Silly celebrations
<p>Plains third graders Skylar Bergstrom and Mykenzi Blood silly-string Principal Jim Holland on Friday at the celebration assembly for I Love To Read Month for Plains School. Top readers from each grade had the chance to silly-string both Holland and Superintendent Thom Chisholm.</p>
PLAINS - School children were excited for books, and even more for the rewards for reading on Friday as Plains celebrated the end of I Love to Read Month.
During the month of February, which is recognized as I Love to Read Month, students and teachers in grade levels third through eighth participated in activities that both promoted and celebrated a love for reading books. Students earned points, as well as earned the reward of silly-stringing school officials.
A book fair was also given in the Plains School library. Grades K-2 received free books, since they were not officially eligible to earn points or silly string the principal. But they certainly got to watch, and enjoyed what they saw.
Friday’s assembly rang in the end of I Love to Read Month, and high school science teacher Carl Benson, along with student lab assistants Aaron Ballantyne, Jessica Hansen, and Ashley Holmes showed students some science experiments.
When Benson poured colored water from one large beaker into another, thus creating a whole new color, the kindergartners and first graders “oohed” and “ahhed.” When Benson and assistants mixed a chemical reaction that caused common toothpaste to bubble and explode, all the grades of students let out a roar of surprise.
Soon after, superintendent Thom Chisholm and elementary principal Jim Holland took the floor to get silly-stringed. Top readers, or point earners from each grade were given the opportunity to exact silly fun on the school officials, and the activity was met with laughter and cheers from classmates.
“Reading is this system of symbols that creates images that allow our imagination to blossom,” Chisholm said. “Image is the root of imagination and to foster reading is making us great. I Love to Read Month is one of my favorite things in the entire educational process, I look forward to it every year, and we tell our students, ‘If you can read, you succeed.’”