SAMBAA K'E/TROUT LAKE
It was all about families getting together and having fun with words at Family Literacy Night in the Trout Lake community gym Jan. 29.

Brandon Jumbo, left, challenges Tyler Auger, right, to match the provincial and territorial coats of arms with his handmade circuit board game. Arron Chonkolay, centre, picked the task of matching provincial and territorial birds and flowers with their counterparts. In the background, Nah'ehlee Rocque-Jumbo enters the reading teepee while Brenda Jumbo and Margaret Jumbo participate in a map scavenger hunt with place names. - photo courtesy of Lynn Macfadyen

For more than two hours, participants had fun with hands-on literacy activities.

In the gathering place, a family could read in the reading teepee, play with a giant scrabble board, make paper bag puppets, search for place-names in a map scavenger hunt or play electronic word match games.

Participants entered the gym and followed the directions for the games on a large easel.

At the top of the list was reading a book then filling in a book tag to enter a prize draw.

"It was fun night," said Lyla Pierre, one of the participants.

"I enjoyed reading with my youngest daughter. There were more activities this year compared to the literacy nights in the past."

"I enjoyed the evening because everyone read to their kids," said Tyler Auger, another event participant.

"My favourite activity was challenging my friend with the circuit board game."

Throughout the night, people challenged themselves with a place-name map scavenger hunt and playing the Canadian map circuit board games.

All the circuit boards were handmade by the Charles Tetcho School students for the event.

Additionally, there were a variety of Slavey vocabulary games, matching words to pictures, fishing for names of animals and Slavey story books.

Adding even more fun to the night included a 'Joke It Up' wall and Cinquain poems created by the students to share with everyone.

When asked to identify her favourite game, recreation program co-ordinator Carilyn Jumbo said "the map scavenger hunt."

Approximately 60 per cent of the community of 100 turned out for the event. The evening was sponsored by the NWT Literacy Council, the school and the recreation program of the Sambaa Ke Dene Band.

Jada Lamalice is a Grade 6 student at Charles Tetcho School assigned to write a story about the event for a class.