Monmouth Junction Elementary School Launches Annual Reading Rally

A gym full of excited students at Monmouth Junction Elementary School greeted the beginning of the annual Reading Rally this week, a month long contest to challenge students and their parents to get involved with reading.

"This is something that improves school spirit and gets the kids to be positive about reading outside the school," said Principal Maribeth Edmunds.  "This program impresses upon all the students that the whole school is behind them and teaches them to love reading."

The Reading Rally encourages students to read at home while their parents keep a log of the total number of minutes their kids spend reading each day.  The students then bring in the log on Mondays for their minutes to be calculated.  

Each week the school has benchmarks for the combined total of minutes for the students to earn a prize.  If the students reach 50,000 combined minutes, they get a friendship lunch, where they can sit wherever they want in the cafeteria instead of just with their class.  If they reach 100,000 minutes, the students get a night of no homework, a prize that received thunderous applause from the students during the Rally.

If the students reach 150,000 minutes, they get a movie day and if they reach 200,000 minutes by Feb. 28, the students get Crazy Principal Day where Dr. Edmunds has a special surprise for them.  Last year when the students reached the benchmark, she drove up to the school on a motorcycle while wearing a chicken costume.

"I don't have any plan yet for what I'm going to do this year," Edmunds said.  "It's going to be pretty hard to top motorcycle chicken."

The conclusion of the program will be celebrated on March 2, to celebrate Read Across America Day.  But the school staff is hopeful the program, in its tenth year at Monmouth Junction, will stay with the students long after the conclusion.

"This gives them the motivation to read outside the school where they don't have to do it, but they want to do it," said Language Arts Committee Chair Beth Caruso.  "After the program is over they continue to read at home and they learn that reading can be fun."

Parents can even get in on the Rally this year, as they're invited to log their own minutes reading to see if they can outdo the students.  When asked during the Rally if their parents were going to read more than them, the students responded in unison, "NOOOOOO!!!!!"

Caruso said each year the Reading Rally is a favorite of the students and is timed at a perfect time of year, when temperatures are cold and sports are scarce.

"The kids get so enthused about this every year," she said.  "It brings everyone together because the main point is that they're working together, as a school, for something."