Joppa High Spirit and Pride Assembly

Maple Grove had a successful kick-off for this year's Accelerated Reader Program. The theme for the year is "Reading Through the Rainforest: Wild Over Books."

Yearly reading activities for 1st-6th graders will include monthly "Book Break Clubs," A.R. Stores, Field Trips, and Awards' Day prizes!!! All students reaching their monthly reading goals will be invited to spend about 1/2 an hour at a Maple Grove Book Break. During the Book Breaks, students get to enjoy hearing a guest reader and a special snack in honor of their efforts.

The A.R. store is open three times each school year. Students A.R. points are tallied after each grading period. The points are converted to "point money," and students can spend this on all kinds of goodies at the store. This has always been a big hit at Maple Grove.

Two field trips are taken each year to recognize those who have met their yearly goals. Those students who reach their goals for the entire year by Christmas break get to go on the January trip. Those who meet (or double) their goals by mid-May get to go on the end-of-the-year trip. This year, our destinations have not yet been determined. We'll let the students know as soon as final plans are made.

The end of the year marks a time of celebration as students receive awards for becoming members of the various "Point Clubs." For example, students achieving 50, 75, 100, 150+ A.R. points for the year will receive special gifts/prizes. Last year, some of the gifts included books, backpacks, water bottles, medallions, and t-shirts!!!

Maple Grove students are encouraged to have a love of reading because of the many benefits it adds to their academic and personal lives. The A.R. activities serve as an added treat to reward the students for their dedication to such a worthwhile endeavor.

A Special Rainforest Poem read by the Maple Grove Staff at our AR Kickoff:

From the ridges of the mountains
to coral reefs in the sea,
the RAINFOREST
is a big, amazing place to see!

If you lived in the rainforest & made it your home
If you had feathers & fur where would you roam?
With a pod of dolphins in the warm, blue sea?
In a jabiru nest, on an emergent tree?

Where would you live? Who would you be?
Would you hide on a leaf like a red-eyed tree frog?

Would you be an iguana asleep on a log?
Would you climb a ceiba which holds up the sky?

Where would you live? What would you eat?
Would you live in the mountains
And fish on the beach?

As a jaguar, you'd hunt on the forest floor.
As a tapir, you'd forage the river shore.

Where would you live? What would you wish?
Among the living coral as a shiny fish?

And what would you do
if your home went away?
What would you think?
What would you say?

We all need a home and our homes need protection.
We all should live free without fear of extinction.
We all are unique, and wherever we live
We all play a part and have something to give.

No job is too big;
No action too small.
For the care of the Earth
Is the task of us all

Joppa High School-Maple Grove Elementary District #38

Maple Grove A/R Kickoff