Families Dive Into Reading at Parkview EEC Literacy Night

Literacy and reading took on a festive, family-centered feel at the Parkview Early Education Center on February 5. 

The EEC Literacy Night is an evening open to all students, toddlers through preschool in the building, along with their families. Literacy Night provides a hands-on learning experience, designed to make early reading skills fun, accessible, and engaging for all ages.

“The goal is to bring families together to participate in literacy activities with their kids,” Early Childhood Coordinator Susan Morrison explained, “Maybe show [parents] some things that they can be doing at home, to work on different skills.”

Rather than following a single program or schedule, EEC Literacy Night allowed families to move freely throughout the building and individual classrooms, choosing activities that best fit their child’s interests.

“It’s a well-attended event, but it’s not crazy crowded,” Morrison said. “Everyone’s spread out, and what’s nice is you can pick and choose what you want to do, how many things you want to do, and how long you want to stay at one activity.”

This year’s Literacy Night featured a luau-inspired theme. Classrooms were transformed with music, Hawaiian shirts, and hands-on stations, offering a different way to explore early literacy skills.

“We did more of a luau, beachy theme to bring some warmth to the January that we had,” Morrison said. “A lot of rooms picked books with beach themes in them, or did beach activities not associated with a book.”

Activities in the classrooms included fishing for letters, letter and word identification games, making Hawaiian leis, fun with snacks, and of course, playing in the sand. 

“Each teacher works hard to collaborate together to come up with ideas based on themes for early literacy growth, such as alphabet fishing, bingo, seashell matching, and the letter hunt around the building,” Autumn Dunbar, preschool teacher at the EEC explained.

The letter scavenger hunt throughout the school building was a hit with students of all ages.

“They had a scavenger hunt with letters up and down the hallway,” Morrison said. “Even some of the siblings, the elementary age kids that were here with their families, ended up really loving that. We’ll definitely make sure we have that next year too, because that was a lot of fun with kids searching for letters up and down the halls.”

Another popular new addition this year was bingo.

“Bingo was something we thought would be a fun activity for letter identification,” Morrison explained. “It was a big hit. So we will certainly bring that back next year.”

“This year, I decided to do an edible craft that the children loved,” Dunbar said. “It consisted of a graham cracker, blue frosting, crushed up graham crackers for sand, and goldfish. Needless to say, our room was very popular.”

“The DAP classrooms also do an activity in their room so it’s not overwhelming,” Morrison noted. “And the DAP students are welcome to go to all of the other activities if they desire.”

The EEC also welcomed a librarian from the Cuyahoga County Public Library Fairview Park branch, who hosted story time and shared information with families about library programs and how to sign up for library cards. Another highlight was the book swap, which encouraged children to continue reading at home.

“We ask families to bring a gently used book,” Morrison said. “They drop it off when they come in and pick up a new-to-them book on their way out.”

Beyond literacy practice, the night offered EEC families an opportunity to see children learning in action and explore classrooms they may not visit during daily drop-off and pickup.

While Literacy Night is one of several family events held throughout the year, staff emphasized its unique role in encouraging reading beyond the classroom.

“We want it to be taken home for an extension of school,” a staff member said. “Keep reading at home, keep extending. Ask questions and have kids really read and think about books.”