Congratulations Oscar and Zachary

6/4/08

Today was the last day of school!! Not only were the boys excited about this day because it was summer now, but they were going to be rewarded for all their hard work reading. They were so worked up they had a hard time sleeping the night before. Zachary was up every hour!

Oscar reached his own personal goal of 900 points just at the last minute!!! The goal his teacher set for him and the rest of the class was 150. He took his last test, answering the last question, one minute before the computers were being turned off. He was so excited and proud of himself. He was finally happy I was the 'mean mom' for about a month now. He was on cloud 9 all day. Not only did he win 1st place in 5th grade he was 1st in the school and he broke the school record of 742 points! He was very happy that he had won 1st place each year, his other personal goal he had made a few years ago.

Zachary's goal was 42 points and he earned 182 points. He won 1st place in the second grade and he was all smiles all day long. He was the first in the school to complete his classic and honors reading. He was most proud that he beat Oscar in completing the classics and honors first, even if it was only by one day. He also helped his whole class reach 100% first in the school.

If you are not familar with the AR (Accelerated Reader) program here is a summary. Each child is given a point goal at the beginning of the year. Children read books and then take a quiz on the computer to test their comprehension. For each test taken they receive a certain amount of points, the harder or longer the book the more points they are. After each child reaches their goal they are considered 100%. They then have a choice to read certain classic books in different genres. Once they complete that they can read honor books. Each one has its own incentive to complete. If you finish your classics you receive a $25 gift card from ToysRUs. If you finish your honors you received a $50 bill. These are awarded on the last day of school. Also to give you an idea of the amount of reading the boys did here are some stats for you. If you were to add up the points of the other kids in Oscar's class their combined total was around 400 points, there are 27 kids in his class. The other kids in Zachary's class all had different goals, they ranged from 10 to 35 points, once they reached their goal they stopped.

Congratulations Oscar and Zachary, mom and dad are so proud of you both.

Here are all the top readers in Parkridge. There were only 5 kids in the whole school who finished there classic reading. There were only 3 who finished their honor reading, Oscar, Zachary, and Joel Pett. Way to go!!

Daddy lounging during the assembly.

Mom and Mason. Mason was getting a little antsy towards the end, that was when Oscar and Zachary are getting their awards. All of a sudden Alyce Dribnak shows up and takes Mason from me! Wow where did she come from? Thanks a bunch Alyce!!

Here are the boys standing by the 100% AR wall. All the kids who earned 100% got their picture taken to put in this display. Oscar and Zachary are standing by their pictures.

Another year completed! Summer here we come! :)