Killbuck’s Right to Read Week a special one this year

Many schools connect students with animals for Right to Read Week, but few extend outside the classroom like Killbuck Elementary did this March.

The school’s week will actually extend from the reading celebration — Let Reading Run Wild — the week of March 23-27 and will connect with an all-school trip to the Columbus Zoo in May that will celebrate one of the big finales the school will experience prior to making the big move to the new K-5 building on the West Holmes High School and Middle School campus next year.

Brian Lash, Killbuck Elementary principal, said the school staff wanted to create one final whirlwind event that included the entire community because the community has been instrumental for decades in supporting the school and students.

“We were excited to connect this week’s Right to Read Week with our upcoming whole-school zoo trip,” Lash said. “This zoo trip was something that we wanted to get the whole community involved with. We wanted to invite as many people from the community as possible to go with us to the zoo to make it a really special day."

Lash said the school’s Right to Read Week was filled with plenty of fun activities. One of the highlights was allowing teachers to present live zoo feeds of their choice to their classes.

Teachers could zoom to the San Diego Zoo to connect with the lions; zip down to the North Carolina Zoo to watch the bison, elk and elephants roam in their native habitat; and visit the San Antonio Zoo to experience the Western Lowland gorillas in the Congo Falls and more.

“Teachers could pick and choose whatever zoos they wanted to visit on livestreams,” Lash said. “It gave our kids a chance to experience a lot of animals from around the world in a variety of habitats.”

All the reading during the week was focused on the animal kingdom.

Lash said one of the neatest things was the day the school invited students to bring in their favorite stuffed animal, and each student was given plenty of chances to read to their fuzzy friends.

“It was really cool to see the students reading to their stuffed animals because it was a different experience than just reading silently to themselves,” Lash said.

How much did the kids enjoy the reading moments littered throughout the week? Lash said on Wednesday he forgot to make an announcement for the Stop, Drop and Read for the afternoon and he heard about it plenty from the kids.

“Yeah, I definitely heard from plenty of kids,” Lash said.

The specialty days included Hat Day, Pajama Day, Animal or Camo Day, and Red, White and Blue Day.

Most importantly, the week put the fun into reading, and when that happens, it becomes a winning week for all involved.

As for the Killbuck Elementary School Field Trip to the Columbus Zoo, it is on tap for May 19. Lash is inviting anyone from the community to join them for what should be an entertaining and educational day with the animals. While students must ride the bus to the zoo, parents attending the event must provide their own transportation and may take their children home with them.

Anyone interested in joining for the trip may contact the school.