Atkinson Races Rubber Ducks for Reading

Undaunted by the heavy rains and flooding of the past two weeks, 96 rubber ducks raced down the creek on Atkinson Elementary’s campus Thursday, as 2nd-graders cheered them on.

Each rubber duck was numbered and assigned to a student, who earned a duck for reading different genres of books throughout the year. On Thursday, each grade level had a race to see whose duck would reach the finish line.

Reading Specialist Kim Smith explained that beginning in January, students received a Bingo card with different book genres in each space – autobiography, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. – and their goal was to complete a Bingo line to earn a duck to enter in the end-of-year duck race.

The Bingo cards differed a bit each month. For example, “In February, they had to read a book about the Olympics,” said Smith.

“The Henderson County Public Library was really good,” she said. “They’d get a copy of the Bingo cards and they’d try to pull books early.”

Each student could earn a maximum of five ducks for the race. If voracious readers turned in a “blacked out” card each month – meaning they filled in all 24 spaces for six months, totaling 144 books read – they earned a trip to Flat Rock Cinema to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

“On Monday, we took 31 students to the movies,” Smith said. (For math-lovers, that’s 4,464 books read by 31 elementary students.)

As students filled up their cards, they weren’t just competing for duck race bragging rights; each 1st Place duck race winner per grade level would also receive a brand new Kindle e-reader, sponsored by local businesses.

Regardless of whether students scored Bingos up, down, diagonally, or horizontally on the cards, Smith said they were diversifying their reading list – which was the whole point of the 6-month incentive.

Third-grader Olivia B., who’d entered four ducks in her grade level’s race, said she mainly sticks to reading mystery books.

“It was nice to read something different, but it was hard at the same time,” she said. “It was hard to go out of the comfort zone.”

That said, the reading incentive has helped grow Olivia’s interest in another genre.

“I started liking nonfiction a little bit more,” she said.

Though the school year is ending for Olivia and her fellow Atkinson students, Smith has prepared another reading to keep them reading over the summer. On Thursday, students chose five books from the school library to take home over the summer, with the goal of logging 30 minutes each day. Smith said students who completed the will get early access to the water slide on campus Aug. 31 during the 2018-19 school year kickoff.

“I’m definitely doing that,” said Olivia.

– By Molly McGowan Gorsuch
Public Information Officer