They'll thank me for this...someday.

Whew! I'm pooped!

Today was the big day. I had my kids stay after school today for our four hour read-a-thon. Out of 23 students, 15 stayed and read from 3:00-7:00pm. Sure, it made for a long day, but in the long run, it was worth it.

The kids spent the first 30 minutes or so having snack, doing a little socializing, and slipping into something a little more comfortable. I told them they could bring their jammies and slippers, pillow, and blanket so they could relax and spread out while reading. This actually worked out pretty well. By 3:30, they were all snuggled into their comfy clothes and sprawled out around the classroom reading. It does a teachers heart good to see her kids curled up with a book!

I made sure they had plenty of reading material. I spent a good part of my planning period and lunch in the school library choosing books that they could easily read quickly and test on. I tried to get a variety of topics to meet everyone's needs and I think I did a pretty good job of that. What I wasn't able to do, the librarian finished and by 3:00 I had a cart filled with about 60 books for the kids to read and test on.

Some had their own books and that was fine, but a good deal of them spent time in the books that I had brought in for the night. I tried to find books that they could easily read and test on so they could read several books and start racking up the points. Although the goal was for them to earn at least 5 points during the read-a-thon, some were able to exceed that number while others didn't fair quite as well. Overall, my 15 students had earned about 100 AR points tonight, collectively. Not too shabby!

They did really well, you could hear a pin drop, for about the first 2 hours. Then they got hungry. The pizza arrived about 5:30, and even though they had their snack at 3:00, they were all starving! For a short time after the pizza they got back to work, but the last 45 minutes was a little noisier than it probably should have been.

They enjoyed the pizza, loved the hot cocoa with marshmellows that I had brewing all afternoon in the classroom, and nibbled on pretzels and cheetos. Their tummies were full by the time they left to go home tonight.

Parents seemed to be pleased with the opportunity to spend a little time "Christmas shopping" or enjoying a quiet dinner without having to worry about their little one. Tonight I was a cheap babysitter as it only cost them 50 cents to attend.

They'll really thank me next week when the AR store is open and they can spend those points on various prizes that the librarian supplies. I wonder if they will remember me and buy me something?