On Wednesday, December 13th at exactly 12:00 noon,
EVERYONE at Marshall Elementary dropped everything to READ!

We took part in the
"Break a World Reading Record
with Charlotte's Web" event!!

We read a passage from E.B. White's famous book on exactly the same day and at exactly the same time as over 500,000 readers in 50 states and 28 countries.  It was an amazing experience and we were thrilled to be a part of the excitement!!!!

Now, you may be wondering how we found out about this project...
Mrs. Stamp received an email from Jennifer Wagner of Technospud projects explaining:

and, of course, she knew we had to get involved!!! Walden Media was releasing a new movie of the book on Friday, December 15th, so they were sponsoring this project to get students, teachers, and schools excited about the story of Charlotte and Wilbur.

Mrs. Stamp was lucky to find copies of "Charlotte's Web" in the Scholastic book order (for only 15 bonus points!), so she ordered a copy for everyone in our class! We enjoyed reading chapters together each afternoon for a few weeks and fondly referred to this time each day as our "Charlotte's Web time."

On Friday afternoons, students with excellent behavior for the week are invited to "Lunch Bunch" where we eat lunch in the classroom and enjoy a movie while we eat. I'm sure you can guess the movie of choice during December... the original "Charlotte's Web!"

We learned all about the requirements to Break a World Reading Record for the most people reading simultaneously in multiple locations.

We created excitement around our school for our "Record Attempt" and encouraged all the classes in our school to participate. When the day finally arrived, we were excited to have EVERYONE participating!! We invited firefighters from our local station to be our independent witnesses. Our class even dressed as our favorite characters... we had Fern and Avery and, of course, Wilbur and Charlotte!  

Here's a slideshow of some of the fun throughout our school:

Everyone who participated received a special certificate to *hopefully* remind them of the day we made history!  

Our class made delicious "Snazzy Snacks" just for the occasion. Be sure to click here for the recipe!  

We were SO EXCITED to be mentioned in a Potomac News article that appeared the next day... check it out! Don't forget to click "Reading For the Record" to see an audio slideshow featuring readers from Marshall Elementary!

Our school PTO even joined the "Charlotte's Web" fever when they sponsored a Marshall Family Event at the Manassas Cinema to watch the NEW movie together!

What a TERRIFIC and RADIANT project!!