Thank you for your interest in making a profound difference in children’s lives. On this page you will find the steps to implement the Illustrated Dictionary Project.  Please see the Project Packet at the bottom of this page. You’ll find:

•   “Club Information” - an informational flyer for your club members  for the purpose of creating interest
•   “How to Implement the Illustrated Dictionary Project” sheet - same as text below, but in pdf for printing
•    Ideas for your Principal Meeting .“What a Principal Wants/Needs to Know” - an outline for your meeting
•   “Principal Information Sheet” - an informational sheet to leave with the principal/assistant principal
•    Ideas for your Teacher Meeting .“What a Teacher Wants/Needs to Know” - an outline for your meeting
•   “Teacher Information Sheet” - an informational sheet to leave with the teachers at the meeting 
•    “Script for Distributing Dictionaries”  - a suggested script
•   “What a Funder Wants/Needs to Know” - an outline for your meeting with a funder

 1. Get to know The Illustrated Dictionary and the Teaching Guide.  Watch the  first 20 minutes of the Teacher Training video.  (See below)

2. Determine which schools are the lowest performing schools in your area. Those should be your target schools.

 3. Make an appointment with the principal and/or assistant principal to show them the Illustrated Dictionary of Everyday Things and the Teaching Guide. Explain that  you are offering to give each of their 2nd grade students a dictionary that they can take home with them at the end of the year. In addition, each 2nd grade teacher will be given a dictionary and a teaching guide. (See Principal Meeting document)

 4.  If they are open to the Dictionary Project, determine how many students and teachers are in their 2nd grade classrooms. 

 5. Once you have the total number of dictionaries and teaching guides needed for all those schools, get quotes from local printing companies.

 6. If you need help paying for the printing of the books, reach out to local Community Foundations and/or other philanthropic organizations to cover those costs.

 7. Print and go over the documents in the Information packet you received. Please find the following documents: Implementing the Illustrated Dictionary Project, Principal Meeting, Teacher Meeting, Teacher Information, Student Presentation Script.  

 8. When books have been printed, call each school again to schedule two events:  
            A.) A time to meet with the 2nd grade teachers to distribute one copy of the dictionary and teaching guide to each teacher. (30 - 45 min.) 

            B)  Schedule a day to distribute the dictionaries to the  2nd grade students. (45 - 60 min.) 

 9. Recruit a volunteer to meet with the teachers to distribute the teaching guides and dictionaries. We suggest recruiting a retired teacher for this. (See Teacher Meeting document)   

10. Recruit one member to present the dictionaries to the students using the script provided. (See Student Presentation Script) The presentation itself is very important because it gets the children excited to use the dictionaries and makes the books seem more like the gift that they are. Also, recruit several other members to distribute the dictionaries to the students AFTER the presentation.

11.  Meet with 2nd grade teachers and distribute the Teaching Guide and dictionary to the 2nd grade teachers. (See Teacher Meeting document)

12. Present the dictionaries to the students on the scheduled day (See Student Presentation script) and distribute the dictionaries AFTER the program. (If possible, get creative with things to make the presentation and distribution more memorable and exciting. Perhaps, taking balloons or if you are presenting in a large room, ask a high school band member to come and play the drums, etc. )  

Project  packet To Print

Club Information