Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Celebrations

This past summer, nearly 250,000 kids from across the globe participated in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, reading a total of 204,594,918 million minutes! This was the first year our annual reading challenge honored a top school in each U.S. state in the U.S.. As part of this special honoreach school received a special celebration kit,a commemorative plaque and a spot in this year’s Best & Buzzworthy 2017: World Records, Trending Tops and Viral Moments. Since our big “Best in State” announcement, schools from New York to Hawaii (?) have been celebrating their students’ reading achievements in fun and exciting ways!

We wanted to spotlight some of what schools have shared with Scholastic during their “Best in State” celebrations nationwide: 

Scotland Elementary School, Connecticut 

“We are very excited at Scotland Elementary School. This tiny school of 118 students again proved that one can be little – and still be mighty! We worked hard all summer and everyone in the community encouraged the students to read and do their very best. We won the contest for CT in 2014 and then came in second in 2015. So this year the students, staff and the small community of Scotland wanted to bring the title back. We are very proud!” – Cathy Pinsonneault, Principal

Maranatha Christian Academy, Minnesota

“Our celebration went great and the kids were really excited! The grade that read and logged the most minutes over the summer[ our fourth graders] got an extra recess […]Awards were given out in each class recognizing the top three readers. Every student that
 participates in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge got a certificate.” – Stacey Huether, Librarian 

Broken Ground Elementary School, New Hampshire

“Our school is just thrilled to be able to hang the banner at our school! We do a big presentation at our very first all school meeting where we announce how we did as a school and also have prizes for all participants and our top readers at each grade” – Jane Dodsen, Reading Specialist 

St. Francis Central Catholic School, West Virginia

“We have made some plans for an awards assembly and celebration at our school.
Following the assembly, our students will celebrate with a "What is your Super Power?" Reading Superhero Event.  The WVU football team [our] athletic superheroes) will be on hand to sign autographs for our [students]… ice cream will be served, and students will play fun and silly games tied to the [“Be a Reading Superhero” Summer Challenge] theme.” – Kim Roff, Librarian