06/04/2026
📖✨ Building a Reading Culture One Celebration at a Time ✨📖
At All Children Count, we believe donating books is only the beginning. Children also need opportunities to engage with those books, build confidence, and experience the joy of reading aloud.
That’s why we recently launched a new event called the ACC Reading Celebration at two schools where books were recently donated.
Checkout video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/f6kE3jjwIjo?si=QAsXgZAI1kUcdnZI
More than 1,000 students from Grades 1–4 attended the celebrations. In preparation, teachers nominated student readers from each class, and classmates voted for who would represent them by reading in English or Afaan Oromo. The selected students practiced their reading passages with support from both teachers and peers and prepared to answer comprehension questions about the text.
The celebration day was filled with excitement and encouragement. We started with music and movement activities, including “Roly Poly,” to energize the students for storytime. We then shared the beloved children’s book From Head to Toe by Eric Carle before inviting our “Super Readers” to the front.
The students exceeded expectations. They demonstrated confidence, strong pronunciation, expression, and comprehension while reading in front of hundreds of their peers.
The event ended with snacks, smiley face stickers, and countless smiles.
These moments matter. Reading aloud builds confidence. Community celebration builds motivation. And access to books helps children discover their voices.
We are proud of every student, teacher, and school that made this event such a success.
