Brantley students in grades K4 through 4th celebrated Read Across America on Friday, February 27. Special guest was AEA president Peggy Mobley who brought along a very spectacular 8 foot Cat in the Hat who visited with the excited students.

At 11:45 they had an informal program in the gymnatorium where students from each grade level participated in competitions based on books by Dr. Seuss. K4 students based their contest on Fox in Socks and raced to see who could put the most socks on one foot in two minutes. Brady Kilcrease was the winner. The kindergarten students used The Foot Book and raced across the gym to find their shoes and socks and tried to put them on the fastest. The winner was Elijah McMillian.

First graders, using Green Eggs and Ham, had to eat a variety of “gross” foods such as green eggs and ham, “eyeballs” and “roaches” and the very worst thing, “rat meat.” The survivor of this contest was Tommy Townsend. Based on The Cat in the Hat, the second grade contest involved tossing stuffed cats and dogs into Dr. Seuss hats. Jaquisa Jackson was the winner. The noisiest contest was Hop on Pop by the third graders. They raced to see who could pop a basket full of balloons the quickest by sitting on them one at a time. Cade Kilcrease was the fastest popper. Fourth graders raced across the gym floor with “eggs” in wooden spoons, basing their contest on Horton Hatches the Egg. Their winner was Shae Marler. All winners received books as their prizes.

After the program, students returned to their classrooms where they were entertained by several guest readers. Among the special readers were Supt. Kathi Wallace, Ms. Alfredia Johnson, Mr. Randy Wilkes, Brantley Mayor Bernie Sullivan, Brantley Police Chief Titus Averett, Mr. Willie Smith, Mr. Troy Hudson, Mrs. Judy Woolley, Mrs. Rita Carpenter, Mrs. Peggy Mobley, and students Caroline Allen, Stephen Walker, and DeAnza Sheridan. We are very grateful to all our readers who gave of their time to participate in our festivities. During this one-day celebration, elementary students passed Accelerated Reader quizzes on 376 books. It was a fun day of celebration, competition, and lots of reading.