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| Grade 1 students Kyra A. and Mackenzie M. working at the Used Book Store during “I Love to Read Week”. They are posing behind Mrs. Walkow’s miniature backlit sign. |
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| Younger students excited about getting a new book to read at the Used Book Store. |
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| Tuesday, February 21 was the first day of “I Love To Read Week”, and the start of an activity called “Reading Across Canada”. A large map of Canada was posted in the hallway of the main floor of the school, and each class recorded the total number of pages read each day during their silent reading period after lunch recess. The number of pages was totalled and added to the map. Since one page equals one kilometre travelled, the plan was for the students to read their way across Canada’s 5513 kilometres. |  |
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| Tuesday, February 21 was not only the first day of “I Love To Read Week”, it was also the 100th day of the current school year. Because 100 is a large number for smaller kids, “100 Day” was only celebrated by the grade 1-3 students. To do this, the downstairs teachers devised various activities to give their students a more concrete idea of how big 100 really is. |  |
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Wednesday, February 22 was another NUT day at IHMS – Pink Shirt Day. Students who wanted to show their support against bullying came to school wearing a pink shirt instead of their usual school uniform.
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| Another interesting activity done during “I Love To Read Week” was the playing of several different versions of Canada’s national anthem on the P.A. system during morning exercises. The first of these alternate versions of “O Canada” was played on Thursday, February 23. These different versions of the national anthem probably had less to do with reading and more to do with the theme of Canada’s 150th birthday. |  |
This year, IHMS was fortunate enough to book a celebrity reader for the second week of “I Love To Read Week” – Toby from Virgin Radio Hot 103. Toby read to the Sadochok to grade 3 classes in the Kindergarten/Sadochok room on Tuesday, February 28. Everyone enjoys having someone read a book to them, especially if the book is being read by a well known Winnipeg radio personality, and the S-3 students were no exception – they loved it!
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In addition, “I Love To Read Week” 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 (this year, various songs were used for this purpose), students knew they had to stop whatever they were doing in order to start reading a book. |
| Also on Tuesday, February 28 and Wednesday. March 1, the Used Book Store opened for business for the 25th consecutive year – that’s a quarter of a century! The Used Book Store isn’t really a store, it’s a way to trade a previously read “used book” for a different used book. Students who wanted to participate brought an appropriate picture book or novel to school a few days earlier, and in exchange they received a coupon entitling them to a different book from the Used Book Store. Each classroom had a time slot for when they could visit the Used Book Store. |  |
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| Some of the excitement taking place on the first day of the Used Book Store |
This was a great way for children to share old favourites with other students and to come home with books which may soon become new favourites.
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| Grade 1 students excited about the new books available at the Used Book Store |
Friday, March 3 was the last day of “I Love to Read Week”. In addition to being a NUT day (“red and white day”), it was also a celebration of the theme for the week – “Happy 150th Birthday, Canada! Discover Canada’s Gifts”. Immediately after lunch recess, staff and students gathered in the gym for one final activity – Buddy Reading. This is an activity where younger students pair up with an older “buddy”. The two students take turns reading to each other from the younger student’s book.
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| Older students paired up with younger students for Buddy Reading in the gym |
Buddy Reading has been a part of “I Love to Read Week” for years, but this is the first time everyone was gathered in one place at the same time. After about 10 minutes of Buddy Reading, the students were all treated to a cupcake frosted in either red or white, the colours of the Canadian flag.
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| Students with their red and white frosted cupcakes |
“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!
