PS 8 Read-a-thon Progress Updates
By Wendy Azzouni
Photography by Aki Tuccu and Randi Pellett
The second-annual PS 8 Read-a-thon has reached its halfway point, with participation significantly dwarfing that of last year, and so far a total of 80,000 minutes read since the kickoff on October 18.
Over 40 percent of the student body turned in their minutes Friday, and Read-a-thon organizers expect that even more will participate by the end of the event, which is November 15. Students can still join by filling out reading logs and sponsor sheets, available in the office, the parents' room, and online.
While the Read-a-thon encourages reading for the love of reading, students are also competing with themselves and other students for prizes. Students who read a thousand minutes or more during the Read-a-thon will win $10 gift cards from Barnes and Noble. A $50 gift card will be given to the class that reads the most in each grade.
Students are tallying up the minutes from reading homework assignments, leisure reading, reading the newspaper or magazines, and just about anything else that requires reading, such as instructions, directions, looking up words in the dictionary or numbers in the phone book.
Some teachers are encouraging their students to participate by talking up the Read-a-thon in class and reminding parents of younger children to bring in their minute sheets each week. Ms. Browning's third-grade class has the highest number of minutes, while Ms. Jennings' second-grade class has 100 percent participation.
While teachers are encouraging students to participate in the Read-a-thon at home, the PTA has instituted early morning and afternoon reading clubs at school, with parents volunteering to read aloud to children in grades Pre-K through First Grade. Older children may read to younger ones at the reading clubs, making those minutes count in many students' tallies. Children in grades 2- through 5 also read on their own. "It's nice to read in the presence of others," said Diane Miller, a Read-a-thon organizer who has read to small groups of children in the afternoon.
The clubs take place in the library on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, from 3:10 to 3:40, and Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8 to 8:30 am. Parents are invited to read to students at the clubs.
Read-a-thon organizers are also looking for volunteers to sponsor students who would like to participate in the Read-a-thon but have no one to sponsor them. Parents can leave checks made out to the PS 8 PTA in the fundraising mailbox parent room. Please label both the check and the envelope it is in "Read-a-thon." The money will be applied to specific children participating in the Read-a-thon and they will be told how much they raised by reading.
Only 10 percent of the student body participated in last year's Read-a-thon, but they managed to raise close to $12,000. That number will likely be dwarfed significantly this year. The Read-a-thon is one of the PTA's three major fundraisers for the year, which also include the auction in the spring and the general appeal. Checks for the PS8 Read-a-thon should be made out to the "PS8 PTA".
Below is a tally of the minutes per grade as of November 2:
Pre-K: 2,633
Kingergarten: 12,397
First Grade: 14,961
Second Grade: 16,727
Third Grade: 20,090
Fourth Grade: 8,198
Fifth Grade: 5,250
View more photos from the book fair here
You can download the Reading Log HERE and the Pledge Form HERE (both are PDF files).
Posted on: November 6, 2007
