Celebration Station

School:: Parkside Elementary
Subject:: Language Arts
Teacher:: Tiffany Wind
: Marlene Ashley, Dr. Tricia Cunningham
Students Impacted:: 550
Grade:: Pre K - 5
Date:: September 13, 2021

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Yasmin Saad and Matthew Doyle - $322.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 550

During the 2021-2022 academic school year Parkside Elementary has been able to host 2 academic carnivals and will be planning a final one at the end of the school year. During the academic carnivals students are awarded tickets for their participation in academic incentives in the academic areas of reading, math, and science. While implementing this at Parkside this year we have seen many students interest in academic areas increase, while students share how they are improving in their reading and math abilities. Students are seen more frequently on campus checking out books for independent reading and we are seeing an increased authentic love of reading on our school campus. Compared to last year, students in grades K-5 have significantly increased the amount of books read this year. On these special days students can spend their tickets on a variety of carnival games and earn prizes. This is also an additional opportunity for our families and volunteers to assist on campus helping to encourage and strengthen our relationships with our community members. Students and staff have both shared that they have enjoyed adding this celebration to our school to recognize and reward students for working hard in their academic areas of study.

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Our goal is to support our students in developing a lifelong love for reading and developing reading habits that promote reading for enjoyment, choice, and interest. Research shows that students engaged in reading texts that they enjoy will apply more effort, display more stamina and engage in more decoding strategies when given choice in reading material and motivation to read. The goal is to enhance our student’s independent reading of books through hosting three annual Academic Carnivals to incentivize individual independent reading.

What will be done with my students

Throughout the year students take part in independent reading using our school library on campus. When completing a book, students are able to earn points through the Reading Counts Platform online. The school will host three academic celebrations, for each grade level for students to come at specific times, socially distanced. Before each carnival students will be able to earn tickets to the carnival based upon their points accumulated through Reading Counts. Our younger students will earn tickets for learning their letters, sounds, and sight words as emerging readers. At the carnival students may spend their tickets on different small games as a school wide event that celebrates student success and improvement in reading, participation in reading for enjoyment and the development of a passion for reading.

Benefits to my students

Reading for enjoyment and engaging in reading provides students to develop and broaden their vocabulary, and understand the world around them. Empowering students and encouraging independent reading fosters students to continue to apply reading strategies to build their comprehension and students will work harder and put forth more effort when given choice, picking books of interest, and reading materials self-chosen. Celebrating students’ independent reading in elementary school helps to increase student language acquisition, vocabulary development, and set students up for future academic success. Engaging in a building wide culture that celebrates and values a love of reading will influence individual students through social events and celebrations as well.

Budget Narrative

Budget narrative includes specific small prize bundles available to order through Amazon. This will provide enough small prizes for students to earn throughout the day.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	160 pc Party Favors	$18.00
2	200 pc carnival prizes	$23.00
3	Nicnack Pinata Filler	$20.00
4	Party Favor Assortmentx3	$65.00
5	200 Piece Party Favor Assortment	$22.00
6	120 piece prize assortmentx2	$36.00
7	300 piece Glow Stick Bundle x2	$35.00
8	44 piece party favor pack x2	$35.00
9	268 Party Favor Pack x 3	$68.00
	Total:	$322.00

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