100 Days of Reading

At school today we celebrated the completion of the 100 Days of Reading program which began last October and ended January 24th.  The goal was for everyone to read something for pleasure every day for 100 days.  Students who did were awarded medals and were eligible for monetary awards (Barnes & Noble gift cards.)  

This year there was a special event, a Jeopardy game using questions based on ten books which participating students had to read.  This was tough.  First you had to read the ten books and then you had to be brave enough to play the game in front of your peers.  Eight students from the 5th and 6th grade were ready, willing, and able, so we put them into two teams of four students each.  Only three students from the  7th and 8th grade wanted to play, so they played against each other.  The winners received a NOOK HD, which was a mighty fine prize. (The funding for the NOOKS, gift cards, and medals came from the proceeds of last year's "Sponsored Spelling" program.)  The game was fun, interesting, and entertaining, and led into the giving of awards and medals to the students who accomplished the "read every day" goal.

The Language Arts department and I worked together to plan the event.  I had the pleasurable task of  buying  all the NOOKS and gift cards, suggesting books, making Jeopardy questions for the majority of the books, reviewing all the reading calendars and logs submitted by students, and developing the list of awards.

Parents were invited into the 5th and 6th grade classrooms to read to the students, and at the last minute I was called in to substitute for a parent who couldn't make it.  I was so excited because I got to read  Clever Jack Takes the Cake, by Candace Fleming, which I had read recently to the little ones in Monday Story Time.  It was such fun.  The big 6th graders loved this book just as much as the preschoolers.  

 Now I'm basking in the blissful happy relaxed feeling that you get when something big has been successfully accomplished. It's a wrap for this year!