Read-a-thon Begins Tuesday!

gnomesIT IS COMING!
On Tuesday, February 18th, the annual McGuffey Montessori Read-a-thon kicks off and will last for 3 weeks. This is a wildly popular event that culminates on World Read-aloud Day on Wednesday, March 5th. The Read-a-thon Gnomes have been unpacked and are waiting to go!

WHY READ?
Educational researchers have found that there is a strong correlation between reading and academic success. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, “Reading is the single most important skill necessary for a happy, productive and successful life.”

Developing reading skills takes active engagement from an early age. The benefits of reading with and reading aloud to children include, increasing  vocabulary, increasing children’s understanding of academic language of text, and increasing children’s literacy development. Whether you are reading a novel, pouring over a newspaper or just looking at a sign, reading skills allow you to interpret and become engaged in the world around you.

The Educational Testing Service says that the more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher students are in reading proficiency and students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores. Text complexity of college and technical materials has increased tremendously over the last decade, making it all the more imperative that students read increasingly difficult text as they grow and mature.

SPONSORSHIP
The Read-a-thon is a fundraiser for The McGuffey library and writing program, to boost our catalog with more recent books. The fundraiser works through sponsors. This year, sponsors will give money based on how many minutes a child reads or is read to each day. Your child will bring home a booklet to list sponsors for all of those minutes as well as a log book.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

  • Start talking to your child about reading, building excitement about the Read-a-thon.
  • Visit the library for a stack of great books.
  • Watch for the sponsor and logbook to come home in your child’s bag.
  • Send the logbook to school each Friday so teachers can calculate progress toward our school wide goal of 20,000 minutes of reading.

INSPIRATION
Here are some ideas to be thinking about to make reading even more special during The McGuffey Montessori Read-a-thon:

  • Read in the bathtub
  • Read with a friend under a table
  • Read to a stuffed animal or pet
  • Read a poem

Ready, set, READ!

Elizabeth Taylor, Primary and Music
Read-a-thon 2014 Coordinator

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