The entire student body at St. Viator Parish School in Las Vegas enjoyed a rare treat last week: They attended a private screening of the film, The Wild Robot, which is based on the bestselling novel by Peter Brown. St. Viator students saw the movie on the day it opened in theaters nationwide, and the animated survival film just topped the weekend box office charts.
Dr. Katie kiss with students and a chaperone before the movie
But that’s not what makes this fieldtrip newsworthy. Their day at the movies capped the school’s participation in Nevada Reading Week back in March, when they participated in One School: One Book, reading Brown’s The Wild Robot.
Everyone at the school read the book over a few weeks, including students, parents, teachers, parish and administrative staff following along together. Even Fr. Richard Rinn, CSV, Pastor, and Fr. Dan Belanger, CSV, Parochial Vicar read the book. Students read the book in their classrooms and participated in daily activities, before reading it at home — aloud — with family members.
Students enjoy the film.
“Reading aloud at home is valuable because it better prepares your child to be an effective reader, and it is also a fun, worthwhile family activity,” said Dr. Katie Kiss, Principal, in a letter to parents. “With this program, we aim to build a community of readers at our school.”
Students each received their copy of the book at an all-school assembly and the adventure took off. Along the way, they traveled to a deserted island, where they met a robot named Roz, who had to learn to adapt to her new surroundings. They read about how Roz built relationships with native animals, including an orphaned gosling.
Roz the robot, built by a SVS parent, greets students at the theater.
Dr. Kiss selected the book, she said, because it explores several important themes that were great for elementary school readers, including life lessons about kindness, teamwork and understanding the world around them.
“The true message of this book is a story about what happens when characters choose inclusivity and love,” Dr. Kiss says. “Roz was a robot stranded on an island, and she looked and acted very different from all the other animals. However, the more the animals interacted with her the more she learned from them what it meant to love and help others.
“And the animals opened their hearts to the possibility that they do not need to be afraid of something that looks and acts differently,” she adds. “Roz brought everyone together.”
Taking the entire school to the movie was an enormous undertaking that entailed finding a theater to accommodate the 400 students and staff, as well an additional 60 parents to help chaperone. The school then coordinated eight buses to transport the group and they even bought snacks for every student.
It took eight buses to transport the students and staff.
School administrators described the trip as creating a “core memory” and they even said a prayer of thanks before the movie started for the rare opportunity. But bringing the community together with the reading project and then following it up by seeing the movie advanced the mission of the Viatorians, of “building up communities where faith is lived, deepened and celebrated,” and of striving to promote lifelong learning.