat!  Parents and children had the opportunity to relax on The Grand Lady Riverboat as we floated down the Grand River. We catered a subway lunch along with chips, cookies, brownies, pop & water!

The Children’s Museum joined us on our retreat and provided activities for the children to enjoy. In addition, we had story time and read We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, The Pigeon Needs a Bath, I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More & Wendy The Wide-Mouthed Frog! These are such fun books to read and we encourage you to check them out from your local library! The children were also given a Reading on The River Scavenger Hunt and were encouraged to read the words on the scavenger hunt sheet and find the items listed as we traveled down the Grand River. The items on the scavenger hunt included a bald eagle, blue heron, duck, turtle, park, school building, bridge, maple tree, oak tree and sycamore tree. There were a few of the children that found every item!

The captain also allowed those children who wanted to the opportunity to steer the riverboat, even providing a stool to accommodate some of our smallest participants!

Parents were also encouraged to socialize and mingle with each other by playing Reading on The River Parent BINGO. They were encouraged to find other parents to fill their bingo board in an effort to get to know others on the riverboat. Some of the items on the bingo board were: to find someone who reads a book a week, has a celebrity autograph, loves pets, flosses daily and many more fun items. There were some parents who completed their entire bingo board, which resulted in them receiving 5 tickets for the raffle prize drawing. Two of our raffle prizes were gift baskets with games that encouraged literacy/reading. Our third raffle prize was a $25 Meijer gift card.

Our retreat ended with each child (and even some parents) receiving a book to take home along with a water bottle or back pack. Seventy of the books that were available for the children to choose from were donated to us from our friends at Storytime At the Park!

Both parents and children alike thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

GREAT START COLLABORATIVE KENT COUNTY

Funding from the Office of Great Start within the Michigan Department of Education supports the implementation of Great Start.