Together We Can Read 2010

Imagine 98 classrooms reading Bellman Visits South Carolina together! Wow! Believe it or not, it is happening today and we can hardly believe it ourselves. Here's the press release from the City of Columbia:

Kickoff Held For Together We Can Read 2010

The City of Columbia, Richland School District One, and the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce are collaborating in an effort to sponsor “Together We Can Read”, a reading day program to encourage children to learn the joys of reading. This is the second year of this successful education initiative. Officials from the City of Columbia and Richland School District One, as well as local celebrities and business leaders will be reading to third grade classes throughout the community on Thursday, March 25, 2010. There are approximately 98 classrooms and 1840 third grade students in Richland District One. Almost 100 volunteers will be in the classrooms, participating on Reading Day.

"Student achievement is our No. 1 priority in Richland One and literacy is our focus this year," said Richland One Superintendent Dr. Percy Mack. ""We are very appreciative of our guest readers for making time in their busy schedules to read to our students and help promote the importance of literacy and the joy of reading. We also want to thank the City of Columbia, under the leadership of Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine, for its continued support of the Together We Can Read initiative."

Bellman Visits South Carolina by Brenda Richards and Brantley Parrott, is the book the guest readers will read. The book introduces students to key places and monuments across South Carolina. Ms. Richards is a retired Richland One elementary school teacher. She is also a product of Richland One Schools. Ms. Parrott is a product of Richland One education, having attended Meadowfield Elementary, Hand Middle School, and Dreher High School.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with The City of Columbia, Richland District One, and the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce to provide this incredible opportunity to the Richland One Third Graders. What an exciting day!

Bear Hugs!

Parent Pages

We are proud to announce our new parent pages for each book. These pages provide additional educational resources and ideas to enrich your child's learning as you read through the books together. The pages will find a permanent home on our website, but here are the links for now:

Meet Bellman the Traveling Bear

Bellman Visits South Carolina

Bellman Goes To France

Bellman Goes To Greece

It is a joy for us to work alongside parents and teachers to provide these tools for your homes and classrooms. Bear Hugs!

February 27th & 28th - South Carolina Book Festival

We have enjoyed a wonderful day of reuniting with families, teachers, and vendors that we met at last year's SC Book Festival! We also made many new friends and sent parents, grandparents, librarians, and children home with special Bellman bear books. Everyone seemed to have a favorite book and a young one in their lives that would benefit from sharing and learning about it. Thank you to everyone who came by to see us this year.

We'll be there again tomorrow as well - 11:30-5:00.

Bear Hugs!

Book Orders

Please contact us directly to place all book orders while our online shopping cart is transferred to a new account.

Bear Hugs!

Thankful

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Bellman helped cook the turkey and gravy. YUM!

During this holiday, we are not only thankful for the wonderful food and time with loved ones, but also for others who share our passion for advancing childhood literacy and education.

Here are a few organizations that were recently featured in Reader's Digest:

bookends.org - Kids help kids by recycling and distributing books to inner-city schools, homeless shelters, and after-school enrichment centers.

famlit.org - The National Center for Family Literacy provides families with the tools they need to "break the cycle of low literacy."

firstbook.org - Distributes new books to disadvantaged children in preschools to afterschool programs.

reachoutandread.org - Pediatricians, nurses, and volunteers in impoverished areas promote literacy during well-child checkups.

November 12th World of Women Day

Polo Road Elementary School invited Dawndy Mercer Plank, news anchor at WIS-TV, to read to students in honor of World of Women Day. She chose to share Bellman Visits South Carolina and Meet Bellman the Traveling Bear with them. Thank you for all of your love and support Dawndy! We are so glad that the children enjoyed meeting Bellman.

November 12th Ninety Six Primary School

What a joy to spend time with the K-2nd graders at Ninety Six Primary School. Thank you for inviting Bellman and me to your school. We hope to see all of you again soon!