Posted on August 10, 2017.
Star Staff Reports
The hallways of Millington Elementary School were full of excitement and student learning even after the 2016-17 school year ended. During the month of June, Millington Municipal Schools was one of the 200 programs that were state grant recipients of Read to be Ready, a program to address Tennessee’s stalled scores in reading and to increase the percentage of Tennessee third-graders reading proficiently to 75%. Rising first through third grade students from EA Harrold and Millington Elementary Schools took part in this year’s summer reading camp, Read-All Around My Town. There were 39 students who spent their days reading, writing, listening, speaking, and having fun attended this 4-week program which was nominated as an exemplary site. Led by ten dedicated teachers, students spent their day exploring different weekly themes through books, music, writing, hands-on activities, and weekly field trips. Guest readers also visited to read aloud to and spend time with the students. The guests included Dr. David Roper, superintendent of MMS, Chris Denson and Larry Jackson, school board members, Bethany Huffman, city alderman, and Mark Healy from Millington’s Parks and Recreation Department. Connecting daily stories and activities to real life experiences helped students become excited about reading. Millington’s camp was fortunate to have had several community partnerships that made these experiences successful. Students enjoyed field trips to Shelby Forest State Park during nature week, Chick-Fil-A during nutrition week, and the Millington YMCA during exercise/sports week. While learning about government and local city services, students took a tour of several points of interest in Millington. During this tour, the Mayor and Board of Alderman members as well as Kate Armitage, director of Millington Parks and Recreation, joined campers. They toured the Millington police station, fire station, city hall, and water treatment plant. Students were then treated to a cook out at Aycock Park.
Campers and their families also participated in family projects related to the weekly books and themes. Families were invited to attend the camp’s final celebration in which students competed in relays, displayed their weekly projects, and enjoyed a slideshow of the camp activities. During the camp, students received free books each week. Over the course of the camp, each student received around 30 books to stock personal home libraries. The goal of the camp was to increase students’ enjoyment of reading as they make connections to the world around them and broaden their experiences, turning the summer reading slide into a lifelong reading spark.
