Newton County School System students brought home numerous awards from the recent Regional Literacy Days Poetry Recitation, Ready Writing, and Drama Competition held at Griffin Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA).

In the poetry recitation contests, competitors were judged on a number of criteria, including stage presence, articulation, interpretation, memory and accuracy, and difficulty of the piece.

At the elementary school level, Morgan Hathorn earned second place honors in the third grade competition with her recitation of the poem, "The Day Everything Went Wrong," by Sowmya. In the fourth grade competition, Allie Hay won third place with her performance of Shel Silverstein's poem, "The Unicorn." Both students attend the Newton County Theme School at Ficquett.

In the middle grades competition, Molly Graham won second place in the poetry recitation contest for her rendition of the poem, "If," by Rudyard Kipling. Molly also attends the Newton County Theme School at Ficquett.

Newton County School System students also fared very well in the Ready Writing Competition in which students are given a writing prompt and one hour to complete an essay. At the elementary school level, Newton County Theme School at Ficquett student Mitchell Witcher took home the third place award in the fourth grade competition. Veterans Memorial Middle School student Kellynn Beasley won the seventh grade Ready Writing Contest and Liberty Middle School student Kai Patterson brought home the second place award in the eighth grade competition.

Newton County School System's Drama Team also came home winners with the third place award in the middle grades drama contest. Members of the team, from Liberty Middle School, include: Alexis Cole, Faith Bumford, Yoseli Estrada, Moriah Barnes, Tahj Hairston, and Alexia Shepherd.

"The Literacy Days Competition provides students with the opportunity to perform and be recognized for their talents through the celebration of the arts," said Gary Mathews, Superintendent of Newton County Schools. "I am proud of our winners as it takes a tremendous amount of talent and commitment to participate in this type of competition. They represented their schools and our school system very well at the regional competition and we are very proud of them."

For more information, contact the Newton County School System PR department at 770-784-2908.