Perkins Students Showcase their Children’s Choice Challenge Projects
Since October, a group of 12 fourth and fifth grade students have been preparing for the Children’s Choice Challenge! The Children’s Choice Challenge is in it’s first year, and promotes reading among Des Moines’ young students. Our Penguins read all of Iowa’s 25 Children’s Choice books in teams of six. After reading the books students chose their favorite, and created a project based on the novel. The four long months of hard work culminated last night (Tuesday, February 25th) with a quiz over the books and an opportunity for students to share their projects at the Downtown Public Library along with other DMPS Elementary Schools. We brought projects ranging from posters to student-made videos.
On top of the recognition students received at the library, students are seeing lasting effects from this program. These students have gained a newfound love for reading, and have learned skills to help the become more efficient readers. One parent noted that their student has moved up a few reading levels, and has become intrinsically motivated to read in just the past four months. Making reading fun is a problem we run into in all schools across the nation, and a solution was found in the Children’s Choice Challenge.
