I Love to Read Week
Grade 1 girls with picture books during "I Love To Read Week"
 
Every year, for one week in February, IHMS celebrates “I Love To Read Week”. During this time, students are involved in activities that promote and celebrate reading in their daily lives. The week is always an interesting time for the students, and as an added bonus, they have a lot of fun doing it. This year, “I Love to Read Week” ran from Monday, February 22nd to Friday, February 26th.

The theme for this year's “I Love to Read Week” was “Heroes All Around Us”. Here’s how it worked:

During the week of Feb. 16-19, all students from K-8 learned about the characteristics of a hero. During the following week - “I Love to Read Week” - they did the following:

  • The kindergarten to grade 3 students choose a hero from their family or community, drew a picture of them, and then wrote about why they were a hero to them.
  • The grade 4 to 6 students choose a hero from a selection provided to them by their teacher. They then drew a picture (or cut out a photo) of their hero and wrote a short summary of them.
  • The grade 7 and 8 students researched and wrote a short summary of a hero of their own choosing.
 
 
On Friday, Feb. 26, students from each grade got into small groups and shared their hero work with other students in the class. Their work was then hung out in the hallway for everyone to read.

 Also, during the week, the 18th Annual Used Book Store was organized by Mrs. Walkow. To participate, students brought in books from home that they had outgrown or didn’t want anymore. On Monday and Wednesday, these books were collected and sorted by Mrs. Walkow (with help from grade 4 students) into two main categories - picture books and novels.

Picture Books
Novels

The Used Book Store opened for business on Thursday afternoon. Each of the grades signed up for a time-slot to visit, while the grade one students helped out by working at the store.
Grade 1 and 3 students at the Used Book Store
 
For every picture book brought in to the Used Book Store, the student received one picture book coupon. For every novel brought in, the student received one novel coupon. On Thursday, Sadochok - grade 8 students with coupons shopped for new books, with each book worth one coupon. The Used Book Store reopened on Friday for the Kindergarten students only.
 

 This was a great way for children to share old favourites with other students and to come home with books which may soon become new favourites.

“I Love to Read Week” was an interesting week for the students as well as lot of fun! Thank you to Ms. Lutyj, Mrs. Wittevrongel, Mrs. Halayda, Mrs. Walkow, and Mrs. Radawetz for organizing it.