Students in Emily Wickland’s class at Ealy Elementary held a reading campout on Friday, Sept. 14 where they laid on the floor and read their favorite books by flashlight.
WHITEHALL – Students in teacher Emily Wickland’s Ealy Elementary School third grade class began the school year with a reading campout in their classroom to encourage to be lifelong readers.
The reading campout was held on Friday, Sept. 14.
“That’s our goal here to build lifelong readers,” said Wickland as her students enjoyed eating S’mores to wrap up the reading event.
As part of the campout, students laid on the carpeted classroom floor to read their favorite books by flashlight or an electric campfire to imitate reading by a campfire.
After the individual reading, the students joined David Hundt, director of Accountability and Compliance for Whitehall District Schools, who accompanied the students on guitar and led them in singing a song called, “It’s Gonna Be A Good Book,” to the tune of the popular Black Eyed Peas hit, “I Gotta Feeling.”
Ealy Principal Amy Major-Burton joined Hundt and the students in singing a song to the tune of “I’m Yours,” by Jason Marz.
The reading campout ended with the eating of S’mores.
Wickland said the campout was a successful start to the new unit of the school’s Reading Workshop unit called, “Building a Reading Life.”
“We’re celebrating our lives as readers and hoping to grow those lives,” she added. “The students are obviously having a wonderful time.”
The activity is aimed at building the students’ reading stamina, and to help them “fall in love with books and in love with reading,” she said.
In the reading portion of the campout, Wickland said her students were invited to bring some of their favorite books from home, and books from their book bag which has books at their just right reading levels.
The Reading Workshop program helps to show what reading to self looks like, and modeling it for the students, Wickland said.