Kindergarteners at the game station run by Valley High School junior Roman D’Argan rushed to find rhyming words on signs sprawled across the floor Monday at Martin Elementary School.

D’Argan remembers looking up to older students when he was in elementary school and hoped to encourage the kids to learn.

“If you can do it in a fun way,” he said. “It’s just as good as playing Fortnite or Roblox.”

It was part of New Kensington-Arnold School District’s kick-off to its weeklong Read Across America celebrations, which paired high schoolers with kindergarten classes to play educational games.

Other game stations included stacking foam cylinders, image matching and tossing wiffle balls into baskets.

The games engaged student’s motor skills and supported the week’s in-class programming, explained school board President Jane Graham while dressed as Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat.

“We want to make sure we get across that reading is important,” she said.

Each day this week will follow a different theme at the school. (And Monday happened to be the birthday of Dr. Seuss, the pen name for the late author Theodor Geisel.)

Teacher Lisa Rubendall said the week diverges slightly from the school’s typical skill-based reading curriculum, which is focused on finding themes of stories and learning reading concepts. She said Read Across America is a chance for students to use those skills for more entertaining books.

“It’s a chance to expand students to different authors,” she said. “It’s something different than our normal day.”

Across the gym, kindergarteners jumped excitedly from game to game during the hour-long program.

In class, the students will read works by authors Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, Laura Numeroff, Jory John and James Dean.

Autistic support teacher Domenica Wolfe said she’s excited to read her students “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” She said her class was looking forward to the programming as well.

“They’re reading the words, but doing it in a fun way,” Wolfe said.

In 1998 the National Education Association started Read Across America to promote excitement about reading, according to National Today. Monday’s out-of-class event was the first of its kind celebrating the national program at the school, Rubendall said.

Graham said inviting the high schoolers to the event was partly inspired by her noticing that her own child was more engaged in reading with his older sibling. She said the school often hosts high school student’s for different events.

Reading “is important not just during this week,” she said.

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