By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer PELHAM— Read Across America Week had students at Valley Elementary School wearing wacky clothing, sharing the stories of Dr. Seuss and eating green eggs and ham as they celebrated the author’s birthday.

“The children are happy, and there’s just nothing better,” said kindergarten teacher Susan Morton. “They’ve loved it, and the parents come to eat lunch, which has been awesome.”

National Read Across America Week is held the week of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which is March 2. Each day of the week, the students at VES participated in different themed activities that coincided with a Dr. Seuss book.

The students wore silly or mismatched socks for “Fox in Socks, ” wore the color green for “Green Eggs and Ham,” wore pajamas for the “Sleep Book” and more.

“It just encourages good reading,” Morton said. “Something fun like Dr. Seuss makes them want to read, and then each day we’ve done different things.”

The weekend before Read Across America, Morton had all her students go to the library with their parents to pick out their favorite Dr. Seuss book. They each brought a book to school, and they paired with partners to read them during the week.

Parents were also asked to submit the names of books their students read while in different states. All the states were pinned on a “Read through America” map, which reflected themes from the book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

All the staff and faculty also participated in the event by dressing up and creating educational activities aligned with the books, according to Donna Scelsi, the technology coordinator.

Students participated in Seuss Stations during their P.E. classes, rotating through various books and activities. The ladies in the lunchroom also got into the Seuss spirit, creating themed lunches to coincide with the book of the day.

“It’s so nice how our whole faculty really works together around one central theme to help the kids,” Morton said. “I’ve been here 28 years, teaching kindergarten in the same room, and it’s been so exciting to see how each year, it honestly just gets better.”

Morton said Read Across America is an important event because it encourages all young kids to be excited about reading. Kindergarten is the year students begin learning how to read, so she said it is especially important for them.

She said she hopes the elementary schools in Pelham continue to participate in Read Across America for many years.

“In kindergarten, before they can even read, I just want to instill the love of a book, just the joy of picking up a book and wanting to read, even if they are just reading the pictures,” Morton said. “So Read Across America is a good platform to instill all those things.”