Last week, we celebrated Read Across America with our annual kick off event for "Reach for the Stars," on Monday, February 26th. Horace Mann partnered with Usborne Books to complete a 2-week, pledge-based reading challenge. Students will be challenged to read or be read to for 30 minutes a day. You can support your child's efforts with reading by sponsoring them for this event. Each day your child will log their reading time by filling in the squares using the Reach for the Stars Reading Journal. We encourage all students to participate by recording their reading minutes, even if they are not planning on collecting pledges. Reading Journals along with money collected will be due on Wednesday, March 14th. The best part...100% of student pledges are used to reward students and the Horace Mann staff and library. Students earn 50% of their pledges in Usborne books, and the remaining 50% of the pledges will go back to the school. Last year, we used the profits towards buying books to award students who participated with the Summer Reading Postcard Program. The remaining profits were used to purchase mentor texts to support literacy instruction, STEM, and SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Thank you for your support and for taking the reading challenge.