Middlebury Elementary School Students Celebrate Reading

On Friday, April 10, Middlebury Elementary School students and staff gathered in the gym for a school wide celebration of their month-long Read-A-Thon. The excitement could definitely be heard and seen on the students’ faces as the celebration got started that afternoon, according to a press release from the MES PTO.

Together, MES students read a total of 249,987 minutes during the month of March — that’s over 4,000 hours! Prizes were awarded at each grade level to the student with the most minutes overall and the second most minutes.

Each first place winner received a $25 gift certificate to the MES Spring Book Fair and a MES T-Shirt, while the runner up received a $10 gift certificate to the MES Spring Book Fair. Classroom prizes were also distributed.

The classroom at each grade level with the most minutes read earned a special class prize and to Adopt-A-Book for the school library.

Additionally, Mrs. Butler’s third grade class was awarded the trophy for the being the top classroom overall and got to take a victory lap at the ceremony. During the Read-A-Thon, MES partnered with the Middlebury Public Library and had 70 students participate in a scavenger hunt at the Library.

Throughout the Read-A-Thon the students enjoyed many fun events. The first event, which kicked off the month-long celebration, was a Character Parade where the students and staff got to dress up as their favorite book character and paraded around the school. Other events included the Guest Reader Day, Family Read Aloud Night and Book Exchange as well as Drop Everything and Read Day and a Spirit Day.

The Read-A-Thon also raised over $3,600 for the school. These funds support programs and activities that all MES students enjoy such as our Cultural Arts Program, Author/Illustrator Visits, Ice Cream Social, and Teacher Grant Program.

The MES PTO would like to thank all the students for their excellent reading during the Read-A-Thon, all the families for the support of reading efforts and to all staff for encouraging the students and coordinating the fun events as well as thank Miss Jan LeDuc at the Middlebury Public Library.

Photos provided by Ana M. Jordan, MES PTO Publicity Coordinator