‘I love to read’ all month long

February is "I Love to Read Month", a long-established tradition popular with schools and libraries throughout North America. The purpose of I Love to Read Month is to celebrate and foster a love of reading at all ages, and this tradition is being observed in many ways .throughout Waseca.

At Hartley Elementary, each Wednesday in February is a “dress-up” day. The school's theme for the celebration is “I scream, you scream, we all scream for reading!” Thus, each of the dress-up days has been chosen to follow that theme. On Wednesday, Feb. 1, with thanks to the Waseca Area Foundation for the grant from the John Priebe Education Fund, Minnesota children's author David LaRochelle will give a presentation to the students in the school's media center. To prepare, classes have been reading LaRochelle's books. On Feb. 15, high school students will be visiting to read with students; on Feb. 22 students will get a chance to reunite with their teacher from last school year, while the kindergarten students get to meet third-grade teachers and see the school's lower level. Throughout the month, classes will also have reading challenges to meet, such as “read a book published the year your teacher was born,” “read a book that is a Caldecott winner,” “read a book that takes place in another country,” and “read a book that makes you laugh out loud.” The goal of the various challenges, according to media specialist Gwen Krueger, is to help the students connect with books they might not otherwise read. Each time a set of students completes a challenge, they'll add a scoop of ice cream to the display on their classroom door. As groups reach fifteen scoops, they'll be added to a large display in the hallway and get a pass to a special event taking place March 3. On that day, a staff member has agreed to become a “human sundae,” and students from all classes who completed their challenges will get to cover them in ice cream toppings.

At the Waseca Intermediate School, media director Joey Wollenburg is organizing a program to encourage reading for the fourth year in a row. As part of his program, tickets are given during the month of February to students who are "caught reading" outside of designated times. Those “I caught you reading” tickets are entered into a special raffle; the winner gets a chance to style Wollenburg's hair. He grows it out starting in September to give the winning student plenty to work with, and his sister, owner of a salon comes to assist. She brings her tools and gives the student stylist a mini-lesson on how to use them before setting them loose on Wollenburg's head. In past years, he's been rendered bald, received a Mohawk, and had sunglasses shaved into the back of his head. The winner's class gets to watch in person, while the rest of the school can view a livestream of the event. This year, the styling will take place on March 7.

TEAM Academy held a kick-off event the afternoon of Jan. 31 to announce their I Love to Read Month activities to students. The month will have the theme “Monsters University,” after the Pixar feature, so members of staff on the “blue” and “green” teams competed to run an obstacle course as if they were taking part in the “Scare Games” from the film in order to get kids excited. Superintendent Jill Courtney then announced what would be taking place all month. Every student will receive a specially-made Monsters University ID badge, and based on their reading at home can “level up” to earn monstrous prizes. The top five readers of the month will receive gift certificates for the book fair, and the top two classes will win an ice cream party. Every Thursday will be a dress-up day; throughout the month there will be school-wide “drop everything and read” (DEAR) time – when a song from Monsters, Inc. plays over the intercom, students will get to stop whatever they’re doing–no matter what it is–and take time to read. Another special event will be a TEAM Academy choir performance during a family night scheduled for Feb. 23.