The word of the day is dictionary! At least that’s what it was Wednesday at Minot Forest and Decas Elementary schools, where the Wareham Elks Lodge donated brand new dictionaries to all of the third-grade students.

Teachers agreed that even though we live in a time when computers are king, the dictionary will not — and should not — go the way of the dinosaurs.

“When [students] have their own dictionary, it helps with spelling and writing. It also teaches them to be resourceful,” said Decas Elementary third-grade teacher Jackie DeGrace.

Wareham’s State Representative, and Elks member, Susan Williams Gifford joined in the ceremony, as did Elks Susan Gifford (Williams Giffords' sister-in-law), Bob Hurley, James Callan, and George Spencer.

“The Elks does a lot for children in our community,” said Williams Gifford.

With a shortage of resources for purchasing materials, the dictionaries are a small but meaningful contribution to the students.

“What we do is we go out in the community and see who needs help,” said Callan.

After sitting down with their new dictionaries, the students were encouraged to find a word they didn’t know. That’s one advantage over Google — seeing as you can’t Google a word you’ve never heard of.  Kids immediately started shouting out words such as "annex" and "comrade," both of which may eventually prove helpful in, say, an essay about the Cold War.

“Even though we have computers, I find the students love having their own dictionary,” said Decas Elementary third-grade teacher Heidi Simms. “There’s nothing like actually holding a book.”