Students enjoy book fair, accept reading challenge
The Scholastic book fair is something students anticipate every year. They are pop-up exhibits that market reading in exciting and desirable ways.
Schools typically host these events every fall and spring, but unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions, Sheckler Elementary School was not able to hold an in-person book fair last fall. As social-distancing regulations and facial covering enforcement proved to be a successful solution, the Catasauqua school was able to offer an in-person book fair March 1-5.
The Wild West-themed event took place in the administration building on the side of Sheckler Elementary. The book carts lined the perimeter of the room, with plenty of space to practice social distancing, and the outside door was left open to keep the ventilation flowing. One class was permitted to peruse the selection at a time, and students were encouraged to utilize an E-wallet to keep contact between one another low.
While hosting the book fair, Sheckler also participated in Read Across America Week and had a special visit from Lehigh Valley Reads and the group’s mascot, Corey the apple. Powered by PBS39 and United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Reads is a campaign that aims to have all Lehigh Valley students reading on grade level by the end of third grade. The communitywide coalition was launched in February of 2019 and is set to last until the year 2025. Angela Zanelli, campaign director, said one of its goals is to “spread awareness to parents” on how important reading at home is. She had Corey the apple bring a bin of books, shirts and bags for Sheckler students to encourage the idea of building home libraries.
Sheckler also participated in Lehigh Valley Reads’ new challenge, Reading Rally in the Valley, which is the largest Valleywide reading challenge. It ran throughout March.
The group’s goal is to obtain one million minutes of reading time as a community. Students entered by registering and pledging their minutes at lehighvalleyreads.org/million. As of press time, the challenge had reached 2,770,990 minutes.