The fourth-grade champions were the team named the Slay Queens. Team members are Aubrey Hampel, Reese Joseph, Emilee Hansford and Nora Benham-Burks.
The fifth-grade champion team were the Pink Narwhals - dressed appropriately in pink outfits or accessories. Teammates are Kira Maior, Ella Caskey, Teaghan Dalrymple, Ellison Skiba.
Fourth grade winners for having read the most books during the Reading Challenge were Brailyn Schnell with 19 books read and runner-up was Charlie Groom with 14 books.
The fifth-grade champions for most books read were Kolsyn VanDerMeer, who read all 29 of the designated battle books in both grades, and Pierson Workman who read 17 books.
“This format is different. We wanted to try a team reading competition,” said Allison Muka, reading intervention/literacy coach. “I love seeing the students working as teams and listening to them talk about the books they’ve read. This is a lot less stressful for students than what we’ve done in the past.”
The competition consisted of 12 teams as the top grade-level teams. Each team member had to read at least two of the books on the book battle list for their grade level. Teams answered 40 true or false, and multiple-choice questions using their team chromebook. A few of the questions were double point questions to make the event even more exciting. In the end, the team with the highest score was crowned the champion.
The competition was fierce and after each question, students could see where they stood in the competition. They could also see how many teams answered the question correctly.
Parents and the rest of the grade-level classmates filled the cafeteria as the teams competed - first the 5th grade teams and, later in the day, the 4th grade teams.
Teammates collaborated on answers, cheered when they got an answer correct and groaned in dismay when they missed one. They had fun choosing their own team names - like the Girly Pops, Book Masters, Slay Queens, and Besties in 4th grade. The 5th grade teams included names like Sour Kidz, Sigma Monkeys, Book Worms and Chicken Nuggets.
After the competition, the excitement continued to build as students also met their reading challenge for the month. The prize was for a few lucky students to get to smash a pie in the face of some of the teachers and even Principal Forman!