Crawford Woods’ March Madness is part of nationwide school reading events for Read Across America Day, held on March 2 (Dr. Seuss’ birthday), and the pep assembly is consistently a big hit.
“It gets the kids excited about reading,” said Principal Aaron Hopkins.
Students in grades kindergarten through third learned how fun reading can be during an assembly with Ronald McDonald, where the famous character told a sea of students wearing Dr. Seuss-inspired hats the rules for taking care of books, and showed them how important reading is.
“When I was little, I wanted to learn to juggle,” he said. “Juggling is like reading.” The students howled with laughter as Ronald McDonald showed how hard juggling is the first time. “You need to practice,” he said, just like building reading skills.
Students in grades four through six joined their younger peers as Hamilton High School’s marching band performed through the halls to the front of the gymnasium and Swoop the RedHawk, Miami University’s mascot, brought his energy to encourage reading.
Hopkins helped pump the students up for the contest by turning every child’s least favorite part of school, homework, into a challenge.
“What if I told you, if you did your homework, you could get a Visa gift card for $50?” he asked.
Librarian Renee Smallwood explained the contest rules after congratulating the students on already reading more than 1,000 books. As more books are read and homework is done, students can choose prizes, with larger prizes saved for the MVPs of reading. Kindergartners, who participate by learning their sight words, have an appropriately sized basketball to covet, while older readers can work to win one of two Android Jelly Bean tablets.
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