The Bellefontaine City Schools Gifted Department recently hosted the Reading Olympics in the Distance Learning Center, a culmination of the second-grade reading challenge.
More than 40 second-graders participated in the reading challenge and 22 students qualified to attend the event.
Team Sharp Cats won gold. Members are Ellie Preston, Brennan Evans, and Ashtyn Williams.
Team Flowers (Lydia Wilson, Finley Reed, and Vanna Valencia) took home the silver.
Team MIBs (Marley Parra, Isaiah Dixon, and Braelynn Washington) earned the bronze.
The challenge was created by Cathy Wiley and has been in existence for 26 years.
This year the books for the challenge were updated to include more recent publications as well as a broad variety of genres.
Students were challenged to read books in 10 different genres with two books available in each genre. The format of the books also varied from chapter books, graphic novels, novels in verse, and picture books.
Students were required to complete a summary of the book after reading it that could be used the day of the Olympics to answer questions.
Gifted Intervention Specialist Lindy Martin received $1,000 in grant monies from the Logan County Electric Cooperative and Logan County Education Foundation. The funding was used to purchase the new titles.
Martin facilitated the event along with BCS Gifted Intervention Specialists Stephanie Fissel and Katie Davis.