More than 2,000 books were read to 3 preschool classes

Students in the Seussville class at the Sweetwater County Child Developmental Center enjoyed a pizza party as a reward for meeting their reading goals.

Seussville's classroom teacher Jennifer Rundell said this was all part of the new literacy initiative.

On Monday and Tuesday, students in this particular class enjoyed pizza with employees from Aaron's Inc. from Rock Springs and Aaron's mascot dog, Lucky. The students were excited about the pizza and juice, which was a reward for meeting their reading goals.

The students were asked to spend time reading books with their parents, guardians or other family members. Each month they had a goal that they mastered, Rundell said.

To keep track of how many books were read, the students kept a log. Rundell said this log book was a reward to the student in a way because they could check off a box for each book that was read to them. It was sort of an instant gratification. Each filled in log earned that student a special prize.

If the monthly goal was reached, a monthly prize also occurred. 

According to a press release, three groups in the Seussville room have been working on monthly goals. In September they earned a pajama day for reading 400 books, in October they received an ice cream party for reading 800 books.

In November and December the combined goal was 1,500 books. The students and families completed the goal with ease reading a total of 2,195 books. That is an average of 81 books per child. The students were rewarded Monday with a pizza party thanks to Aaron's Inc.

Several students also received special prizes for their hard work. The press release states readers also had an opportunity to earn a special monthly prize for being the top reader in their age group. The November and December top readers and the winners from the 4-5 year-old group were Lily Hofer with 200 books and Daxin Roper with 135 books. The winners from the 3 and 4 year olds were Archer Kinney with 125 books and Emberlie Erickson with 257 books.  

"I think is says that parents are involved," Rundell said.

She said family members are involved too and it shows. When they announced to the students that if the 1,500 books were read they would have a pizza party to celebrate the kids were excited and confident. Every single child participated in the initiative.

"They knew they were going to make it," she said.

Rundell said one of her aides, Ruthanne Grajeda, was instrumental in making sure the students had special prizes from local businesses. Rundell said Grajeda went around visiting different businesses in Green River and Rock Springs to secure prizes.