By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
Near the end of last school year, Otsego Public Schools’ Alamo Elementary School received a StoryWalk on its playground.
Now, Dix Street Elementary School in the district has followed suit.
Students from the Allegan Area Tech Center recently installed a StoryWalk on the lower elementary playground at Dix Street. Now, students at Dix Street have yet another opportunity to be exposed to reading and literacy, even while on recess.
Otsego Public Schools literacy coach Gina Watson described a StoryWalk as “a movement-and-literacy-boosting project that places an illustrated children’s book, taken apart and displayed page by page, along a walking route in your community.”
For the StoryWalk, a series of posts were installed along the perimeter of the playground. Each post will house a page or two of the same book, allowing students to read the book as they move around the playground.
The display area of the posts are designed to withstand all the elements associated with Michigan weather—rain, snow, wind and sun—in order to keep the pages of the book protected.
According to Watson, StoryWalks are a great way to combine literacy with nature and exercise, providing a win-win-win scenario for students.
The district is planning to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony and kick-off dedication for the Dix Street StoryWalk at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year in the fall.
And with two of the district’s three elementary schools now equipped with StoryWalks, the district plans to make it a perfect three-for-three next school by installed one at Washington Street Elementary.
