A group of first graders get excited about Words On Your Shirt dress up day at Bowler Elementary

By Cyndi Goodrich

Moapa Valley Progress

Last week was Reading Week at Grant M. Bowler Elementary. Reading activities packed the school days with games and fun ways to get the kids excited about reading. The events were planned and managed by Bowler Librarian, Bryce Hardy and his library aide, Kathy Wheeler.

The goal for the week was for every student to earn at least 4.5 Accelerated Reading (AR) Points. AR points are earned by taking a test on the books you read. If every child reached this goal the school would earn a total of 2,500 points by the end of the week. The students surpassed the goal and earned over 3,000 points!

The week was filled many games and activities. One activity was Home Coupons. This was done by completing a specific reading activity at home the night before. The children were asked to read to someone over the phone or read by a flashlight or to an animal. The coupons were turned in for drawing prizes the following day.

Every morning at school a “mystery reader” would read a book. Children submitted guesses on who the mystery reader was and were entered in another drawing.

There was the popular Bingo and the even more popular BookWalk. Much like a Cake Walk students walked on numbers 1-32 and when the music stopped and a number was called the winning number received a prize.

Mrs. Nelson and Aubrey Waite dress like favorite book characters from Alice in Wonderland at Bowler Elementary

Reading Alerts were randomly called out throughout the day and students were to stop what they were doing and pick up a book to read for five minutes.

Dress-up days were a favorite part of the week. Kids dressed up like their favorite book character bringing kids to school as Harry, Hermione, Luna and Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series to school. There were Junie B. Jones and Cam Jansen, Alice, Fancy Nancy and Pinkilicious.

The most popular dress up day was clearly “Words On Your Shirt” day. This contest was to see who could have the most words on their shirt. The school was abuzz with white t-shirts and handwritten words. A few students were extra creative and strapped books to their shirts. A few even sewed on pockets to carry their books with them.

Students were invited to participate in a “Flash Mob.” The school made a music video about reading books called Readin’ in the U.S.A. New lyrics to Miley Cyrus’ Rockin’ in the U.S.A. were written and sung by school principal Shawna Jesson. It was filmed, quickly edited and played for the kids in the Awards assembly Friday afternoon to wrap up Reading Week. The video is available for parents to view at the school’s website at www.moapavalleyschools.org.

At the final awards ceremony trophies were given to top readers in each grade level.

“Watching the kids get so excited about reading is the best part of the whole week,” said librarian Bryce Hardy.