District 161 students accomplish reading goal

It wasn’t hard to read a million pages when the more than 2,400 students in District 161 joined forces.
 

The district’s students started a goal for the month of May as the Million Reading Challenge Partnership and kept on reading through the end of the school year on June 7.
 

At a Western Avenue School picnic, several students said they enjoyed taking part in the reading challenge. Eleanor O’Shea, a third grader, said her favorite book is “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and Noelle Brandon, also a third grader, chose “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
 

Students logged the number of pages they read and teachers reported the totals to the district office. Each school had its own display to encourage students’ reading. At Western Avenue, instructional coach Kelly Wallace designed a bulletin board with a piggy bank. For every 100 pages read, a play money $100 bill went up to show students how their efforts were being counted.
 

The reading program was co-sponsored by the school district, the Flossmoor Public Library and the Village of Flossmoor Community Relations Commission. It was designed to encourage reading throughout the year.
 

On June 1, members of the National Honor Society at Homewood-Flossmoor High School were at Western Avenue to help with the picnic and encourage students to keep reading. 
 

Jadan Vines, president of NHS, said more than 20 H-F students volunteered. She said the younger students at Western Avenue, serving kindergarten to fifth grade, look up to the H-F students. NHS members are happy to encourage good study habits, Vines said.
 

Third grader Victoria Crump said she has a library card and will be making stops at the library this summer.
 

Anna Pauls, youth services manager at the library, said summer “is the perfect time of the year to unplug the multitude of devices and simply pick up a good book, go outside and read.”