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Moo-ving families to read together: Classroom on Wheels visits district

What has four wheels, a black and white body, a pink snout for a hood, and more books and games than you can shake a milk jug at?
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Candace Marouk and her son

What has four wheels, a black and white body, a pink snout for a hood, and more books and games than you can shake a milk jug at?

The Alberta Prairie Classroom on Wheels, or “C.O.W.” Bus, paid a visit to several area communities last week, inviting parents and kids aboard to spend time learning together.

The bus — literally a rolling classroom filled with books, games and activities to encourage literacy — is operated by the Edmonton Centre for Family Literacy and funded by the province through Innovation and Advanced Education.

Literacy facilitators Sharon Smith and Amanda Johnson brought the bus to Stettler on the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 6, parking outside the entrance to the Stettler Recreation Centre.

Johnson said the bus is designed to encourage one-on-one interaction between parents and their children aged zero to six, from reading books together to solving puzzles and answering questions.

“Everything you see, you can take out and play with,” she told children as they entered the bus.

Studies have demonstrated that introducing young children to literacy can help them flourish, giving them a strong foundation for later learning, said Johnson.

“Without that foundation, they struggle for the rest of their lives,” she said.

In addition to parents and children from the general public, a busload of local schoolchildren and their teachers came to experience the bus and try the activities.

Because the bus can only hold 15 people at a time, the children were divided into rotating groups. Other activities were available in the Stettler Public Library for those awaiting their turn on the bus.

Johnson also made a presentation to library manager Mary Zazelenchuk, handing her a box containing 50 new books for the children’s collection, including paperbacks, hardcover titles and board books.

The bus was invited to town by Stettler Adult Learning, whose new program manager, Brenda Barritt, spoke of the importance  of developing rural Alberta’s communities through education.

“It’s about building rural communities that we can be proud to live in and that can compete with any city neighbourhood,” she said, highlighting the importance of reading to and engaging with young children.

Zazelenchuk said that childhood literacy is “a cause that’s close to my heart as a librarian,” citing a 2009 provincial report indicating that 40 per cent of Albertans struggle with basic literacy.

Also present for the presentation were literacy coordinator Peggy Vockeroth, Mary Davis and town councillor Malcolm Fischer.

The bus also stopped in Donalda on Friday, Nov. 7. It was scheduled to visit Big Valley earlier on Thursday, but mechanical problems forced the staff to improvise by finding another vehicle and taking a small selection of books down south.

The bus is mandated to visit 70 communities across the province every year.