February was “I Love to Read” month and Central Elementary spent the whole month celebrating and promoting reading, culminating in our annual Read-a-thon fundraiser. Overall, students brought in $14,550 in pledge money for the Read-a-thon! Andrea Kolstad said, “Time and time again, it’s amazing the amount of support we get from the community…and we love that this fundraiser supports students reading.” This money is used to support events, such as Literacy Night and Family Fun Night, help provide scholarships for field trips, and of course, buy books and magazines for students.
For any money brought in, students received prizes based on a scale, such as sunglasses, a #1 foam finger, a t-shirt, and even booster club certificates. All of the prizes showcased Raider Pride and included the Central Raiders logo. Parent volunteers were instrumental in counting money and distributing prizes. For every $10, students also were able to put their name on a ticket for a raffle drawing. Sets of books were given away and the grand prizes were two Kindle Fires. The K-2 grand prize winner was Hudson Villalva and our 3-5 grand prize winner was Bailey Moehring.
Other activities included a contest for minutes read outside of school. K-2 classrooms had the goal of 2500 minutes, while students in grades 3-5 read 4000 minutes. Each class who met this goal earned an extra recess time and every single class rose to the challenge! A door decorating contest showed off favorite read-alouds, favorite winter books, or supported “I Love to Read” themes. Every afternoon, a vocabulary word was introduced called “Word of the Day” and this was shared over the intercom, signaling students to "Drop Everything And Read." On the last day, students wore pajamas and had guest readers come into classrooms to read out loud. The youth librarian from Carver County came to be a guest reader as well. Another activity classes could choose to participate in was “Mystery Readers.” Students would listen to the story for clues to see if they could figure out which staff member was the Mystery Reader. It’s a great month to celebrate reading - and to celebrate Central!