KES receives $3000 Target Store Grant

Kirbyville Elementary School is currently providing several successful efforts to encourage family reading. Last year's Target Store Grant allowed us to expand these services by giving books to students to build their own personal libraries as they participate in our current programs. The books were both incentives to increase participation and resources for the students to have appropriate reading materials at home with their families.

Thanks to the new Target Store Grant, the expanded number of books provided to students will continue into the 2008-09 school year. Students will earn one new book of their choice each time they attend "STAR" or "Stay Today and Read", and will earn a free book of their choice at four benchmarks along the way during the “BLAST Books/Literacy: A Super Time” at-home reading program. Additional Scholastic books will be provided to students for summer reading packets as well for our "Splash Into Summer Reading" program. This continuation of the program improvements made through our previous Target Store Grant will provide an additional incentive for students to participate, but more importantly, will help to remove the barrier of lack of reading materials at home for low-income students. The lack of reading materials at home has been an ongoing concern for many families and is a cause for non-participation in at-home reading programs for some students. Also, at the lower grades, finding books that students can read themselves available in retail outlets is a challenge. The school, through educational materials outlets, will find books at beginning reading levels for the students who need them.

The more you read, the better you read. The better you read, the more you read. Thank-you, Target for supporting our efforts to build better readers.