Grace School Celebrates a Successful Reading Challenge
Grace Primary and Lower School students were challenged by their teachers to participate in a two-week long reading challenge. To complete the challenge, two-year-olds through second grade had to read up to nine picture books and third through fifth grade were challenged to read 500 minutes per student.
“Launching the 2013 Grace School Reading Challenge was a great way to promote the importance of reading to students, parents and the wider community,” said Leigh Anne Shumate, Head of Primary and Lower Schools. “A love of reading is one of the most important gifts we can give our students.”
The students were encouraged to read both during the school day and at home as part of the effort. They were also encouraged to earn extra points by writing a book review or choosing to read instead of watch TV.
“We wanted to make sure that we gave parents the opportunity to support their children throughout the challenge,” said Shumate.
To promote the reading challenge, the teachers at Grace provided daily reading activities, produced a reading challenge song and also recorded a flash mob style dance video.
“We pulled out all the stops,” said Shumate. “These activities were designed to show children how much fun reading can be, but were part of a broader educational goal to establish a solid language arts foundation.”
More than 350 students participated in the “Books Rock” themed challenge with 92,001 minutes read in only nine days. As a result of a successful challenge, the students were rewarded with the ultimate prize: an ice cream truck party.
“I’m so proud of what they were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time,” said Shumate.
