FLES carnival promotes reading

FOUNTAIN LAKE — Fountain Lake Elementary School will host its first reading carnival on Friday to award free books to students and encourage them to read at least 20 minutes per day.

“We wanted our kids to be reading at least 20 minutes daily,” said Kristi Bellomy, a second-grade teacher. “One of the problems was a lot of our children did not have quality reading material or reading material at all. We wanted to be able to get books into their hands so they could read their 20 minutes a day.”

The second-grade class will be able to attend the event in Safe Room A. Carnival games and reading stations will be set up to inspire students to read and reward them with free books.

“I hope to see the students excited about the books they are getting and excited about reading,” Bellomy said. “I hope this is an investment, not only in them, but in their whole family, including their siblings. So their siblings can also have reading materials.”

Bellomy said she strongly believes in the benefits of frequent reading for young children. Studies have shown its benefits in vocabulary, standardized test scores and other areas.

A student who reads 20 minutes per day will read for an average of 3,600 minutes per school year and 1.8 million words per year with scores in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. Students who read five minutes per day average scores in the 50th percentile on standardized tests.

Those who only read for one minute per day are ranked on standardized tests in the 10th percentile. Students who read for 20 minutes per night in kindergarten through sixth grade will have read the equivalent of 60 school days by the time they advance to seventh grade. Five minutes per day adds up to 12 school days in K-6 and one minute per day equals only three school days.

Classes prepared for the carnival by starting their own reading logs. Students earned tickets to the carnival based on the number of minutes they read.

Almost 1,000 books have been collected through donations during the past several months. Shanon Moody’s Farmers Insurance Agency office recently held a book drive for the carnival.

Donations were collected from other local businesses, including Chick-fil-A and Waffle House. Library media specialist Wendy Burfeind and teachers at the school also contributed books. Bellomy said she was surprised by how much the campus community has backed the event.

“Our principal, Allyson Petty, has been extremely supportive of anything we need,” Bellomy said. “Our own librarian, Wendy Burfeind, has been over the top, giving us anything we could need.”

Reading stations will be set up throughout the safe room for members of the community to read one-on-one with students, who will be able to keep the books read to them. Representatives from the Mt. Carmel Community, an assisted living facility, will have their own reading station.

Parent volunteers and community volunteers will be on hand to assist with the carnival. The Garland County Library will also be represented.

“If it goes well this year, we are hoping to expand it next year to include all of the elementary,” Bellomy said.

Additional prizes include a tablet computer and a custom-made bookshelf.