ALLENTOWN – Staff members and students at the Newell Elementary School celebrated when the 2016-17 school year began after the school’s pupils read 2,606,028 minutes during the summer and earned the title of “Best in State” for New Jersey and eighth place worldwide in the 2016 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge.
School administrators said the students shattered their previous record of 884,000 minutes in 2011.
“Too often students will experience the ‘Summer Slide’ where they will actually lose levels of reading over the summer if they do not read actively. The reading challenge is a way for students to maintain those reading skills while at the same time having fun while reading,” Principal Kelly Huggins said.
The Newell Elementary School will be featured in “Best & Buzzworthy 2017: World Records, Trending Topics and Viral Moments” and will receive a special celebration in a box and a plaque to commemorate the students’ summer reading achievements.
During the summer of 2016, children from all 50 states and 27 countries read 204,594,918 minutes in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, according to a press release.
According to Newell administrators, about 521 students participated in the reading challenge.
Newell pupils celebrated their success on Sept. 23 with a school-wide rally, a water balloon challenge and a scavenger hunt the children won after meeting their reading goals with the challenge, according to the press release.
Top readers were presented with gift certificates provided by the PTA to be used during the school’s Scholastic Book Fair and top performing classes were awarded a pizza party.
This was the fifth year the school has participated in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and the fifth year Newell placed in the Top 20 worldwide, according to the press release.
School administrators said they were excited about this year’s results and said they plan to keep participating in the program.
“Newell students were very excited about their accomplishments this year and look forward to competing in next year’s Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge,” Huggins said.