Summer Reading Challenge: week 1 recap

Megan Kaesshaefer  //  May 11, 2015

Summer Reading Challenge: week 1 recap

One week ago today the 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge launched. After seven days of unprecedented minute logging from participating kids, it's safe to say the program is off to an incredible start! See below for a recap of the week's activity and if you haven't signed your child or students up yet to participate, let this be your motivation. 

Week 1 Recap:

  • We have a record number of kids registered: over 930,000! 
  • We hit the one million minutes mark on Wednesday (day three of the program!) and as of today, kids have logged an impressive 7,535,695 minutes!
  • Story #1 was unlocked: check out A Kick in the Teeth by Wendy Wan-Long Shang. We also released a video  the author recorded all about summer reading. 
  • First Lady of Indiana Karen Pence hosted a Reading Ambassador school event on Wednesday! Check out her tweets from the day (here and here), and the school’s response.
  • The Washington Post’s 'On Parenting' ran a great exclusive on the Summer reading Challenge. "Advice from kids’ authors: How do you get kids excited to read?" shared a sneak peek of the first story and the participating author’s advice for teachers.
  • Authors had some fun on social media — check out these tweets from participating authors Wendy Shang, Patrik Henry Bass, and Gordon Korman.
  • Teachers and parents have submitted some fantastic pictures of of kids using the program (examples here, here, and here).

Coming up this week: a Twitter chat on 5/12 for teachers with Laura Robb on Summer Reading & the Power of Choice.

See below for the top schools so far in terms of minutes logged, as well as the top states (by total minutes logged and number of schools participating).

Top 10 Schools To Date

JACKSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FLORA RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STEHLIK INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
ALDINE I S D-NIMITZ H S AREA
TIMBER TRACE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BALLANTYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DOEDYNS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DREAM LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
COMBS ELEM MAGNET SCH
STOVALL ACADEMY

Top States by Minutes Read

TX, FL, NC, NY, IL, NJ, PA, CA, LA, TN 

Top States by Number of Participating Schools

TX, FL, CA, GA, IL, OH, NY, PA, NC, MO