 A new program at Baxter Elementary School kicked off this week and encourages students to read not only for school assignments but for fun as well. With this week's Golden Apple reporter Rachel Johnson has more. At Baxter Elementary School, reading is the thing to do. We are so excited because reading is our thing this year. This is what we really want to promote. We want to get kids and families excited about reading, reading every day for enjoyment, coming to school excited to share what they're reading about. The reading is the thing to do program was started last summer and officially kicked off this week. We know that literacy is important, we know that reading is the basis for most of the other subjects out there and we know that we want to gather excitement for our students to read for pleasure and not always just for assignment. On Monday, the elementary school held a program to kick off. Reading is the thing to do where students were awarded for the reading they accomplished over the summer. We had students, everybody got a thing shirt representative of their grade level and we got together, celebrated all the reading that happened over the summer and talked about the great activities that we have planned for the year this year. The year-long reading program will bring new ideas and a new emphasis on reading for fun to the school. A part of the program is there will be random reading is the thing to do moments where the whole school will drop whatever they're doing to read. Everyone across the board, staff included will stop what we're doing and it'll be reading is the thing to do and we'll pull out our books and we will read. Another part of the program will pair classes of different grade levels together for buddy reading days. Two classrooms will get together and the kids can read books together kind of in that partnership again another way just to spark interest and to promote excitement among the students. Through the program the school hopes to exemplify that reading can be fun and not just something that has to be done for school. I think the biggest thing is just getting the kids excited about reading and wanting to come to school and say I've been reading this book it's so great and sharing the excitement the love of reading the joy of reading for fun not just for assignments. You can feel the excitement at Baxter Elementary where reading really is the thing to do. Reporting from Baxter with this week's Golden Apple Rachel Johnson Lakeland News. The program is sponsored by the Baxter Elementary parent teacher organization which bought the thing shirts for every student in the school. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.