February 1, 2017

St. Joan of Arc students dress up as ‘Super Kids’ book characters

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Julie Beaulieu

CHICOPEE — New this year at St. Joan of Arc School, here, students in grades kindergarten through second grade dressed up as characters from their reading series and proudly paraded around the school as part of Catholic Schools Week on Jan. 30.

“The students love the Super Kids reading program. They are really engaged,” said Katelyn Kurpaska, kindergarten teacher. “They are always excited when it comes to reading time, so they were really excited about this (event) this morning.”

“You will see some Golly the dogs, Cass, who is a cook, Hot Rod, who is a race car driver, and Fritz, who likes to fish, and there are all different characters and the characters serve as a mnemonic to help the kids learn to read,” explained Kurpaska.

After lunch, students proudly marched throughout the building, showing and sharing their love for reading.

“I’m Hot Rod,” said first-grader Chace Mutti. “He’s a race car driver and every time when he drives, he always wins first place. He has a bike called the Fast Cat, and it’s super fast,” said Chace. He said that his favorite thing about Catholic school is, “that you do a parade when you are a Super Kid.”

Cayla Ribeiro, also in first grade, dressed up as Golly. “He’s a dog,” she said. “He sniffs in the trash. I like the characters and I like reading.”

The teachers got involved and dressed up too. Katelyn Kurpaska, kindergarten teacher, dressed as Eta Beta. First-grade teacher Pat Meade was Cass the chef, and Sue Kurpaska, second-grade teacher, was Ms. Blossom.  

A special segment on Catholic Schools Week in the Springfield Diocese will be featured on the Feb. 4 edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 on WWLP-22NEWS.