Saturday, March 1, 2014

All We Did Was Read

Friday was our school's kick off to Read Across America Week and the Read the Most from Coast to Coast Reading Challenge through Accelerated Reader.  So you know what we did ALL day?  READ! Yep, no math, no writing, no science. (We did have specials...the kids needed to run around and refresh themselves.)

How did it go?

Wonderfully!

Our 4th grade started out the day with a special breakfast.  The teachers brought in scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit.  The kids loved it!


Then, after our morning specials, we got busy reading.  The kids could wear PJ's and bring a blanket for "Blanket and Books Day."  (Didn't have to tell them twice!)

We also took lots of AR quizzes...
When a student took an AR quiz and passed with a score of 85% or higher, they got to sign our whiteboard.
                        
Look at all those names!
Our school had a goal of reading 5 million words on Friday.  At 9:30, we were off and running.
Did we meet our goal?  Unfortunately, we did not.  However, we came pretty close...
One of my students was pretty upset because she was reading one of the Lightening Thief books (a really thick one).  She read and read...but at 3:00 when the contest ended, she still had 40 pages so she didn't get to quiz.  She felt that if she had finished and quizzed on the book, our school would have met our goal.  I told her that I admired her spirit at reading a really long book and that 4.7 million words was amazing in and of itself.

The other part of our day of reading was the challenge between 4th and 5th grades to see who could earn the most points.  The winner.....4th grade!  YAY!!

Our day of reading was so much fun and the kids were so pumped!  When 3:00 came around, they were upset that the day was over.  Talk about motivated readers!  So with that, I am linking up with my buddy Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else motivated their kiddos this week.
I hope you will join me on Sundays for my weekly linky, A Peek at My Week to give us a look at your upcoming week.  See you tomorrow!

8 comments:

  1. I LOVE this idea!! I'm in charge of organising our school's book week later in the year, and was looking for something big that we could do across the whole week (or maybe just like you guys did on the Friday). My big burning question is though, how did you track how many words were read? Is there a website you can go to to track how many words are in a book or something?
    Erin
    Learning to be awesome

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  3. What a fun day! Congratulations on your win!
    We don't have AR at our school, but I love the idea of a full day of reading. There's no better way to kick of Right to Read week than that!

    Thank you!
    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth

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  4. I love the idea of your school having a 5 million word gaol. Way to go 4th grade on beating the 5th graders. Florida does a Million Minute Marathon where count up how many minutes every one in the state reads on one certain day. I always love that day because we do pajamas and reading all day too!
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  5. Whatta fun day! Such a nice way to break up the everyday schedule, and the kids get so excited about going to school just because it's a little different.
    I like your idea of Blankets and Books. Combine that with Flashlight Friday and you've got yourself a really fun motivator! : )

    Ali
    Teaching Powered by Caffeine

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  6. This looks like the perfect way to kick off Read Across America Week! I love the whiteboard idea and I think I may be stealing that one!!
    Courtney

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  7. What a great way to get kids excited about Read Across America! I love that your whole school participated and love it even more that 4th grade won! Whoop Whoop! I wish we could read all day! Plus, any time you get to wear pajamas, anything is more fun! Thanks for sharing and linking up!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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  8. What a fun day! I had to leave early (again) unexpectidly so I didn't get to send any of my kiddos to you, but I sure did look like you all had a blast!!!! :) We sure came close to that goal! Way to go, SC!
    Ana
    Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard

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