March is Reading Month and our elementary school is celebrating! Grades K-5 set and exceeded their goal of 600 books for the month and met last week to set a new goal. 4th Grader Gillian Crowder gave this report:

“Today at CTA, students are reading like crazy! It’s a reading frenzy! The elementary students had a goal of 600 books, and they have already read 853 books as of last Wednesday, March 20th. With one week left, can the elementary students reach their new goal of 1000 books, or will the frenzy fail? Stay tuned to find out if they’ll meet their goals.”

School Leader, Dan George, reads to the CTA 2nd graders

The elementary grade levels of Creative Technologies Academy challenged one another to a reading race throughout the month of March. Since March was designated throughout the State of Michigan as “Reading Month” the first grade made a challenge to the rest of the elementary at a kick-off celebration in late February. When asked about the challenge, Mrs. Jamie Pressler, first grade teacher and originator of the challenge said, “Utilizing a school-wide challenge is not only fun for everyone involved, but it truly gets the kids’ noses in books because they want to read and do well to help their classes, not just because they have to.” The challenge stated that if a student reads for a certain length of time with an adult then those minutes allowed their class to move the racecar along the “reading racetrack” in an effort to win the race!

Every Monday and Thursday the entire elementary school came together to cheer on their race car, as the teachers were able to move their cars according to how many minutes their class read that week. Kyle Bohl, Director of Student Services stated, “It was great to hear young people reading throughout our classrooms, hallways, offices and playground throughout March. Students took charge of their own learning and when that happens it’s definitely authentic.” Many students were able to read with an adult of their choice at school if they did not have an opportunity to read at home with a parent or guardians.

A celebration of enjoying rootbeer floats as an entire elementary was the culmination to a wonderful month full of reading. The class with the most minutes read was honored in an extra special way, however, with this race, everyone won!

Four happy first graders show off their library cards at the Kent Theatre.

In what’s become an annual event, first graders at Cedar Trails Elementary and Creative Technologies academy were invited to celebrate “March is Reading Month” by getting their library cards. This is the 15th year of the event.

Cedar Springs Public Library Director Donna Clark visited Creative Technologies Academy to hand out envelopes with special invitations to 20 first graders and families of Mrs. Presler’s class to get a new library card. Shannon Vanderhyde, Children’s Parapro for the Cedar Springs Public Library and Sara Magnuson, Children’s Parapro for Sand Lake/Nelson Township Library and Kent District Library presented the special invitation letters to the 11 classes at Cedar Trails on February 22, which included about 270 students.

All students who registered for or already had a library card were invited to see a special showing at the Kent Theatre of “The Adventures of Tin Tin” on Monday and Tuesday this week. About 212 first-graders and family members attended the event.

Cedar Springs children’s author Amanda Litz was on hand to raffle off three books each evening from her “Sam and Pam can and you can, too” series.

Mrs. Presler’s class at Creative Technologies Academy were happy to be invited to get their library cards.

Clark said they are appreciative of their partnership with the Kent Theatre in this endeavor. “It’s really great to have a theatre in your own hometown,” she said.

Clark also paid tribute to Cedar Springs resident Mike Metzger, who started the annual drive. “The library card drive began all those years ago because Mike Metzger had a dream and a passion to see that every child in the first grade had a better chance of becoming a proficient reader early on. It was his idea to start a Library Card Drive through the Library, and he is as passionate today as he was then,” she said.

Mrs. Sendler’s class at Cedar Trails were also happy to be invited to get their library cards.

Students in Mr. Moleski’s fourth grade class are showing their team spirit to celebrate March is Reading Month. The students wore red on Tuesday, black on Wednesday, and white on Thursday.
The challenge for these students is to read 20,000 minutes as a class in the month of March.  The students all wear the same color clothes to show unity in their goal; they are like a team and they all must rely on each other. Plus, the students think it looks cool when they walk around the school!