For Roanoke Avenue School Principal Thomas Payton, 2014 is the year of the chicken dance.
For nine years running, Principal Payton has been challenging his students to a week-long reading contest. This year’s challenge was 70,000 minutes of reading for all students combined. If the students met the challenge, Payton pledged he would dress up in a chicken costume and perform the chicken dance in front of the whole school.
The students exceeded the challenge, reading a total of 73,638 minutes.
“Reading week is my favorite week of the year,” Payton said after the dance Friday afternoon.
“I am continually amazed at the work you do in the classroom, how hard you work for your teachers and the job that your teachers do,” Payton told the students.
In past challenge-winning years, Payton has let students spray him with silly string, toss pies at him and watch as the word “read” was shaved into the back of his head.
“[When I started doing this,] I was looking to do something in the school to promote reading and dedicating a week to just to reading and literacy activities,” Payton said. “This is serious … but it also adds a little fun to it.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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