Read-A-Thon: Mission Sponsors Needed!

So, you have read about the great success of our mission to date. People throughout the Terraset community are finding their space to read and accumulating those meteor-minutes. However, the ultimate success of this "rocket" will be measured by how much it ignites the interest of sponsors!

Sponsorship will deliver a badly needed pay-load to the school. Have you started asking yet? Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles... bring them all into the fold and sign them up for this mission.

Here is the Standard Operating Procedure for this phase of the mission:

1. Student participants should ask family, friends and neighbors to sponsor them.
2. Adult participants should consider making a donation ($5-$10 would make a difference)
3. Sponsors can pledge 1c per minute, or more. 
4. Some sponsors may prefer to make a donation. A $20 donation is nearly equivalent to a sponsorship rate of 1c per minute if you read 60 minutes each day. Collect these donations at the time they are offered.
5. Total minutes (at-home plus at-school) will be calculated and then reported to you on Tuesday, April 8th. 
6. Once you have this report, collect your sponsors’ pledges.
7. Sponsors calculate the amount they owe using the total minutes you read multiplied by the amount per minute they pledged.
8. Return all sponsorship and donation funds to school by Friday, April 11th.  
9. Results and rewards will be announced Monday, April 21st.

So, one small step for a Terraset Tiger, one giant leap for our Terraset Pride! Make your contribution to this cosmic event!

Need a Sponsorship Form?

Read-A-Thon: Mission Update

We are into our third week of the read-a-thon mission and all is going well! Our reading capsule is on target as we accumulate, with light speed, our meteor-minutes!

Right on track!

There is no doubt our resident space alien has helped. His captivating eyes have motivated all the Terraset Tigers as they hunt through our bunker headquarters for its whereabouts! This hunt has contributed 3,500 minutes to our current total of more than 525,000! Yes, 525,000 meteor-minutes have been accumulated! We are now in the vicinity of Jupiter and we're hurtling towards Saturn and its sixty-two moons.

There are three major strategies in place. The first, at-school reading -- the students have accumulated more than 61% of the meteor-minutes amassed thus far using this technique. The second, at-home reading -- children have been lying under, over or inside as many different space-using-vessels that they can locate, surreptitiously gathering an additional 19% of the meteor-minute collection, as they find their space to read. Finally, adults have been able to gather the remaining 20% by sneaking in their midnight sorties to collect more treasured meteor-minutes.

Kindergartners count their minutes.

With half our target accumulation in place, we need to remain focused on the mission. Do not take this lightly, Terraset Tigers must continue on this stellar adventure in reading if we are to achieve ultimate success!

Warp Factor Achievements So Far:

• Fifth Grader, Nick Migliara has collected 4,672 meteor-minutes
• Third Grader, Urooj Khattack has gathered 3,167 meteor-minutes
• First Grader, Layla Windenhofer has assembled 1,164 meteor-minutes
• Mrs. Dueno's intergalactic class has read 21,000 minutes at school
• Mrs. Asbury's shooting stars have read a total of 12,206 minutes at home
• Parent-Astronaut, Neil Stobie, has pulled together 3,400 minutes
• Extra Terrestrial Teacher, Mrs. Foreman, has set into orbit 3,120 minutes

The 2014 Read-A-Thon Blast Off!

Our trajectory to 1,000,000 meteor-minutes!

What a fantastic first week for the 2014 Terraset Read-A-Thon!

The kickoff was GREAT" third grade teacher, Ms. Childers proclaimed, "very positive..."  and despite the halting start to at-school reading because of snow days last week, there has been an excellent response from the whole community! Indeed, we have recorded over 175,000 meteor-minutes in the first week of reading! We have traveled beyond Mercury!

"My kids love the theme" third grade teacher, Mrs. Asbury, told us. A big attraction has been the space Alien which has been hiding in the school. Indeed, the "space" theme has been a huge hit with both students and staff. It has captured just about everyone's imagination. Miss Jennings' first graders have even been creating posters for it!

Third grade is working on Earth Cycles at the moment, so the Read-A-Thon theme has offered a nice connection to curriculum. A number of the teachers have extended the Read-A-Thon into their class time activities. "We are going to start a recommended reading section in our classroom during this event." Mrs. Asbury said. Several of the grades 4-6 teachers have indicated to their class that participation in the Read-A-Thon is virtually "required" which has resulted in at least three classes having close to a 100% participation rate in the first week (way to go teachers!). And K-3 teachers have been very supportive by showing students how to complete their reading logs, making extra copies for kids who have lost them, and diligently keeping track of their at-school reading time.

Undoubtedly, the students are enjoying getting the participation prizes. "I had twelve out of twenty get something." Mrs. Asbury announced. So, hopefully the rest were inspired and their will be more little prizes handed out to third grade students next week! "I have a handful who are challenged and VERY motivated to win prizes for their reading." Ms Childers added.

One of the big features in the Read-A-Thon during the first week was the Dome Theater assembly. Terraset PTA Assemblies Program and the Read-A-Thon brought the Dome Theater to the school! The Dome is a Mobile Digital Theater featuring highly innovative, immersive, and educational programs. Programs correlate primarily with pk-8th grade curriculum and cover a broad range of subjects based in topics such as social studies, science, language arts, health, and technical subjects. "That assembly ROCKED" we were told.

"[The students] are coming in each day asking each other if they have read and how many minutes? " Mrs. Asbury laughed. Let's hope that enthusiasm carries the school to its 1,000,000 meteor-minute target!