Photo provided by the author
McAlister students Madelyn Eckley and Joshua Zenczak read to Spaulding kindergartener Tay Campagnola in Mrs. Reinhard’s kindergarten classroom, while The Cat in the Hat, aka Mr. Dunn, looks on.
Thursday, March 2, marked the twentieth anniversary of Read Across America Day. This is the National Education Association’s annual reading motivation and awareness program that asks for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss.
The school communities of Spaulding and McAlister came together to celebrate this day. All K–5 students started the day together at Spaulding School, sharing in joint morning meetings and buddy reading with favorite books. Each school also enjoyed their own Drop Everything and Read time as well as a parade through the buildings to admire the classroom doors, which were decorated with scenes from each class’s favorite book. The day also introduced our March Reading Challenge, in which students and staff are encouraged to read and record the number of books they read at home during the month. Our goal, as a K–5 community, was to read 5,000 books by the end of March.