By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
For 14 years, Literacy in the Park has packed a couple thousand kids, their families and teachers into the Fieldhouse at Bowling Green State University for dozens of hands-on, and minds-on activities.
The 15th year though means those hands-on activities can’t happen, no matter how well washed those hands, big and small, are. The event was scheduled to be presented this coming Saturday, April 25 but was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. That also means a couple hundred presenters – BGSU students, staff and faculty as well as community members – won’t have a chance to share their love of reading and writing with kids.
But Tim Murnen, professor in the College of Education and Human Development who is coordinating the event, is trying to offer at least some of the minds-on activities.
He’s launched Literacy in the Park from a Distance on Flipgrid.
The page offers two prompts for people wanting to post short videos. One asks: “What Are You Reading While Inside?” This allows kids, teachers, parents, community members to share a favorite kids book.
Murnen himself shares “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” by Grace Lin, who was supposed to be this year’s guest writer.
The second prompt is: “Share Your Literacy Activity.”
Murnen hopes the groups that had tables throughout the Fieldhouse during Literacy in the Park will post activities for kids.
Murnen’s daughter, Lily, who now lives in Washington D.C. but was a campus environmental activist at BGSU, offers a short video about identifying bird songs. Origami artist Rob Snyder offers a lesson in how to fold an origami duck.
Murnen is hoping he can get the author Grace Lin to submit a video. That would add the visiting writer aspect that’s been central to the event. (Each day this week April 20-24 Lin will be reading from “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” in a Facebook Live event.)
“The author comes and presents with the idea that we’re getting kids excited about reading and with the idea of writing, of being an author,” he said. “At same time we’re also trying to create all kinds of literacy activities … a lot of take-home things that parents can do at home.”
And having things to do at home is never more important than now.
Next year, Murnen said, he hopes to revert to original format for Literacy in the Park when hands-on really means hands-on.
