The Newton County School System (NCSS) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 District Literacy Days Recitation, Drama, Read Aloud, and Ready Writing competitions.

NCSS elementary and middle schools held poetry competitions at their school and sent their grade level winners to participate in the district’s recitation contest. Competitors were judged on a number of criteria in the poetry recitation contest, including stage presence, articulation, interpretation, memory and accuracy, and difficulty of the piece.

SYSTEM RECITATION CONTEST WINNERS

GRADE	WINNER	SCHOOL	POEM
Kindergarten	Kayden O’Cain	Heard-Mixon Elementary	“Five Little Pumpkins”
First	Nathan Francis	Porterdale Elementary	“A Remarkable Adventure”
Second	Kennedy Curry	West Newton Elementary	“Summer at Grandma’s”
Third	Rosa Abraham	West Newton Elementary	“Dreambeast”
Fourth	Alainah Jackson	Heard-Mixon Elementary	“Making Sarah Cry”
Fifth	Amaya Williams	Newton County Theme School	“I Give Up”
Sixth	Dhakiya Knight	Newton County Theme School	“Middle Child”
Seventh	Tia Perry	Newton County Theme School	“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf”
Eighth	Julian Crockett	Liberty Middle School	“Wolves”

SYSTEM READY WRITING COMPETITION WINNERS

In the Ready Writing competition, school-level champions were given a writing prompt and one hour to complete their essays. Students were scored on a rubric of six traits: ideas and content; organization; voice; word choice; sentence fluency; and conventions.

GRADE	WINNER	SCHOOL	TITLE OF PIECE
Third	Megan McElhaney	Newton County Theme School	“Time Travel”
Fourth	Invy Parker	Porterdale Elementary	“If I Could Change the World”
Fifth	Caleb Ekanem	Newton County Theme School	“Most Memorable Day”
Sixth	Jaimoni Parker	Newton County Theme School	“To Watch Television”
Seventh	Morgan Fannin	Newton County Theme School	“Mr. Principal”
Eighth	Cheyanne Washington	Newton County Theme School	“Congressional Representation”

SYSTEM READ ALOUD WINNERS

Students in kindergarten through second grade participated in the Read Aloud of Best Piece Contest in which students, with the teacher’s assistance, chose a piece from the student’s collected writings to read aloud to the judges. They were scored on topic, words, order, sentences and articulation.

GRADE	WINNER	SCHOOL	NAME OF PIECE
Kindergarten	Kealan Frey	Newton County Theme School	“I am Special”
First	Ava Davis	Newton County Theme School	“When I Grow Up”
Second	Kingston Phillips	Porterdale Elementary	“If I Were Given Three Wishes What Would They Be and Why?”

SYSTEM DRAMA TEAM WINNERS

Rocky Plains Elementary School’s Drama Team won first place in the K-2 elementary division with their presentation of, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.” Team members included: Khollen Ward, Azul Garcia, Zara James, Cylah Powell, Ean Bice, and Juniper Coe.

Porterdale Elementary School’s Drama Team took first place in the Grade 3-5 Drama competition with their play, “Sleeping Ugly.” Team members included: Dylan Lollar, Jarell Miller, Alaysia Phillips, Janiyah Wallace, and Christopher Rolle.

At the Middle School level, Veterans Memorial Middle School earned the first place trophy their presentation, “A True Gentleman.”  Team members included: Ify Ojiaku, Rafael Soria, Tyler Blake, and Zoe Mayo, who served as stand-in for Abriella Farino.

Winners in all categories will now represent Newton County School System at the regional competition at Griffin RESA in January, 2016.

“The Literacy Days Competition provides students with the opportunity to perform and be recognized for their talents through the celebration of the arts,” said NCSS Superintendent Samantha Fuhrey. “I am proud of each and every one of our participants as it takes a tremendous amount of talent and commitment to participate in this type of competition. They represented their schools very well. I was impressed by the performances I saw and I know the judges at the regional competition will be, too.  In addition to our poetry recitation, read aloud, and drama team winners, our district ready writing winners are also very talented. I know Newton County School System will be well represented at the Griffin RESA Regional Literacy Days Festival next month.”

For more information, contact Ms. Sherri Davis-Viniard, Director of Public Relations for Newton County Schools, at [email protected]