District celebrates Reading Month with activities that foster joy of reading

Reading Month is always a special time in the Auburn Enlarged City School District, when all of our five elementary schools celebrate the love of reading throughout March.
Each school held a Reading Spirit Week with each day featuring a theme, such as wearing your favorite hat, dressing in pajamas, or wearing clothes with an animal print.
At Seward Elementary, students had the opportunity to dress up as their favorite book characters; other schools also held similar activities. Seward also held a book trade-in event where students traded in their used books for ones they hadn’t read.

“As a school librarian, I hope to create relationships between students and reading that lasts beyond school,” said Brianne Neabel, Seward’s Library Media Specialist. “I hope to offer a spark that can be fostered through positive engagement and an environment that encourages the joy and fulfillment that books can offer. Reading Month to me, is a highlight of the reading-positive environment that the students have created within the schools and allow the staff and students to celebrate the fun and importance of reading!”
All of our schools held Drop Everything and Read drills. Unannounced drills occur throughout the month, when an announcement is made that students must drop what they are doing and read for about 15 minutes.
Some schools held book brackets, like a March Madness basketball tournament. Students

read two books in each bracket and vote for their favorites. The winners advance, and one book is declared champion.
As part of its family engagement event, Genesee Elementary held a Scholastic book fair in the library.
During its school assemblies, Genesee held a fun event, inspired by the “Masked Singer” TV show. The Masked Reader featured staff members in costumes reading from Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham.” Students had to guess who they were.
Genesee Elementary students were challenged to read 3,500 books during Reading Month, with the incentive that Principal Mary Claire Pineau and Assistant Principal Tommy Honors would be taped to a wall.
The students exceeded that goal and Pineau and Honors will live up to their end of the challenge when they will be taped to a wall in April.