BSES Student Lighthouse Team and Student Action Teams celebrating our school reaching the Read-A-Thon goal, March 10, 2025

March 10, 2025

Hello AUSD,

We hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to spring forward without a problem. We're writing today to share some highlights from Baldwin Stocker's Read Across America events. There were so many fun and rewarding moments that brought our Bulldog community together that we can't just keep it to ourselves! Feel free to check out our Read-a-thon album for a visual aid!

School-wide Read-A-Thon WIG

As a Leader in Me school, Baldwin Stocker launched our school-wide Read-A-Thon WIG (Wildly Important Goal) with the goal of reading 250,000 minutes from February 24-March 7. It took some synergy from TK-5th grade students and staff, but we not only reached our goal... WE SURPASSED OUR GOAL! Our final reading minutes total was... 418,248 minutes!! Way to practice Habit 6, Bulldogs!

Guest Readers

Guest readers from all around the Arcadia community came to support us in helping us meet our reading goal. AUSD administrators, school board members, city council members, Arcadia Fire and Police Department, AUSD coaches and staff, and our beloved BSES PTA entered classrooms to read to us! In total we had over 30 guest readers at our school! Some donned silly outfits, voiced iconic book characters, danced with dragons, and surprised BSES students with their visit.  

Notable guests included:

• Assistant Superintendent, Brent Forsee

• Directors of Curriculum, Patti Mattera and Daniel Hacking

• Director of Facilities, Tony Barrios

• School Board Members, Leigh Chavez, Fenton Eng, and Jennifer Vargo

• Chief of Police, Roy Nakamura  and APD Detective, Evelyn Calderon

• Arcadia Fire Department Engine 106

• PTA board members

• District Coaches 

• BSES Support Staff and our book loving School Librarian

All of our guest readers were instrumental in motivating us and assisting us in meeting our reading goal! They also helped us create many core memories with their kindness and spirited reading!

Author Visit

On February 28, published author Jocelyn Chung visited Baldwin Stocker to share her book When Love is More Than Words. This story has a heartwarming message about the different ways that families express love for each other which really resonated with our little Bulldogs. During her visit, students swarmed her to tell her that their families were from Taiwan like hers.  Students, staff, and PTA parents were moved to tears when she shared touching memories about her family and how they demonstrate love without words. Jocelyn was inspired to become an author while she was in elementary school and excitedly shared the process of writing a book with our students - from developing an idea all the way to publication! With her visit, many of our Bulldogs were inspired to become future authors and wanted to share their own stories. Thank you to our supportive PTA for helping us organize Jocelyn's visit!

Student Action Teams

This event would not have been possible without our Student Action Teams! We utilized the help of many student leaders from grades 3rd through 5th to help in many ways. The Celebration & Kindness Student Action Team made promotional posters and flyers for the event. They also made over 30 thank you cards to hand out to guest readers. The Community Events Student Action Team greeted each guest reader by walking guests to their destination and gifting guests with custom water bottles and stickers. Our Student Lighthouse Team (SLT) made announcements to help motivate and encourage BSES readers to work together to meet our Read-A-Thon goal. SLT also created fun reading challenges!  Who doesn't enjoy reading while snacking?

DEAR Time

As the culmination to our Read Across America events, the entire school participated in DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time at 1:45 PM through the end of the school day. Yup, you've guessed it! This is when the entire school flooded outdoor spaces to drop whatever we were doing to read together. Some classes read on their own, buddied up with another class, or enjoyed a read aloud from the teacher. However we selected to do it, the whole school bonded over reading!

As you can tell, the last two weeks at Baldwin Stocker have been busy! It took careful planning and coordination to get everything ready but it was so worth it! The students, staff, families, and guests loved participating in all of the events and cannot wait for next year. We hope you enjoyed hearing about what is happening at Baldwin Stocker and will come for a visit next time!

Have a great day!

Warmly,

BSES Staff Lighthouse Team