Read Across Riverbank is underway with a month full of activities for students to participate in, hosted throughout Riverbank Unified School District to promote reading.
March is a National Month of Reading and for the last four years Riverbank After School Programs and school day efforts have collaborated to create a month filled with events to engage students in reading challenges and activities that encourage literacy.
In the past students have been challenged by each other to read the most books. Every March with all the students combined they have read over 3,000 books and/or articles.
Dr. Seuss’s Birthday was March 2 and in celebration, students dressed up as their favorite Dr. Seuss character or wore red and white.
To start the Read Across Riverbank event, students from each grade competed in a door decorating contest using class favorite books during the week of Feb. 29 through March 4. One student from each grade will be selected to judge the contest. The winning class will win a set of books and a Balloon Car STEM Kit.
The theme this year is “Bringing Stories to Life” and the elementary challenge is “Books in a Jar” where each student must fill out a book slip for every book read. They will compete by grade and the grade that reads the most books out of the three elementary schools: Mesa Verde, California Avenue, and Riverbank Language Academy will win an ice cream party.
Cardozo Middle School and RLA Middle School students in grades six through eight will compete in the “articles in a jar” challenge where they will read magazine articles, newspaper articles, or articles on the Internet. The grade that reads the most articles will win an ice cream party. To help promote reading, students are asked to read an article or two as homework and fill out an article in a jar slip. Slips will be provided for them in the library at their school site and need to be filled out completely and turned in to the librarian.
Every week there will be a drawing from the jars, and a giveaway of a backpack per grade. This year they will be drawing one completed book slip per grade. The winners will win a backpack with a book, a book marker and a pencil.
The week of March 14 through 18 schools in the district will have guest readers read to a class.
On Thursday, March 24 there will be a Readers Theater Show at California Avenue from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Students are encouraged to participate with their class. They must practice acting out a familiar story in their own way. Sign-ups were posted during the week of Feb. 24 through March 4. There will be a 12 minute slot allotted for each performance. Bus transportation to California Avenue can be provided if they get school day participation. All performances will take place on the outdoor stage, weather permitting.
