Sanfordville students are diving into reading this year

Warwick — Walk into the library at Sanfordville Elementary School and you feel like you have been transformed from the land to the sea. Seaweed floats all about you. Jelly fish and a giant squid hover overhead, as well as a 30-foot whale hanging from the ceiling. A submarine, shipwreck and underwater cave are nearby as well for kids to explore. What’s the connection? This year, the theme for the Parents As Reading Partners program at Sanfordville is “Dive Into a Good Book.” To go along with that theme, David and Joyce DeRosa Kay, friends of Sanfordville first grade teacher Jeffra Emmerich, came in and talked to all of the students about scuba diving, a passionate hobby for both of them. In sessions grouped by grade, the Kays spoke to all 750 students about their adventures, always being sure to let the children know that they learned much of what they looked at underwater from books. “We have tons and tons of books in our home to learn about the fish,” said David Kay. The kids ooohed and ahhed at the brightly colored fish, and the fourth graders seemed to shout in unison when a clown fish appeared on the screen: “Nemo!” Sea horses, sting rays, hermit crabs, starfish, snails with no shells — including one in Warwick’s colors of purple and gold — amazed the kids. They also got a little environmental lesson from the Kays who took a close up picture of a jelly fish. It looked very much like plastic. A fish that eats jelly fish would also eat the plastic, causing them harm. “So don’t litter in the ocean,” Kay said. Joyce DeRosa Kay, a native of Pine Island and graduate of Warwick schools, and her husband, David, have traveled the world scuba diving for the past 25 years. Their travels have taken them mostly to the South Pacific, including Indonesia, Vietnam and the Galapagos Islands. They are both opticians in New Canaan, Conn. David Kay gave a quick lesson to the groups before their slide show presentation. He told them that their wet suits had yellow on them because yellow is the color that can be seen from the farthest distance underwater. He and Joyce both wear glasses — he also let the kids know that their scuba masks can be made with prescription lenses. The Kays took questions after the presentation. The fourth graders, who sat quietly for the nearly half-hour presentation, had some great questions, especially about the whale shark David Kay had ridden on. It weighed between 7-9 tons and was at least twice as long as the whale over their heads. “Was it fun to ride the whale shark?” asked one student. “It was the coolest thing we ever did,” answered David. Linda DeVries, library and media specialist at Sanfordville, was excited about the program, especially in the interest it will spark in her readers. ”Over the three-week period, students will become immersed in reading everything from research projects to fish stories!” she said. “Parents, teachers, students and staff will all work to help discover and develop a love of reading.”