Media Center: News

Mrs. Garwood's 5th grade students reached their reading goal the fastest in the Library Media Center's 2nd IditaREAD event. Students are holding their IditaREAD certificates. Mrs. Garwood is holding the team dog sled used for the race.

IditaREAD winners announced

All Elementary students make a "cool" reading effort

by Jolene Klein

March 19, 2008

The Wakefield Library Media center sponsored its 2nd IditaREAD event, coinciding with the annual Alaska Iditarod race, known as the "last great race on Earth." Each of the elementary classes was a dogsled team & each designed their own dogsleds for the IditaREAD race. All teams needed to collectively read over 1000 "miles," depending on their classroom reading goals.

The 5th grade class from Mrs.Deb Garwood's room made their reading goal within 5 days of the race. Each student's goal was to read at least 10 pages at their reading level a day. Each of these 5th graders was able to read an average of 55 pages a day per student, for a total of 273 pages for the 5 days. This class of 17 managed to read a total of 4,641 pages in 5 days. What a great job! Mrs. Garwood's 5th grade students were treated to ice cream bars for this feat, and as promised, a picture on the school web page.

While one class gets the honor for the first place finish, Mrs. Klein calls ALL of the elementary students winners for reading. Competition was stiff among the 14 teams. Miss Snyder's 5th grade class finished 2nd, and Mrs. Muller's Kindergarten class was 3rd. The "Red Lantern" award, traditionally given to the last place dog sled team in the Alaska Iditarod race, because just to finish is a huge achievement, was awarded to Ms. Fischer's class, who finished the race in 9 days. All elementary students received reading certificates for reaching their goals, and non-first place finishers were also given a "cool" Yorkshire mint.

Mrs. Klein congratulates all of the elementary students for all the reading done for this event, and strongly encourages everyone to make time to read each day. Thanks also go out to parents and teachers for supporting their children's reading efforts.