Celebration of Reading! A whole day of FUN!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Today I want to tell you all about the Celebration of Reading that my school's fabulous PTA sponsors every year. It really is the best day of the whole year! Plus it celebrates what we teach every. single. day. and helps to teach the kids that READING IS FUN! What could be better?

{I originally posted the pic above on Instagram. Click here to follow me!}

One of my favorite parts is that almost all of the teachers and staff dress up as their favorite book characters! The kids love figuring out who everyone is. :) 

I went as Jack, from the  Magic Tree House series, of course. 

(Click here to read my post on our Magic Tree House projects.)

I made a tree for my door, and Henry, the pteranodon even came by for a visit. 

 

Our secretary dressed as Pinocchio and even had her puppet strings attached to the ceiling above her desk. Needless to say, she's awesome! 

I'm sure you can figure out who this Kindergarten teacher is dressed as. Love it! :) 

Our amazing PTA president is famous for her costumes. Last year she was an Oompa Loompa. This year she topped that with her The Tortoise and the Hare ensemble! She and her team of awesome parents are in charge of the entire day! Teachers don't have to plan a thing. Can you see why it's the best day ever?!

The amazing parent below was also in charge of Teacher Appreciation Week. That may need it's own post, it was so wonderful. She took a week's vacation to be at school all day every day for the entire week, coordinating food and little gifts for the staff! To top it off, she won Nurse of the Year from one of our hospitals in the same week! 

Ok, so the way the Celebration of Reading works is that every month, all students K-5 have the opportunity to earn up to three "Book Bucks" by reading a certain number of books or pages (depending on grade level) at home and recording them on a sheet like this: 

It runs from September to April, so they can earn a maximum of 24 Book Bucks. Those students who have earned all 24 are considered "Super Readers" and are given VIP status, can dress as a book character, and get a free book! 

For First Grade, our Celebration of Reading day began in the gym (every grade level has a different schedule), where all of the kids could spend their Book Bucks on games, inflatables, snow cones, face painting, and more! It's a real-life carnival in our gym! But it's even better because we can just let them loose to choose their own activities. There is a TON of supervision, but the kids don't feel like we're hovering over them. 

My kids had a blast! 

I caught these two enjoying their sodas (because what seven year old wouldn't love soda at 8:30 in the morning?!) and deciding what to do next. You can see the Book Bucks in the hand of the boy on the left, and their yellow bracelets indicate that they are "Super Readers!" The bags are for any loot they acquire during the event. 

Next I spotted some STARS at the face painting stations. Spray on hair color was also a choice. :) 

Did I mention there were nachos? Seriously this day is a kid's dream come true!

We even had some community members come dressed as characters! How awesome is that?! And people, it was HOT in our gym that day. This was a sweaty couple of characters, but the kids loved having them there!

Finally, I caught up with some STARS playing games. The games were all run by students from the middle school our kids will attend. So. Much. Fun!

When we left the gym, we headed back to our room to settle down for a few minutes with a little Read to Self and Read to Someone before my "Super Readers" headed down to the Book Fair in the library to choose their free books!

After lunch, our next stop was to see the Mad Science demonstration.

This was so cute…see the boy in the front row directly in front of the Mad Scientist? He and several other little guys were holding their eyes open with their fingers because the scientist said, "don't blink, or you'll miss it." Seriously, how adorable!

Then my kids got to attend a Trix Stix demonstration. I didn't take any pictures, though, because homeroom teachers got to have our plan period while our kids were there!
I'm telling you, Celebration of Reading rocks!

Plus, I needed a few minutes to frantically put together put the finishing touches on my kids' Mother's Day gifts. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! But they turned out SO cute!

I picked my STARS up just in time to wrap up our gifts and get ready for dismissal!
What a fabulous day!

I can't thank our amazing PTA enough for this wonderful annual event.

And now the countdown is on!
I can't believe we only have nine days of school left!