Grant provides books for Carroll students
Comet staff report

Carroll Elementary received a Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) grant for students in grades three, four, and five.

This is a federal grant, awarded through the Department of Education, to schools that show the need for students to have books. The grant is for $1,500, three-fourths of which comes from the grant, with a matching one-fourth by the corporation.

Through the grant, Carroll students in grades three, four, and five will each receive three books to take home.

They will get to pick out a book at three monthly celebrations. The overall theme for the celebrations is: "Healthy Reading."

The following events were developed for February, March, and April.

The first celebration was Feb. 23 with the theme, "A Healthy Body." Students had participated in Jump Rope for Heart in January and learned to jump rope to rhymes. Then, to go along with the healthy body theme for February, they wrote their own jump rope rhymes in class. They practiced in class, voted on the best ones, and then performed them at a jump rope convocation. Some classes even made a book of jump rope rhymes.

The following rhyme, written by fifth graders Zach Turnpaugh, Elliot Packard, Derik Caldwell, and Seth Eldridge, was one of the ones performed at the convocation on Friday: "Veggies, veggies they're good for you, I like to eat them how about you? Fruit is good with veggies too, they'll make you healthy if you eat 22. Eating the right food is good for you but to be healthy you need to exercise too. You can jump for hours but remember to take showers. How many hours can you jump? 1…2…3…etc."

The second celebration will be March 16, with the theme, "Healthy Eating." For this celebration, students will read and follow a recipe for making trail mix, a healthy snack.

Each classroom will have a slightly different variation for the trail mix. The snacks will then be judged by an impartial group of "tasting" judges. Each class will get to enjoy their healthy snack and take home the recipes used.

The third celebration, "A Healthy Mind," will be April 13. Students will have a convocation about bullying from a performance group from Young Audiences of Indiana. In the classrooms, students will make a class ABC book of healthy ideas that they have learned from the three celebrations.

Grant writers were teachers Diane Routt, Cecilia Henning, and Nancy Sabatini, and reading specialist Kathy Shuler.