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

Kindegarten        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        NC Theme School              ”I Give Up”

Sixth                  Dhakiya Knight         NC Theme School              ”Middle Child”

Seventh              Tia Perry                   NC 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 are 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             NC Theme School         ”Time Travel”

Fourth            Invy Parker                        Porterdale Elementary   ”If I Could Change the World”

Fifth              Caleb Ekanem                   NC Theme School         ”Most Memorable Day”

Sixth              Jaimoni Parker                   NC Theme School         ”To Watch Television”

Seventh         Morgan Fanin                    NC Theme School         ”Mr. Principal”

Eighth            Cheyanne Washington        NC 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, choose 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

Kindegarten        Kealan Frey                   NC Theme School         ”I am Special”

First                   Ava Davis                     NC Theme School         ”When I Grow Up”

Second              Kingston Phillips           Porterdale Elementary   ”If I were given Three”

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 davis-viniard.sherri@newton.k12.ga.us.