The Cat in the Hat’s pals, Thing 1 and Thing 2, made a
guest appearance at Discovery Elementary yesterday to announce the Million
Minutes Reading Challenge!
The Discovery PTA is challenging students to work together
to read 1 million minutes this school year. If each student reads 10 minutes a
day outside of school over the next seven months, it will total more than 1
million minutes.
Students in pre-K through second grade may count minutes
that they read orally or that someone else reads to them, while students in
third through fifth grade must only county minutes that they read on their own.
Reading calendars will be sent home to help the PTA track reading minutes, and
each calendar should be signed by a parent and sent back to school at the end
of each month.
Students will be able to keep track of the school’s reading
minutes and be reminded about the reading challenge throughout the school year
on a bulletin board outside the cafeteria. A mustang will travel along a path
as more minutes are accumulated.
There will be incentives along the way.
Every student who reads 300 minutes (or
more) in October will receive a coupon for a free kid’s meal and a slice of
pie from Marie Callender’s.
And the top
reader from the primary grades and the top reader from the intermediate grades
will get to select a free book each month.
When Discovery reaches its million milestone in the spring,
the Discovery PTA will throw a Million Minutes Reading Celebration to reward
students and their families! There will be games, activities, and projects
inspired by books.
Parents, we can’t do this Million Minutes Reading Challenge
without you. We encourage you to get your children excited about reading and
help make them Discovery millionaires!
As Walt Disney said, “There is more treasure in books
than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
Due to last night's heavy rain, Discovery Night at The Farmstead has been rescheduled for 4 to 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6.
Here are the totals after Thursday's count:
Back in the day, my family always saved Campbell’s soup
labels to send in to benefit my elementary school. At the time, I didn’t
realize that it was known as the Labels for Education program, which has been
benefiting schools for 40 years.
Students will have the opportunity to vote next week with their pennies for the teacher they would most like to see kiss a pig. Flyers will be coming home in the coming days. Be sure to check the box
of the teacher of your choice, and bring the bottom half of the form back to school with your
pennies in the attached baggie on Monday, Sept. 22, through Friday, Sept. 26. 
We hope we will see you all at The Farmstead from 4 to 9 p.m. Sept. 29 to have a wonderful fall evening with other Discovery families. Plus, don't miss out on cheering on the winning teacher at 7:30 p.m. during the racing pigs show.
If you haven’t, then get ready to do your shopping at Back
to School Night from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16. You can get
short-sleeved T-shirts for $10 and wristbands for $1 on-site that night. 
Students will be excited to hear that Popcorn Fridays are
returning to Discovery in October. Bags of popcorn will be delivered to
classrooms on the first Friday of each month, starting Oct. 3, as well as one
bonus day, May 22.
