Students at Griffith Elementary Read and Read and Read Some More

At Griffith Elementary School, students are helping their classes become members of the 100 Book Club by reading  a book on their own or reading aloud to a reading buddy.

When the students in a class have read a total of 100 books, two Dr. Seuss characters - Thing One and Thing Two – visit the class with a cart filled with books. Each student picks out a book to call his or her own. Each student also receives a bookmark, a book bag, a box of crayons and a sticker that says, “I reached my goal.”

The teacher receives the fixings for a popcorn party that she or he offers on another day. Someone takes a photograph of the class, which is put on the Griffith Media Center webpage under “100 Book Club Hall of Fame.” Pictures are also posted on the monitor that people see in the lobby as they come into Griffith Elementary School.

Students in some classes are writing in journals about the books they are reading. Teachers are putting “reading thermometers” on the walls of their classrooms to record the class’s progress toward the goal of 100 books.

At the end of each month, the team leaders in each grade tell media coordinator Cynthia Needham how many books the students in their grades have read, and Needham adds the totals to the “reading thermometer” in the lobby of the school. 

Students are also invited to let others know about the books they have read through such activities as writing a book review, talking about the book on the school’s news broadcast  and making a diorama  about the book.