Success Stories
The overwhelming success of the Read-a-thon program is due to the enthusiasm and creative energy of the participating schools.
Post your school’s success story by emailing info@kiwanisreadathon.org.
Cambridge St. Public
School : Established a staff committee to facilitate Read-a-thon implementation. Created a wall-mounted bookworm which extended from the first
to the second floor and back again. This provided great motivation
and awareness for students. The Public Library Bookmobile visited the school. Kick-off and final assemblies were held. Book prizes were given out, and the class with the most participation
won an extended recess. In recognition of its multilingual diversity, students were
encouraged to read in their first language.
Carleton Heights Public School : A storyteller visited the school. Daily, quiet school-wide reading was introduced. Due to its
success, this was continued for the remainder of the year.
Centennial Public School: “ At Centennial,
we decorated the halls with a Kiwanis Reading Railroad. Each car
was a book read by a student in the school. Our Reading Railroad
inspired the students to continue reading. We also began a DEAR
program in the classroom where all classes chose a time of day when
they would ‘drop everything and read’ for 20 minutes
a day for two weeks. ”
Chapel Hill Catholic School: “ Our goal
was to reach a certain number of minutes of reading, and if the
goal was reached, the principal would spend the day on the roof
of the school. We reached our goal.”
Christie Public School: “We hosted guest
authors, teachers as readers over the PA system of their favourite
books and we had a Young Author contest at the same time --where
our students created stories and read them to their classmates and
the school.”
Christie Public School: Grade 5 students built a pyramid to track the number of books
read. This activity dovetailed with the Grade 5 Social Studies
Ancient Civilizations Curriculum. Watching the pyramid build up
fascinated the younger students. Christie concluded its Read-a-thon with a “Christie Idol”
Talent Show with student performances of poems, music and dance.
Christie Public School: Our Grade 5 students organized a Young Author’s Project
to complete as part of the Read-a-thon. Each student in the school
wrote an original story and the best 3 stories from each class
read their stories to the whole school. There was a prize for
the best story in each class.
Connaught Public School : Teachers exchanged classes one afternoon to read their favourite
books. The Primary Division compiled a collection of original student
writing to "publish" in book form and display. Connaught instituted a book exchange — a public collection
that students may borrow from and add to at any time.
Connaught Public School: We invited special guests from the community to be readers
in the classes. Students put their names in a hat for every book that they
read. At the end of a week names were drawn and prizes were given
out. We lined the halls with a huge caterpillar, each segment of
his body was a book read by a student. A local author visited the school to read excerpts from his
books.
D. Roy Kennedy Public School: “ What worked
well at D. Roy: visit by an Olympic athlete who played volleyball
with the top readers, prizes for a bike and an IPOD (donated by
gordongroup), reading buddies, pyjama day (Buddies read with younger
students. All students gave their buddies a homemade gift bookmark),
Teacher’s Challenges! (i.e. at 500 books read teachers sang
Karaoke for the students, at 1,500 books read administrators of
the school skipped in the yard at recess, at 2,000 books read teachers
arm-wrestled at lunch for the students to see, at 3,000 books read
French teachers painted their faces, at 4,00 books read several
intermediate teachers dresses as ACDC, and finally at 5,000 books
read two teachers shaved their heads….A good time was had
by all! ”
D. Roy Kennedy Public School: Although we raised $5,876.00 we donated $1,100.00 to both Severn
and Regina Avenue Schools to help promote literacy in their schools.
Elmdale Public School: Students and teachers created a tree that bloomed in the front
hallway of the school – every day all students would record
how many pages they read during their 20 minute “Reading
Moment”.
General Vanier Public School: We had several special events during Read-a-thon to create
enthusiasm and friendly competition including: Smarties Challenges,
Mountain of Books (donated books), Character Days, and Guest Readers.
General Vanier Public School: To support the diverse ethno-cultural and multilingual student
populations, student handouts were translated before being sent
home to parents. General Vanier had students make posters to decorate school
halls. A bookworm was created, representing the hundreds of books
read. They launched a morning announcements contest. They held school-wide silent reading. Students and staff dressed-up as storybook characters. Fifty books were donated to the school. A Lynx baseball player attended the wrap-up assembly.
Hopewell Avenue Public School: Students pasted peace doves in huge trees outside their classroom
doors to track reading success. Story telling was the curriculum tie-in for the junior division,
with workshops organized for all junior grades. An African folklorist entertained the Primary/Junior students
with an amazing storytelling hour. Visiting poets, authors, and illustrators as well as writers
workshops were organized. Pizza prize lunches were awarded to classes with 100% participation,
and “movie dates” were awarded to the highest reading
class in each division. A morning announcements contest was introduced with excellent
results in the Primary/Junior divisions.
Le Phare Elementary School: LePhare read a Robert Munsch book to all the classes to get
them excited about the event. Primary classes enthusiastically tracked a Giant Earthworm
to track books read. Students read pieces of their own writing during morning announcements. Everyone participated in DEAR — “Drop Everything
And Read” — at the same time.
Our Lady Peace of Peace Catholic School: A kick-off assembly got things off to a fun start. A baseball theme was used to keep track of books read; “baseball
players” were put up as books were read. The “players”
quickly encircled the school. Authors visited the school.
R. Byrns Curry Public School: “ We had a
treasure box theme this year and for every 5 picture books or 1
chapter book read a student got a paper gold coin which they attached
to the hallway wall. We started at a treasure box and we got all
the way around the school and ended up back at the box. ”
R. Byrns Curry Public School: Shawn Williamson, our reading Champion, came to read to the
Grade 4 students. His book about a hockey hero was very popular
with the children. The Lynx baseball team also presented an assembly on the benefits
of reading and the pitcher read a baseball story to Grade 2 students. Very popular with students was the parent volunteers who read
in the classrooms. A local author read his stories to the Junior students which
students enjoyed the visit very much.
Regina St. Public School: “ We started the
Read-a-thon with a kick-off book swap. Students brought in books
they had read ands swapped them for others. We tracked minutes read
in 20 minutes blocks instead of books or pages. This levelled the
playing field for everyone no matter the grade, reading level or
type of book that they read. We constructed a bookworm that wound
around the school, with children adding a segment for each 20 minutes
they read. We held a literacy day where invited guests talked to
students about how important literacy is and how they use and need
reading and writing in their work. ”
Robert Bateman Public School: Robert Bateman incorporated the Kiwanis Read-a-thon into their
Early Literacy Initiative, launching it in the Kindergarten and
primary divisions. They hosted guest readers. Children created a bookworm to track their reading success. Bateman is planning a school-wide Read-a-thon in 2004.
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School: Junior classes were paired with Primary students for “Reading
Buddies”. All students participated, in Read-a-thon, including special
needs and blind students. Students created a CD of Read-a-thon photos to be shown at
their Read-a-thon assembly, as well as to parents to raise awareness
and promote literacy. They plan to use the CD to promote future
Read-a-thons.
Severn Avenue Public School: Severn held a book swap where students exchanged books with
each other. Books left over from a School Council book sale were used to
reward each child for participating in Read-a-thon.
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