By Carey Levash, AJHS 7th Grade Parent
Knights of the Round Library Table (KRLT) Library Club.
Obviously the most important gift we can give our children is teaching them to teach themselves!
Giving them the ability to do this comes from communication. They need vocabulary words to achieve. Research has found that children learn 1 new word for every 1,000 read. An average reading time of 30 minutes a day offers them experience with 13.7 million words, between K-12th, banking them, 13,700 words in their concrete knowledge vault.
Is it enough? At Aptos Junior we are incentivizing this goal.
The Library at Aptos Junior High School holds an annual event each June to reward students for all their reading efforts. R.O.A.R. — Reward of All Readers, a Library program that will reward those who read books this school year. Some of our students are approaching 3 million words read!
During the last week of June, the Library will open its doors to the students and reward each of them with a prize for all their reading efforts during the school year. Our goal is to provide each student with a prize.
In order to achieve this goal, we are asking for your help. We need prizes, big-ticket items, gift cards, tiny high value goodies and money (we can shop for you). If you are able to donate, please do so, whatever your specialty may be! You can help give them some feedback, propel our community’s future and spread your business message to about 700 local families and their connections as well.
Past prizes have included: surfboards, computers, iPads, skateboards, iTunes cards, Amazon gift cards, Yogurtland, and even large boxes of treats. The R.O.A.R. prize giveaway will be held the first week of June. We need to inventory these prizes and monetary donations by May 10, 2019.
This will give us plenty of time to make sure we have a prize for every student. We’ll happily pick up your donation. Each student is provided a wristband based on the number of points they achieved during the school year.
Points are earned through our Accelerated Reader (AR) program. The students set a goal at the beginning of each quarter. They then read books and take AR quizzes where they receive points. After receiving their wristbands, they consecutively enter the Library.
Top 25 readers enter the Library first to pick their prize and so on until all students come through. One prize per student with top readers earning the top prizes.
Reading is fun and useful and let’s our students know there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Their hard work will be rewarded.
They love picking that special desired prize, and in the long run they’ll remember who provided it. Reading has the potential to expand so many horizons, please make a contribution to our program that benefits each student here at AJHS. Let’s keep these kids happy, healthy & wise. If you see any students about town, tell them to “Keep Reading!”
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For more information: Carey Levash [email protected]