This battle was won in the library and not on a battlefield.
The first Battle of the Books was performed this school year at the Eisenhower Intermediate School--- and a five-student team was crowned the inaugural champion.
On Wednesday, April 29, this enthusiastic contest, launched and created by Eisenhower's dedicated and energetic Library Media Specialist, Maren Vitali, concluded when the five students known as Chapter No. 1 claimed the championship.
The winning team's students are
Evan Frey
Jacob Sabella
Jason Xu
William Choi
Ayaan Bhargava
Ms. Vitali explained this spirited competition, which she also shared with the Hillside Intermediate School and its Library Media Specialist, Andrea Attanasio.
"I attended several workshop sessions on Battle of the Books to learn how to run one here in Bridgewater. I came back and told Andrea at Hillside all about it, and she agreed it would be fun to have our two schools rival one another."
"I introduced the concept to all 5th and 6th graders back at the start of the school year. Basically, kids formed teams and read books from a list that Andrea and I chose. We introduced the competition in October, and the kids formed their teams: 3-6 members that would then figure out who on their team would read and be responsible for which books."
Ms. Vitali continued with her report.
"Every book had to be read by at least one person on their team. Obviously, some team members read ALL the books, while others read only the ones assigned to their group. However, the more kids that read each book, the more help they would have in answering the questions on Battle Day."
"They had from October to May to read their books, and then each school had its own individual battles to determine the winning team."
"Eisenhower, we had several heats. First, the kids were given a T/F test to work on together for 10 minutes. Only teams that got 80 percent of the questions correct moved on.
Next, there was a multiple-choice test. Teams were given 30 minutes to work together and answer the questions. The top 6 teams with the highest score moved on."
Ms. Vitali concluded.
"The final test was a multiple-choice test on Kahoot that not only required correct answers but timed who answered the question in the fastest time."
Eisenhower Principal Dr. Laura Bassett, who does a fantastic job promoting school spirit throughout the year, was thrilled about this educational contest.
"Maren did an AWESOME job planning and running this event, and our students were so excited to participate," Dr. Bassett said. "As Maren's shirt says, Reading Rocks!! "
Eisenhower will now bid for bragging rights in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District when these five champion students face off against Hillside's winning team later in May.