Did you enjoy the reading contest and yearend program?  This was the first time we held the reading contest.  As Murata sensei explained after the contest, the judging was done by the staff and the judging criteria was as follows:
1)  The story was read under 60 seconds,
2)  Punctuation in the story was recognizable
3)  Speed that the story was read (understandability)
4)  Volume of the speaker
5)  Pronunciation and intonation.

The winners of the 1st annual reading contest are:
J1: 1st - Marina Sturek, 2nd - Sakura Franzman, 3rd - Ayumi Hasuo
J2: 1st - Dean Caudill, 2nd - Hideki Sogi, 3rd -  Alex Carpenter
J3: 1st - Nina Caudill, 2nd - Sadako Shirtcliff,  3rd - Mina Matsumoto
J4: 1st - Clay Thibodeaux, 2nd -Natsumi Hagiwara, 3rd - Tomotaka Milco 
Adv: 1st - Ella Preger, 2nd - Hitomi Baba, 3rd - Junichi Tsutsui

Congratulations to our winners. Don’t you agree that all the kids did a great job?  A big thanks to all the parents who encouraged their kids to practice at home.