Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Shown is the Barkell Elementary Schools display, located just inside the main doors, which was a project in teamwork that involved all grades of the school. The display is to celebrate this year’s selected “Western” theme.

HANCOCK — Barkell Elementary School kicked off March is Reading Month with a school assembly, at which a local veterinarian gave students a presentation, said Principal Dan Vaara.

“March is Reading Month is always a big celebration in elementary schools, and this year is no different,” he said. “We’ve done this every year, and this year is no different.”

At Barkell, however, the reading month provides opportunities for other developmental avenues, including voting in a democratic election.

In past years, adults have selected the reading month’s theme, but last year, the school began permitting the students to choose the theme for themselves. Karen Eddy, Title 1 teacher and assistant to the principal, said there were approximately 12 themes for this year, which were presented to the students, and they voted to select just one. The theme the students voted to adopt was the Western United States.

Reading Month even presents opportunities to teach students skills in teamwork.

Decorating the school is always a significant part in theme recognition, Vaara said, including decorations in classrooms, on doors, and even a large western display, featuring a covered wagon, inside the main entry doors.

“It’s neat, too, that it’s a whole group effort here on our display, even,” said Eddy. “Teachers helped out, but I mean there were students, working together. On our wanted posters, one person took the picture, another person cut out the pictures, and it was whole group effort. On the display: we had some students who painted the cowboys and cowgirls, and they did the cactus, and somebody glued on the arm of the cactus, so everybody had a little part of something.”

The school is also using a book raffle to further reading opportunities. There are reserved spaces in the hallways, one for the upper grades, and one for the lower grades, said Vaara. Their purpose is to provide a place for students to display short reviews of books they have read to earn tickets for the raffle. For every review a student posts, they receive a ticket. With the earned tickets, they can select which books they hope to win in the raffle. There is, of course, no limit to the number of book reviews a student can post.

“Going along with our western theme,” Eddy added, “we have a sheriff in each classroom. They have to fill out an application to be a sheriff, and if they get to be the sheriff for the day, they get a pack of tickets for the book raffle that they get to hand out to the students who are showing good behavior. And, they’re very excited about this book raffle.”

There are still more opportunities to promote reading during the month.

“We have reading, of course, in classrooms,” Vaara said, “and guest readers coming in to read to the kids, and that’s always kind of a neat and fun thing to do.”

March is Reading Month is not just about the joys of reading, states Cheryl S. Wald, CPA, CFO, Chief Financial Officer, Mason Public Schools, and President of the Michigan School Business Officials. As part of promoting reading – especially this month – the major goal of the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is to promote early childhood learning and development by getting all Michigan children reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Most people take reading for granted, states the MSBO. Yet, there are many children and adults who struggle to read. Wald’s essay, “March is Reading Month — Let’s All Celebrate a Culture of Reading,” appears on the MSBO website, msbo.org.

Michigan School Business Officials was founded in 1937 as a nonprofit corporation to serve the multifaceted interests of education. It is the intent of the organization to serve all of its members to the best of its ability, to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, and to provide opportunities for members to expand their professional horizons in the public education sector.

The importance of reading has always been stressed in Hancock Public Schools, said Vaara.

“We’re always pushing reading in school, so it’s hard to go above and beyond, for as much as we do it under normal circumstances,” he said. “But this time of year, we really do, so we have activities that are designed for the kids to motivate themselves to want to read more.”