Orcas Elementary Meets Ambitious Reading Goals

Orcas Island School Cafeteria is jammed with students jazzed about their participation in "Read Across America"

Teachers Mandy Randolph, left, and Suzanne McClure, join in the excitement at the "Read Across America" Assembly

Principal Freeman concedes he will be occupying the roof

Orcas Elementary students set reading goals in each classroom for the month of February. If they fulfilled all these goals, Principal Kyle Freeman agreed that he would spend one full day (to be determined!) on the school roof.

At their annual Read Across America Assembly, in celebration of children’s author Dr. Seuss, the entire Elementary School, students and teachers, gathered this morning, March2, to celebrate.

Many of the classes agreed to read 100 books in February, and a few classes struck more elaborate goals in their bargain with Mr. Freeman:

• Marny Gaylord’s 4th-graders agreed to read an average of 25 pages a day for four days a week, but they rose to the challenge to read and average of 25 pages a day EVERY day of the week, for a total of 17,563 pages;
• Marilyn Storey’s 5th-graders each read a historical fiction book about a Revolutionary War character;
• Paula Towne’s 6th-graders all read non-fiction and biographies.

Upon claiming the prize for the elementary students, Susan Stolmeier, School Reading Specialist who organizes the event each year, recited “Up on the Roof.”

Elementary teachers performed a reading of  the Dr. Seuss classic, All the Places You’ll Go.