Elementary is Under The Sea For This Year’s Reading Contest

Caption: Portuguese teachers, Dani Lima, Renata Portella and Fernanda Cirino, lead the students in an expressive underwater lullaby to grab the attention of the elementary children during the Reading Contest. [by Enzo Viccari]

by Paula Asare-Duah & Grace Meier [in collaboration with Annabelle Harper]

PACA’s 2025-2026 Reading Contest for elementary’s theme is “Under The Sea” and the elementary classes have gone all out on their preparation and spirit. 

Many teachers put large amounts of effort into preparing for and decorating the classrooms for the reading contest this year.

Mrs. Dorcas Asare-Duah, the 3rd grade homeroom teacher, didn’t have to do much to prepare for the reading contest besides decorating her door according to the theme this year.

“I had to think about a ‘Diving Into Reading’ decoration idea for my door and then involve my students in it,” Asare-Duah said.

Mrs. Gabriela Freitas, who is one of the main organisers for the reading contest, had more to do with the preparation of the reading contest than just decorating a door.

“My role was to coordinate everything that goes on during this month, making sure everyone was doing their part to make this happen,” Freitas said. “I helped some teachers get ideas, approved requisitions for the purchase of supplies, organized the kick-off assembly, scheduled the special visits, and did many other things.”

Through the process of preparing for the events of the reading contest, Mrs. Freitas had some troubles with simply getting everything done on time, because of everything that needs to be checked and organized.

“The list is long and many people are involved,” said Freitas. “If one person does their part late, then everything else will be delayed.”

Though there were some struggles along the way, Mrs. Freitas appreciated the teachers’ involvement during the preparation that went very successfully this year, especially in the area of decorating their classrooms to the year’s theme.

Caption: The elementary teachers and librarians provided many opportunities for the students to immerse themselves in the underwater theme of the year. [photos by Grace Meier and Paula-Chloe Asare-Duah]

“Some teachers are more creative than others,” said Freitas.“But this year, everyone stepped up and did something in their classrooms.”

The success of the decorations and preparation seemed to have paid off according to the perspective of Mrs. Asare-Duah. She got to see how the students reacted to the different activities. 

“My third graders, they are absolutely enjoying it. Especially the kickoff day. The first day was amazing, full of activities, from one activity to the other the whole day and they had a lot of fun.” Asare Duah said. “They had an author visit and a diver visit and we did activities in class, they’ve enjoyed all the different aspects of it.

From the perspective of one of the people behind the scenes for the preparation aspect of it, Mrs. Freitas also saw how the kids were enjoying the different activities of the reading contest.

“The ocean theme brings many interesting facts that children enjoy knowing.” Freitas said. “And they are having fun coming up with different ways of dressing up as sea creatures”

The Reading Contest that started on Monday, October 6th at the first period of that day, is still happening and will end on Monday, November 3rd at the end of the school day.

There were prizes given out to the students who were the best participants in the reading contest events. Each week there were different prizes for the kids who read the most. 

The first week, the prizes were mini sea animal shaped erasers. Week two was a prize of a memory card game, and for week 3 they had water expanding sea animal toys. 

During week 4, they had wooden tic-tac-toe sets for the kids who read the most, and if a child reads for all four weeks, five times a week, they get ice-cream on the last day of the reading contest.

Both the kids and teachers got to experience the full extent and effort that went into the planning of this year’s Reading Contest for elementary. The event was a success and many people enjoyed it.