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!