Archive: Around Town

Last Friday it could be said with 100% accuracy that Lansing's R. C. Buckley Elementary School Principal Chris Pettograsso was all wet.  That's because she was dunked in a dunking booth 68 time, all to reward her students for reading two million minutes throughout the school year.  Friday was the reward, a carnival with games, fun, and reading.  Each kid got a book.  And a chance to dunk the principal.

"Being the great sport that she is, Chris Pettograsso agreed to do it," says Enrichment Teacher Patty Jennings.  "We challenged the kids to read two million minutes.  They kept logs, which they handed in at the end of every month.  A tally was kept in the school hallway so children could see how close they were getting to their goal."

The school's 420 children were challenged to read 20 minutes per day.  Pettograsso says they came up with the 2 million minutes by multiplying the number of students by 20 by the number of school days.  Even so, it was close.  The two million minute goal wasn't reached until the day before the carnival.


"Some of the younger kids read ten minutes, but some of the kids are reading Harry Potter at night and can't put it down," Pettograsso says.  "So they read for 60 minutes.  So they all helped each other to reach their goals."

"When we made the announcement that they had reached their two million minutes I was down in my office and I could hear the whole school screaming and yelling," she continues.  "It was awesome.  We were close.  Every day we were letting them know how many minutes each kid had to read.  They came in and read well above what they needed to.  It couldn't have been better."

One second grader said, "This is why we read all year, so we could have fun today."


The carnival featured games including lawn darts, bean bag toss, and ring toss, ping pong ball toss, a frisbee throw -- face painting, and read-alouds, and book talks to help kids learn about new books.  The highlight of the day was the dunking booth.  The carnival was paid for from student activity funds, and the PTSO helped to coordinate 150 parent volunteers who helped make the event happen.

Jennings says the school's Literacy Team brainstormed in the fall to come up with something that would be a great motivator to help all kids to want to read more during the school year.  Jennings says that Lansing teachers know that encouraging kids to read outside of school also encourages them to come to school to talk about what they have read.


"We know that our children love to read," Jennings says.  "As you walk through our classrooms there are reading  projects and children's book talk projects.  I think that more than anything excites kids to read.  When they hear about a good book they want to read it.  They will continue to read over the summer."


By the end of the day Pettograsso was wet, but happy.  She says the school do it again next year if the kids want to.

"I would be glad to do it again if that's what they want," she says.  "If it's going to help get them reading, I'll sit in a dunking booth, that's for sure!"

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