Rules of the Reading Challenge

Overview

Every March, Happy Kids holds a reading challenge for both ASLA and Day Program to encourage more independent reading by our students. The reading challenges are always thematic, and this year, the theme for our reading challenge is our solar system. The Challenge this year is called "That's So Seuss! Reading Challenge".  Our challenge this year is an opportunity for kids to explore the works of possibly the greatest children's book author of all time, Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. As kids read this year, they will race other teams through a bibliography of Dr. Seuss's works, and hopefully they will also read a variety of his books this month as well.

During the reading challenge, students are divided into four mixed-grade teams on which they will compete against their peers from their own classes and others. The objective of our reading challenge is to encourage our students to read more independently and more often. 

To participate, students are given a reading passport and should record the amount of minutes they spend reading each day in it. Those minutes will will help the student's team race into first place. The team with the most minutes will be the winners and awarded an awesome prize. Minutes will be logged here so students can easily check their team's progress at any time.

Rules to Remember

• 1. Only reading done independently counts toward the challenge. While it is great to read to your child, please count only the time your child spends reading on his or her own. There is an exception for A-K students. Kindergartners may count the minutes read to them at home as well.

  2. Only reading done in English counts.

  3. Books, magazines, blogs, newspapers, online literature, poetry, and news websites are all accepted media that students can get credit for reading. Reading signs, ads, movie and TV captions, and reading in video games DO NOT count as reading minutes.

  4. All reading minutes must be written down in the student's passport and signed for by a parent or other adult to count toward the challenge. Please check your child's reading passport daily.

  5. Cheating is not allowed. Please encourage your child to report reading times honestly. Students caught cheating may lose the opportunity to participate.

  6. Have fun! Reading is not meant to be work. Help your child find interesting and exciting material to read. This is an opportunity to grow our students' reading habits.

Reading Passports

Each student on each team will be given a reading passport. This passport is important for two reasons. First, it will hold the student’s reading log. For minutes spent reading to count toward the challenge, a student must record her time on the log in her passport and have it signed by a parent or other adult in their home to show they did in fact read for that amount of time. The passport holds pages for 16 different "stops" during the race to the end. When a team reaches one of these "stops", students on that team can get a stamp from their teachers to record the accomplishment and complete the "Seuss Quest" questions on the pages for extra reading minutes for their group. In the back of the passport is also a Challenge Book Bingo activity. Students can read the Challenge Books on the Bingo Card and get extra minutes for each line of four they read. Students can check the big map on the 3rd floor or the online data sheet to know which groups have reached destinations.

Special bonuses will be awarded each Wednesday of the Challenge for the teams that read the most over the weekend. This is the Weekend Challenge Bonus. Encourage your kids to choose reading as a leisure activity over the weekends during this month instead of TV or video games. On Monday, March 31 there will be a special Ultimate Challenge Book Quiz Game where each team will face off in a quiz game competition over their knowledge of the Challenge Books. The winners will get a big point bonus that good change the state of the race, so encourage your child to read those Challenge Books in the library.

Passports will be passed out to students before the 228 Memorial Day break, and their ASLA teachers will explain the passports and other rules of the challenge at that time. Students should be reminded to take care of their passports and to bring them to school everyday with their recorded reading times so they can help their team and get stamps in their passport and win the challenge. A lost passport will cost the student's team 60 reading minutes to replace.

Logging Reading Time

For teams to move their tokens, students on that team must log reading time. Students are responsible for logging their own reading minutes and showing them to a parent to sign. To get credit, the student must show her passport to her ASLA teacher when she gets to school. The teacher will review it to make sure it has been signed and then record the minutes read. Minutes that are not signed off on by a parent will not be counted. Please help your child by asking about the passport and reading she has done during the day. If you show interest in her reading, she will too.

Winners

Yes, we will have a winning team for the reading challenge. The winners will be the team that has logged the most reading minutes by reading time, bingos, or Seuss Quest questions. The winning team will be announced at the Reading Challenge Finale on Monday, March 31.