Within the walls of Tiger Creek Elementary’s newly built castle hideaway, kids can be found getting lost in their imaginations – though not through play.
Perched in a hanging tent overlooking a faux fireplace, a boy sits captivated by the pages of a book. In a cozy little cubby across the room, a girl digs deeper and deeper into a graphic novel as a miniature waterfall bubbling to her left transports her to some faraway land through sound.
All throughout this book-filled paradise, students are doing more than finding a quiet place to escape, said school principal David Beard. They’re cultivating a lifelong love of reading.
Catoosa County celebrated the unveiling of its two newest Ben Carson Reading Rooms last week with a grand-opening ceremony at Tiger Creek Elementary and West Side Elementary. Cloud Springs Elementary became the first school in the county to receive a reading room in April.
The castle-themed reading nooks, complete with comfy seating options and a plethora of special book selections, come courtesy of a donation from the Holland Family Foundation, which coordinated with the Carson Scholars Fund to make the rooms a reality.