William Woodruff Elementary

As we’ve been sharing, the month of March was ‘Read Across America Month’ and throughout Berkeley Heights Public School District our students and staff have been participating in a variety of exciting and creative activities to commemorate this important event.

At William Woodruff Elementary School students had a blast celebrating. Families got in on the fun when they were invited to read with their child during classroom reading workshop time, community visitors came in as guest readers, and students completed Reading BINGO boards for fun ways to read at home.

The BINGO activity challenged students to complete BINGO boards at home by accomplishing different types of reading activities like reading on Facetime or in an empty bathtub or shower. Students who completed BINGO boards at home sent them back to school to be entered in the running to win a prize (a new book).

This week, a school-wide assembly was held to wrap-up Read Across America Month with all students and staff meeting up in the auditorium to participate in the ‘Masked Readers’ event. Teachers dressed in costumes to be "Masked Readers" and read stories and poems aloud to the school during the assembly. When they were done, the students took guesses on who the famous ‘masked reader’ might be!

Mrs. Rachel Shanagher, Reading Specialist at William Woodruff Elementary School commented, “Read Across America Month is a great opportunity to challenge our students to create reading goals with fun incentives and exciting events. We celebrated how reading can bring us together by making us happy, teaching us things, and making us laugh. The ‘Masked Reader’ idea was a collaborative effort inspired by our love for costumes, creativity and fun and the kids loved hearing stories from a mystery guest and trying to figure out who it might be.”

What an exciting and clever way to make reading even more enjoyable for our students!