Breckenridge Texan

By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan

Tuesday was an exciting day for Breckenridge third graders, as each student received their own copy of “A Student’s Dictionary,” courtesy of the Rotary Club of Breckenridge.

South Elementary third graders look at their new dictionaries as they return to class Tuesday afternoon. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Local Rotary Club members Les Strickland, Sherry Strickland, Maylun VanWinkle and Monica Johnson visited South Elementary to present the dictionaries to the students in the school’s gym.

Once the kids had their dictionaries, the Rotarians encouraged them to look up various bits of information, such as the longest word in the English language and who was president the year they were born.

“They love exploring all the different things in the dictionary,” said Shelby Kennedy, the counselor at South Elementary.

The dictionaries are over 500 pages long and include a variety of information, in addition to the typical word definitions. For example, the book includes the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Star Spangled Banner; information about the world, the solar system and the water cycle; as well as the alphabet in American Sign Language and Braille.

“They call it a dictionary, but there’s a lot more in there than just a dictionary,” Les Strickland said.

As the students returned to their classrooms Tuesday afternoon, they continued to discover interesting information in their new books.

The Breckenridge Rotary Club purchases the dictionaries for third graders each year through Rotary International as part of Rotary’s literacy initiative.

As the third graders returned to class, they continued to look up interesting facts in their new dictionaries. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Cutline, top photo: A group of third graders at South Elementary poses for a picture with their new dictionaries and members of the Rotary Club of Breckenridge. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)