Granville Village School students dressed up as their favorite book characters, ranging from Katniss Everdeen to Captain Underpants to Dorothy and Toto (pictured). Select students from each grade received prizes for best costumes. (Photo by Robby Veronesi)
GRANVILLE – Cinderella, Captain Underpants, Dorothy and Toto, Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter and many storybook characters filed into the Granville Village School gymnasium Friday afternoon for a celebration.
Students portrayed their favorite characters and celebrated achieving their 13-week goal of reading and recording a total of 200,000 hours, the first time the school had executed this challenge in several years.
“A third-grader gave the suggestion to her third-grade teacher,” said GVS faculty member Linda Dickinson. “He came to me and we met and we said ‘let’s go with it.’ We had done it several years ago and hadn’t done one in a while.”
The students, ranging from preschool to eighth grade, had the chance to show up in costume as a part of the character parade. Select students from each grade received prizes for best costume and one student received a gift card to Barnes & Noble as part of a raffle, financially supported by the Granville Parents Association.
Prizes aside, Dickinson and the faculty attempted to keep the focal point on the intended theme.
The blue dragon, mascot of the Granville Village School, made an appearance at the awards ceremony for the school’s reading challenge. (Photo by Robby Veronesi)
“I think we really wanted to just get them reading. It wasn’t the number of minutes,” said Dickinson. “It was just to see them engaged and excited and sharing and reading… looking forward to the character parade. The younger kids have been talking about it for several months. ‘What am I going to be?’”
Dickinson would have been Pippi Longstocking, her favorite character growing up. The famed character of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren served as a symbol for what the day represented overall.
“She encouraged us to look at things in a new way, question why things are as they are and not to forget to have fun,” quoted Dickinson during her awards ceremony speech. “You have worked very hard throughout the school year and also during the Blue Dragon Reading Challenge.
“Today is a celebration,” she said.
