On 1 hursday. January 5th, the Halstad Woman`s Club of the General Federation of Women`s Clubs presented a dictionary to each Norman County West third grade student.

Mrs. Patricia Thompson, retired NCW elementary educator and an active member of the Halstad Woman`s Club, delivered the dictionaries to Mrs. Locken`s third grade classroom in Hendrum and personally presented each student with their very own dictionary as part of The Dictionary Project.

`We were told that the third grade was the best grade for the dictionaries,` explains Thompson. `These dictionaries are theirs to keep and we are hoping it will help the children learn to look up and spell words.`

The Dictionary Project is a non

profit organization whose goal is to assist all third grade students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative, thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionaries. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come.

A dictionary is perhaps the first and most powerful reference tool that a child should own. Its usefulness goes

beyond the spellings, pronunciations and definitions it contains. It is also a companion for solving problems that arise as a child develops his or her reading, writing and creative thinking abilities. Students benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness inspired by the maxim, `look it up.` The importance of using a dictionary is an essential tool for a quality education.

`We hope by giving out these dic

tionaries it will make the students feel that the English language really can be fun,` says Thompson.

Since 1992, over 3 million children have received dictionaries from volunteers who have participated in The Dictionary Project. Last year, 1,128,579 students received dictionaries as a gift from people who live in their own community. The Halstad Woman`s Club is proud to be able to be a part of this very worthwhile

project.

Chris Borgen, a third grader at NCW said after receiving his dictionary, `This should really help me when I need to look up words. (t`s really cool.`

AnnaMaria Black said, `I really like it a lot and thank you to the Halstad Woman`s Club for getting these for us.`