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Best Practices in School Culture Leadership
(September 2011)
Linda Schmidt, principal
Bagley Elementary, Bagley
Getting Books into Homes
We all know that children need to read more. To that end, our school needed to come up with plans to get books into the homes of our students. Bagley is the second poorest county in the state and has unfortunately held that position as far back as I know.
Our school has always held a Book Bingo in the spring of each year. Families play Bingo in our gym as someone calls off the numbers. Each game continues until approximately 15-30 people get a Bingo and choose free books. The games continue like this for approximately 90 minutes or until we are out of books. There are moments where we call out for all 2nd graders go back and get a book, or for grandparents to choose a book for their grandchildren, or all aunts may go choose a children’s book. We play until the $1200-$1400 dollars of children books are gone. The only changes over the years are the costs of books, which are purchased through a children’s book club online.
Our summer reading program is another way to get books into the homes of students. In the spring, our amazing librarian hands out a summer calendar showing in miniature, the months of June, July, and August. Parent instructions are listed on the recording sheet asking them to help their child read as much as possible through the summer, and record the minutes. The students may read or be read to for a goal of 1000 minutes over the summer. The first year we had perhaps 70 students return the form in the fall. This is our fourth year with this program and based on last year’s numbers, we expect over 200 of our 562 students to return the form. After all, they will receive a t-shirt with our slogan, 1000 Minute Reading Team on it, as well as a few books and the chance of one of the grand prizes of a book store gift certificate of $20-$30 dollars! Some of our students in the past have read as much as 4,750 minutes during these 3 summer months! (We accept all numbers close to the 1000 minutes.)
A Family Reading Event is our third successful way to get books into our community. We provide dinner, reading suggestions for families and provide reading time for our families to bond and read for enjoyment. There is a drawing for children books the following morning. Many students at each grade-level win books that are targeted at their level.
Although these events only get books into some homes, we hope we will catch more and more families every year!
Contact Linda at lschmidt@bagley.k12.mn.us
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