Fourth-grader Braden Wallace shows off his official page-count tally card and gets a hug from Elm Grove Elementary Principal Kathy Faulks after completion of his work in the Elm Grove Dads Club Reading Program. Braden’s pages-read count was the highest among all participants in the summer program. (Photo by Matt Moncada)
by MATT MONCADA
Special to the Hays Free Press
The Elm Grove Eagles Dads Club 2011 Summer Reading Program encouraged students from kindergarten through 5th grade to be active readers during the summer break. The primary goal of the club was to motivate and assist students in maintaining reading levels to begin the 2011-12 school year on track with a fast start.
The club, open to all Elm Grove Elementary students, rewarded students with a Summer Reading Pizza Party held at the school where they received a certificate and personal reading journal folder. Area businesses, private donors and the school faculty sponsored this successful educational project.
Program highlights included:
• 96 students were recognized for being active summer readers
• 160,644 minutes were read and logged
• 75 percent of active students met or exceeded their personal reading goals
• 1,673 average minutes read per student
• 8 percent school-wide attainment of program goal minutes.
Top readers, by grade level, included kindergarten students Blythe Balsdon, Rhylan Fuqua and Katie Schroeder; first graders Paul Guerra, Lorelei Watson and Heaven Farrar; second graders Aurora Peugh, Noah Mugan and Audrey Balsdon; third graders Brynn Sumers, Makayla Villanueva and Lila Robbins; fourth graders Braden Wallace, Dylan Smith and Curren Sumers; fifth graders Avery Arredondo, Cade Smith and Sarah Ragsdale; sixth graders Fox Burton, Cade Isbell and Robert Maldonado.
