North Creek Hosts Annual Reading Night

To raise excitement for March is Reading Month, North Creek Elementary hosted its annual Reading Night February 27, open to all students at the school and their families.

This year’s goal is for students at North Creek to read a total of 20,000 books.

Kim Gabrielson, one of the organizers, said she loves being able to help with this event because she’s passionate about reading and wants to help kids get passionate about it too. She works as a literacy specialist at the school.

“The whole event is to get kids excited about reading,” Gabrielson said.

PTO member Jacie Velez was also in charge of much of the organizing this year. She’s been involved in the school district several years and got involved in Reading Night three years ago. The event has become more popular each year, with a variety of rooms set up with different games and activities kids can engage in to help them in their reading journey.

“Kids color bookmarks with sight words on them, they do word searches, a scavenger hunt with book covers, readings,” Velez said. “This is a way to get them to have fun and get exposed to so many new words without them even realizing it.”

Between activities there was also a quiet room set up for students who might need a break from the noise. The PTO has begun implementing these spaces at select events to make them more accessible to all students.

“A lot of my students have a hard time coming to these events because they can be overstimulating, but this allows them to participate and attend and have fun with others,” Ashley Moerman, a special education teacher, said.

Principal Casey Wescott emphasized the importance of having events that involve students’ families and include them in the process of education.

“We try to have family events whenever we can,” Principal Casey Wescott said. “Our parents and staff do such a wonderful job supporting the kids. We depend on each other to help the kids grow. We love that parents get to see the relationship the staff has built with students.”

Photos by Matt Rosentreter