The syncopated sounds of jazz horns play over the Battlefield Elementary School intercom Thursday while students and teachers prance the hallways, passing out beads and masks to classmates.
Teachers and students don golden eye masks as they bob in line in the halls. Shiny beads dangle from arms and necks. Some wear tiaras.
Principal Becky Howard is wearing a pink boa and carrying a wand.
“Let’s go!,” she says as she struts with students down the hallway in the Fort Oglethorpe school
On Thursday about 110 third- through fifth-graders marched in the school’s Mardi Gras parade as reward for reading the equivalent of 25 approved books and passing tests on them.
Another 150 students who have read at least half the books watched the parade and celebrated their achievement.
The remaining students sat in classrooms reading as the parade passed outside their door. The goal is to motivate all students to read.
“Some kids don’t like to read. This gives incentive,” said Patsy Cafego, a teacher who trailed the line, dancing and waving a purple mask trimmed in matching feathers.
The state requires students in grades four and five to read the equivalent of 25 books a during the school year, officials said.
School nurse Coette Lyle topped off her medical scrubs with a chicken hat while school bookkeeper Lorie Edwards recorded it all with her camera phone.
Ten-year-old Caleb Freed wiggled his legs to the music as he handed out beads to classmates.
“Rock and roll, whee, hoo!,” he hollered while dancing.
Eleven-year-old Anthony Warren said he hadn’t heard of Mardi Gras before Thursday, but he enjoyed it.
“I got to hand out stuff to kids and make them have fun,” he said.
BY THE NUMBERS* 480: Students attending Battlefield Elementary School* 150: Number at the halfway mark in reading goal for the year* 110: Number that have already reached year-end reading goalSource: Battlefield Elementary School
Dr. Howard said she thinks this is the first time that so many students have met the school’s reading goal so soon.
The school also has solicited area businesses to give food coupons to motivate students to read. Other rewards over time have included inflatable slides, Olympic Games days and rodeos.
“Teachers are trying to make it fun,” said Amy Jackson, the school’s parent coordinator.
Then she twirled her wand and joined the students in the parade.