I Love to Read Month

Grade 3 student Matthew S. reading his library book during “Stop, Drop, and Read”

 

For most Canadian schools, February is “I Love to Read” month. This year, IHMS celebrated the joy of reading for the entire month of February (last year, “I Love to Read Week” ran for only 4 days). During the month of February, students were involved in activities that promoted and celebrated reading in their daily lives.

 

The theme for this year’s “I Love to Read Month” was:
Books for a Better World – How do Books Inspire us to Make a Better World?

 

The idea of the above theme is that reading can inspire us to make the world a better place. For example, reading can spark a student’s interest to recycle, to reduce their carbon footprint, to learn about other cultures and religions, or simply how to be a kinder and more thoughtful person. There are countless ways in which books can inspire us to do good.  

 

100 Day Celebrations – Tuesday, February 18th
 Mrs. Zulyniak and her class on “100 Day”. Click HERE to enlarge the class photo

 

Tuesday, February 18th was the first school day after Catholic Schools Week (which was celebrated the previous week), and it was also the first school day after Louis Riel Day (which was celebrated the previous day).

 

In addition to being in the middle of “I Love To Read Month”, Tuesday, February 18th was also the 100th day of the current school year. Because 100 is a large number only to smaller kids, “100 Day” activities were confined to the downstairs classrooms. In these classrooms, teachers devised various activities to give their students a more concrete idea of the size of the number 100.

 

 Grade 1 students on “100 Day”

 

 

 

During “I Love to Read Month”, a display was set up near the front entrance of the school. The display contained books that various IHMS staff members found to be inspirational.

 

To help celebrate “I Love To Read Month”, IHMS invited two special guests to read to the students. Both guest readers were former students of IHMS:
  • Jay Korban – (IHMS graduate of 2005). Jay visited the school on Monday, February 24th and read to the grade 6-8 students. Jay is married with two children, and is a newly ordained deacon. In fact, Jay was ordained less than two weeks before visiting the school as a guest reader.
Deacon Jay Korban reading to the students for  “I Love To Read Month”
  •  Taylor Tataryn – (IHMS graduate of 2007). Taylor visited the school on Tuesday, February 25th and read to the K-5 students. Taylor is a newlywed (she got married a few weeks ago in January 2020).  and is a constable with the Winnipeg Police Service. She arrived at IHMS in full officer uniform.
Constable Taylor Tataryn reading to the students for  “I Love To Read Month”
 

“I Love To Read Month” wouldn’t be the same without an activity done every year in the past called “Stop, Drop, and Read”. At various times throughout the day, when a pre-arranged sound played over the intercom, students knew they had to stop whatever they were doing and start reading a book.

 

Grade 1-3 students reading a book of their choosing during “Stop, Drop, and Read”

 

Another activity that has been a part of “I Love to Read Month” for years is an activity called “Buddy Reading” where younger students pair up with an older “buddy”. The two students take turns reading to each other from the younger student’s book.
Students enjoy reading to each other

 

Students “Buddy Reading” in the downstairs hallway on Tuesday, February 25

 

Another activity done at random times during the month was something called “Spot the Reader”. This involved a secret spotter who handed out prizes to students caught reading on their own.
Since this all takes place in a school (where people are reading all the time), prizes were only awarded to students caught reading for the pleasure of reading.

 

Reading is important for students doing work at school. But reading can also be a lot of fun, and most students enjoy browsing the library for books to read simply for the pleasure of reading.

 

“I Love to Read Week” was a lot of fun and an interesting time for the students. Hopefully, they learned to love and appreciate reading even more than ever!  :-D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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