SHERBURNE – To celebrate the end of a three-week reading program, the students and teachers at Sherburne-Earlville Elementary School held an assembly last week that featured songs from around the world.

For the past three weeks, students have been reading books about different countries as part of the Parents as Reading Partners (PARP) program. Following the theme “reading around the world,” students were given a reading passport and were encouraged to read for at least 15 minutes a day, three days a week with a partner. The passport contained the names of the seven continents, so students could keep track of their books’ settings.

Elementary School Principal John Douchinsky took an active role in the program as well, giving students the opportunity to play, “Where in the world is Mr. D.?” The school’s technology department recorded Douchinsky reading a book in front of a green screen and then edited in different backgrounds. The students got to guess where Douchinsky was reading from.

Tuesday afternoon, students and teachers celebrated the end of the program with a musical program. Each class dressed in a different color and sat in a circle, to resemble a rainbow. After a brief introduction and a kick-off song called, “Reading ‘Round the World,” the students sang songs to virtually travel around the world. The universal pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes sang two songs from Africa. The pre-first and first graders sang an Australian song. The second grade performed a song from Antarctica. The third grade performed an Asian song. The fourth graders performed a European song, and the fifth grade represented North and South America.