Washtucna students mark reading month by browsing 40,292 pages

This was a great year for reading. The students worked very hard and achieved some wonderful goals.

The total averages out to be almost 1,089 pages per student. I am extremely proud of the students and their parents for encouraging reading throughout the month. The goal is to always keep reading as a focus at home even when the students aren’t earning prizes.

The theme this year was about the savannah. The classrooms spent time on learning about geography of the savannah, cultures of those areas, and the animals that live there. The hallway was filled with savannah animals—hanging from the ceiling, on the walls, around the corners complete with fact cards. For each 100 pages that the students read, they received a paw print that they had colored and the goal was to get to Mr. Seedall’s office by the end of the month. We did it!

The Parent Event was fantastic! The parents helped their child or children make an animal mask. Their choices were a lion or elephant. Mrs. Erickson made the samples. The focus in reading was on directions. The kids made some wonderful colorful masks! The Book Fair was also during the other activities. We divided the group into two so half would be in the library at the time and the other half making masks.

The field trip that we included to connect with reading month this year was to Mobius Science Center and Cat Tales in Spokane. Mobius was so exciting that we had a hard time rounding up the kids to move on to the Cat Tales. Cat Tales is an outdoor zoo that has tigers, lions, leopards, white tigers, bears, lynx, cougars, etc. We had a tour of the facility and it was great! What a great day!

Preschool students have always been a part of our effort to increase reading at an emerging age. They earned t-shirts if they met their goal in reading just like the K-6 students. We all know that early intervention will make a difference for our students in the years to come.

The t-shirts were designed by Amy Andersen of Spokane with a guy peeking through the bushes with binoculars and the books that look like animals running away design on the front and were printed in Spokane at Wild Rose Graphics. A donation from Wilbur Ellis of $300 and Caring Neighbors for $500 covered the cost of the t-shirts and the prizes. We want to thank all those that helped and participated in Reading Month.