Read-a-Thon Update!

 

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Congratulations to all on a successful 2022 Read-A-Thon!

A quick recap:
~Students read a combined total of greater than 240,000 minutes! Outstanding!
~We had over 50% participation from students for minutes read, money raised, or both!
~We raised a total of just over $40,000 to be used directly for our students at Sands!

Prizes were awarded last week, including the following grand prize winners:
~Eagle Reader Classrooms: 3-6: Room 1010 Ms. Caitlin, 6-9: Room 1001 Ms. Melissa, 9-12: Room 2013 Ms. Bowden
~Grand Prize iPad Winner: Findlay Sommer
~Top Readers by Grade Level: Preschool – Ben Schaich, Kindergarten – Claire Taylor, 1st grade – James Crutcher, 2nd grade – Mason Schaich, 3rd grade – Amielle Johnson, 4th grade – Jadon Cormack, 5th grade – Eleanor Krailler, 6th grade – Ashlyn Wuerdeman
~Raffle Prize Winners: 3-6: Marble Run – Claire Taylor, 3D Pen – Leena Rolfes; 6-9: Snap Circuits – Tyler Wesley, 3D Pen – Margaret Anne Habig; 9-12: Lego Set – Joash Johnson, 3D Pen – Audrey Gumbert

Congrats to all our winners and to all who made Read-a-thon such a success. We’re already looking forward to next year!

 

Calling all Read-a-Thon readers! 

 

Dear Sands Families,

SMPO is excited to host the 2022 Sands Montessori Read-a-Thon! This year, we will be hosting the second annual online Read-a-thon. This allows our Sands families the ability to easily share our fundraising efforts with friends and family. 

Read-a-Thon has grown to be our largest fundraiser of the year and because we were unable to host other events and fundraisers, we’ve got a big goal – raising $25,000 through sponsorship pledges collected by students. We love that this event serves a dual purpose of encouraging our young scholars to establish habits that will take them far in the future, as well as raising much-needed funds for Sands Montessori. We need your help to meet this goal!

SMPO uses funds raised each year to directly support our teachers and classrooms, so 100% of the money raised will be used at our school to benefit our children. We give teachers, specialists and administration funding for supplies and expenses not covered by the district; field trip opportunities for each class; subscriptions for National Geographic for 6-9 students, planners for 9-12 students; and so much more.

Students may start collecting pledges on Tuesday, March 1. Friends and family can sponsor your child’s reading either as a flat rate or per minute pledge. Reading will officially begin on Friday, March 4. Students have 15 days to read as many minutes as they can. Prizes will be awarded for fundraising efforts, as well as minutes read.

Happy reading! 

Beth DeLay and Brooke Rice

Sands Montessori Read-a-Thon Co-Chairs

 

How It Works

Read-a-Thon Rules:

Check your email for your student’s unique fundraising page. Claim it and begin customizing it. Share the page with family and friends via social media, email or other method to help your student collect pledges.

Start recording reading minutes on March 4 using this tracker and/or the reading tracker in 99Pledges.

The Reading Tracking Sheet should be used to track the minutes you read or are read to, both at school and at home, each day.

No guessing minutes. Please look at a clock or use a timer to count your minutes.

Parents must verify the Reading Record Sheet to confirm that their child read their logged minutes and then update the reading tracking in 99Pledges. This will help to assure fairness. 

What Minutes Count:

These minutes DO count!		These minutes DO NOT count!
Reading at home.	Reading on the bus.	Reading before March 4.
Being read to by a parent, teacher, or friend.	Reading to your pet.	Reading after March18.
Reading at school (up to 30 minutes per day).	Reading with a silly hat on your head.	Reading when you are supposed to be doing your math work.
Using audiobooks if you need or want to.	Reading before bed.	Working on regular classroom assignments.
Reading after bedtime, under the covers, with a flashlight (if your parents say it is ok!).

 

Read-a-Thon Prizes

Every student who turns in a reading log and sponsorship form will receive a prize!

INDIVIDUAL PRIZES

The more pledges you collect, the more prizes you earn! Prizes are cumulative; be sure to collect as many pledges as you can to ensure you receive ALL these great prizes.

• Participation: Pencil and bookmark
• $10: Free coney, courtesy of Gold Star
• $25: Surprise stress relief toy, $5 book fair credit, and vinyl sticker
• $50: Pop-it key chain and additional vinyl sticker
• $100: $10 Amazon gift card
• $200 or more: Additional $10 Amazon gift card (total $20 possible to earn)

 

EAGLE READER CLASSROOM

The classroom with the highest total minutes read in each level will win the Eagle Reader distinction for the year and a $100 Scholastic Books credit to outfit the classroom with brand new books, courtesy of Ms. Robyn Appino! One prize will be awarded to a 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 classroom.

GRAND PRIZES

We’re giving away lots of great prizes to our top students. You can win a Marble Run with an elevator, Snap Circuits, a Lego set, book bundles, 3D Doodle pens, or the grand prize – a brand new Apple iPad! We’re hosting a drawing for all these prizes, and there are two ways to receive entry:

• Any student who raises $100 or more will earn one entry into the drawing.
• The top 10 students in each grade with the most minutes read will receive one entry into the drawing.

Students may receive up to two entries in the drawing. The drawings will be held at the beginning of April after all money and minutes have been tabulated.

The student with the most minutes read from each grade will also receive a $75 Joseph Beth gift card to spend on books and other great items!

For Parents: How Read-a-Thon works this year

As you know, the 2022 SMPO Read-a-Thon is all digital this year. If you signed your student up for Read-a-Thon prior to the deadline, you should receive an email from our digital partner, 99Pledges.com, to claim your student’s fundraising page. If you did not sign your student up before our initial deadline, it’s not too late! Please send an email to smporeadathon@gmail.com with your name, phone number and best email address, as well as your student’s name, room number and grade level and we will establish a page for them.

Once you’ve received the link to your student’s page, you’ll be able to share it with friends and family via email, social media, text and other methods of communication to help your child gather sponsorships. You will be able to upload a photo of your student to their individual fundraising page if you’d like. Sponsors can donate a flat donation or pledge per minute, so be sure to let them know how many minutes your reader has set as a goal. Sponsors can click the link to go to your student’s page and make their pledge immediately. They will be able to process a payment via a secure website easily and quickly. Goals per grade level shown on the website are not able to be customized, so be sure to let your sponsors know what your reader’s personal goal is when they decide what to pledge.

Once Read-a-Thon begins on March 4, be sure you and your student are tracking minutes read (no guessing!). We’ve created this handy tracking log to assist you. You can elect to save a digital copy and track via Google Drive, or you can print it out and have student’s log their minutes manually.

Beginning Saturday, March 19, assist your student with adding up their minutes read for a total. You will then be able to enter into your fundraising website how many total minutes your reader(s) read during Read-a-thon! Please be sure you agree with the total minutes your child records and enter it accurately to 99Pledges. Since such great prizes are at stake, this is a requirement to ensure fairness and accuracy. Students can be disqualified from prizes for purposefully submitting inaccurate information. Minutes should be entered as soon as possible after the end of Read-a-thon, but no later than March . This way we can award prizes at the beginning of April!

If you have any questions about the 2022 SMPO Read-a-Thon, including how to gather pledges, track minutes or submit final totals, please contact Read-a-Thon Co-Chairs Beth DeLay and Brooke Rice at smporeadathon@gmail.com. 

Happy reading!

Beth and Brooke

2022 SMPO Read-a-Thon co-chairs