Literacy Laina

Alaina is well known for her love of reading and learning.  It is--in fact--unusual to see her without a book in her hand, especially during this past month as she has participated in her school's love of reading challenge.

 

 

In the past, this challenge was called the "reading Olympics," and the three students in each class with the top scores for number of minutes read during February received gold, silver, and bronze medals.

 

Alaina earned gold in both kindergarten and grade one, along with gift cards to her school's book fairs, so when she came home dejected on the first day of the reading challenge, I was a little surprised.

 

It turns out that the school changed the activity: instead of the kids with the most reading minutes receiving medals or prizes, the teachers would draw names from the children who turned in their reading logs on time.  Whether they read 10 minutes or 1000 minutes, their chances of winning would be the same (sort of a celebration of promptness in turning in assignments?).

 

I encouraged Alaina to set a reading goal for herself and do her best anyway, and--not surprisingly at all--she did exactly that.  Alaina told me she would read at least an hour every day, and ended the month with well over 2000 minutes.

 

At the school there is an assembly each month to honor a student who exemplifies a principle they are focusing on, and--also not surprisingly--Alaina's teacher chose her to represent literacy, the focus for this month.

 

 

 

And this weekend she and Eric put on their own "Literacy Day" at home, making posters about literacy and encouraging everyone to read.  Eric was dancing around the house saying, "It's Literacy Day!" (Thanks to Alaina--and storytime at the library--he actually knows what that means!)

 

So--Literacy Laina . . . I like the sound of that :)