Reading Relay fun for kids of all sizes

Cami Shaver reads to first grade students during the Reading Relay portion of Literacy Week. The reading activities week was sponsored by the PAC.

by Jered Engelking

For the elementary students, the week of Feb. 28 to March 4 was filled with Literacy Week excitement. The week involved a pick-a-book-and-read day, a book parade, a surprise author with a slithering reptile partner and to end it all a reading relay involving high school students.

On Monday, students celebrated pick-a-book-and-read day, with books purchased by the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC).

On Wednesday, 47 students paraded 41 mini-floats which represented their favorite children’s book. 

Kay Flemmer’s third grade class had five groups participate: Waverly Roorda and Carissa VanZee did “The Magic School Bus: Planets,” Madelyn DeJong and Brianna Massengale did “Taylor Swift,” Shelby Conger and Maddy McKeag did “The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Collection,” Tristen Moyer did “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” and Nathan Smith did “Bakugan.”

Students not participating sat outside their classrooms and watched the parade.

A surprise author, David Nieves, came on Thursday. Nieves is a herpetologist, one who studies reptiles and amphibians and is the author of “Reptiles Up Close” and “More Reptiles Up Close.”

Friday, Journalism students participated in the Reading Relay. Each Journalism student started in a different classroom and began to read. 

They read for three minutes and then ran to the next room and began reading from where a previous classmate had stopped. 

“The Reading Relay was a great way to get involved with the elementary," Alexa Wheaton said. "We had a lot of fun with the students. Hopefully with all of the activities the PAC group organized for the literacy week, the students will be more encouraged to continue to read.”