Adair County Elementary School’s hugely successful Reading Madness campaign concluded Friday morning with an awards ceremony in the school’s gymnasium. In just eight short weeks, the ACES’ third, fourth, and fifth graders read more than 20,000 books and earned almost 11,500 Accelerated Reader points as part of a tournament-style, team-based contest.
“The kids worked really hard to try to help their teams win,” says technology teacher Alice Curry, who –along with curriculum specialist Jennifer Kemp – spearheaded the initiative. “Students who weren’t even reading at all before this started were reading every day.”
Friday morning’s awards were fitting for a contest built to replicate the drama and competition of March Madness. The voice of the Indians, John Shelley, emceed the event, and six seniors on the Indians’ and Lady Indians’ basketball teams – Chris Abston, Katherine Curry, Dylan Feese, Cameron Lasley, Jordan Lasley, and Kel Stotts – paid a visit to help the winners teams celebrate. The top-performing teams and individuals received plaques, t shirts, and hats for their efforts.
Awards were given out for two teams in each grade level, one for the grand champion and one for the winner of a “second chance” bracket for teams eliminated from the main competition. Individual point leaders were also recognized as the tournaments’ MVPs.
“The kids were so excited and that made me excited for them,” Curry says. “This has been a schoolwide effort and the teachers did a great job of pumping up their students. I hope we do it again. We’re planning something similar in the fall for math.”
Following Friday morning’s ceremony, winning teams and individuals were treated to donuts and orange juice before returning to class. Team and individual winners are listed below:
Grand Champions
Third grade: Seven Musketeers (Gabe Coleman, Roslyn Edwards, Natalea Kaylor, Hannah Kotter, Justin Loy, Alex Martin, and Chloe Murrell)
Fourth grade: Thunder Donkeys (Brody Brock, Abigail Curry, Connor Loy, Haylee Roberts, Trevor Speer, and Gabe Watts)
Fifth grade: Epic Elephants (Braden Bault, Braylon Breeze, Ryan Odd, Byron Rodgers, and Kiley Willis)
Second Chance Champions
Third grade: Warriors (Leland Brady, Isaiah Brown, Brandon Curry, Jaiden Pabon, Kaleb Rayburn, Ryder Rodgers, and Jordan Willis)
Fourth grade: Savage Unicorns (Matthew Brewster, Nathan Cape, Braedyn Giles, Kiley Hutchison, Adriana Rhoads, Kylin Turpin, and Andrew Zinati)
Fifth grade: Domestic Dolphins (Ellie Cheatham, John Courtney, Logan Robertson, Everett Odom, Cody Burris, and Kylie Cowan)
Championship tournament MVPs
Third grade: Hannah Kotter (206.2 points)
Fourth grade: Connor Loy (103.2 points)
Fifth grade: Ryan Odd (257.7 points)
Second Chance tournament MVPs
Third grade: Jordan Willis (107.6 points)
Fourth grade: Andrew Zinati (49.8 points)
Fifth grade: Kylie Cowan (70.4 points)
Others recognized for their high point totals in the contests included: Trina Nguyen (120.7 points), Isaac Rodgers (202.4 points), Adam Bennett (77 points), Gabe Coleman (87.7 points), Gabe Watts (31.5 points), Braden Bault (34.9 points), Leland Brady (21.9 points), Braedyn Giles (40.1 points), and Ellie Cheatham (59.9 points).
