HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
San Antonio and surrounding area schools may register individual third grade classes* or all third graders in the school to participate in the Read to the Final Four competition. (*If more than one class from a school signs up, they will be combined into one school team. Virtual students may participate however all prizes and incentives will be sent to the school for distribution.)
Schools must sign up and register students by January 24 and may start reading and recording minutes on February 1. All schools that sign up will receive a welcome kit with classroom posters, bookmarks for all students and reading logs for each student.
Each school/class will need to sign up a “Coach” who will be the main point of contact. The “Coach” will need to Create New Team when they register the school. All minutes read must be recorded in the online system to be counted towards advancement. Minutes can be recorded daily or as a total at the end of each round.
We will offer two information sessions via Zoom to assist with registering students and answers any questions.
There are two options for registering students and recording minutes in the online system.
Option 1:
- Ask parents/guardians to register students for an account. Download instructions here.
- Once registered, parents/guardians submit results daily or by the deadline for the end of each round.
- Coaches may also submit results on behalf of students.
Option 2:
- Fill out and submit team roster to San Antonio Sports. Click here to download roster template.
- San Antonio Sports will upload the roster.
- Coaches can submit results on behalf of each student or provide instructions to parents/guardians to submit.
Prizes will be awarded based on the teams with the highest average minutes read per student. A special virtual show will air on Friday, February 19 to recognize teams participating in the program.
- February 1 - 16: Regular Season - top 20 teams receive a Read to the Final Four wristband
- February 22 – 28: 1st Round/Round of 64 – top 20 teams will receive new scholastic books for participating students
- March 1 – 7: 2nd Round/Round of 32 – top 16 teams will receive books and drawstring bags for participating students
- March 8 – 14: Sweet 16 – top 8 teams will receive books and pencil pouches for participating students
- March 15 – 21: Elite 8 – top 4 teams at the end of the round receive t-shirts for participating students plus $500 for a team party, a $500 Scholastic gift card and gift cards for team coaches
- March 22 – 28: Final Four – the top team will win a $5,000 classroom library makeover and the top four individual readers will receive $250 Scholastic gift cards to go towards their personal libraries
Coaches will be able to upload results through 4 p.m. each Monday and the top teams in each round will be announced Tuesday morning during each week of the competition. All teams are encouraged to continue to read through the end of the competition with the opportunity to improve and move up in the rankings week to week. The top four individual readers will be selected based on total minutes read and do not have to be on a top team.
