Readers-to-Leaders Carnival

Readers-to-Leaders is a goal set for first graders each nine weeks that basically requires them to read a book each night at home from Monday-Thursday. No reading required on the weekend. There is a large chart as you enter the room so that the children can keep track of how many books they have read at any time. It is a ritual that will continue for a child's entire life at Chets Creek. Each nine weeks those children that make their goal get a certificate at the Awards Ceremony and then are treated to a special event arranged by the Principal. This year they got to watch the Principal get slimed, played Barnyard Bingo with the Principal, got to watch the Principal kiss a pig at a picnic and finally got to go to the carnival for this last nine weeks. The idea is to provide these over-the-top events to help the children remember to read each night. We reinforce that it is the child's responsibility to remember to get a "just right" book each morning and put it in his backpack. It is the child's responsibility to remind his parent that he needs to read and it is the child's responsibility to log the book and turn in the sheets. 24 of our 30 students met their yearly goal! Woo hoo! The children that did not meet the goal were disappointed when they did not get to attnd the carnival and it would have been easy to just let them go anyway, but it would not have helped them next year when they needed to read each night. After all, a child only gets better at reading by reading and making our children lovers of reading is what this program is all about!If your child got to go to the carnival, let him tell you all about the pictures below!