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Kearns • The works of Dr. Seuss have inspired countless children to pick up a book and read.

Third grade students at Oquirrh Hills Elementary in Kearns celebrated Dr. Seuss Day on Friday by performing at an assembly.

Aside from the assembly, all students at the school kicked off a month of reading with the help of the United Way of Salt Lake City and JCPenney. Volunteers from JCPenney took time to read to students at Oquirrh Hills as part of the National Education Association's Read Across America initiative.

"We are doing this to celebrate literacy and get the students excited about reading," said Karen Marberger, principal at Oquirrh Hills. "The third grade has been doing this assembly for the past three years."

The third-grade students who performed in the assembly took the opportunity to sing and dance and even talk about which Dr. Seuss book is their favorite. Students such as Kylie Sharples and Ariana Garvoille dressed up to perform their parts.

Kylie dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and admitted to feeling some nerves before the performance but has caught on to reading Dr. Seuss books.

"I feel like when I read it just makes me smarter and getting better in school," Kylie said.

Singing and dancing made the assembly fun for Ariana, and reading is becoming enjoyable for the 9-year-old. "I like reading Dr. Seuss and mystery books," Ariana said. "I like to use my imagination and put myself in the books while I am reading."

Throughout the entire month of March, Oquirrh Hills students will receive extra incentive for reading, as there will be trivia questions to answer for prizes for individuals. Classrooms also will tally up the number of pages read to compete for a prize as a class in hopes to spark more interest in reading.

Trudy Adams, who is literacy coach and professional learning specialist at Oquirrh Hills, hopes the students will find the fun in reading through events like this.

"I hope for more interest in reading and I would like to think that this event will help," Adams said.

As the community learning coordinator at Oquirrh Hills, Stephanie Linton is responsible to contact outside agencies like the employees from JCPenney to help be resources for learning for the students. Linton said having volunteers come to school can only help with the learning process.

"The kids always like to see new faces during school," Linton said. "It also helps to see people that are successful workers that have an education to help set a good example."

Kindergarten teacher Hannah Green has seen more excitement from her students about reading this year.

"This year is going to be more exciting than in years past because I think the students are really getting into it," Green said. "All of the kids love Dr. Seuss books, especially the books that are made into movies, so it makes them easy to read."

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