Carteret students dressed up as the professionals they wish to become. From left, fourth-grader Brian Manzaneres is a scientist, third-grader Sheyla Guaman is an airline pilot and Angelisse Hernandez is a teacher. At rear, Media Specialist Jean Barbetta is a doctor.
Read Across America Week was celebrated at Carteret Elementary School with a number of activities beginning Monday, March 2.
Township employees visited and spoke about their responsibilities and read to children, parents discussed their careers, kids dressed up as their future selves and on Friday classrooms were filled with pupils who wore their pjs on Pajama Day.
First-grader Angelisse Hernandez came dressed for the future as a teacher. She said it would be fun to make kids learn.
“I want to be a Carteret teacher, right here,” she said. “I like this school.”
Angelisse’s desire was to be a kindergarten teacher “like Miss E,” referring to Monica Evangelista.
“I like two teachers, Miss E and Mrs. Armstrong,” she continued, referring to special education teacher Beth Armstrong.
“They’re so kind and fun teachers,” she said.
Brian Manzaneres, a fourth-grader, was definitely the scientist.
“You get to do a lot of cool stuff and to study things most people don’t and you get to figure out how things work,” he explained. “Things like electricity and other things.”
Brian was accompanied by three dead lantern flies in three plastic vials. He said the display was the insect’s entire life cycle.
“I caught them with my hands,” he said proudly. “They died a slow death.”
He said he showed them to classmates, but some of the girls got scared.
“I caught three bigger ones in my bedroom,” he continued. “It was fun watching. They jump around.”
Media Specialist Jean Barbetta, who was with the children, said Brian was amazing.
“He made a paper rollercoaster,” she said. “A marble goes down and then makes a loop-de-loop. It was for Coding Month and usually takes two classes to construct the rollercoaster, but Brian did it in one. And then everyone else asked him for help.”
Sheyla Guaman, a third-grader, dressed as a pilot and looked the part with sun shades and a uniform purchased from Amazon. But it was not her Halloween costume.
“For Halloween, I was a bunny with blood,” she said.
She came dressed as a jet pilot because she wanted to visit her family in Ecuador, something she has not done yet. Sheyla wanted to give her grandparents, who died, flowers.
Read Across America Week was established by the National Educational Association on March 2, 1998, the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-91), popularly known as Dr. Seuss, the children’s author. Consequently, Read Across America became associated with Geisel. Although his works are mainstays, among them “The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” the goal of Read Across America Week is to promote reading in general, according to an internet search.
Media Specialist Barbetta came dressed for the occasion wearing scrubs and had a stethoscope.
“My mother was an X-ray technician and loved medicine.” she said. “We grew up with the book ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ on the coffee table. It inspired a love of medicine, anatomy and physiology for me. I’ve always found doctors incredible.”
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