Thirty-two Garibaldi Grade School 3rd-5th grade students created cooperative teams in order to tackle the task of reading the official 16 3rd-5th Division books off the Oregon Battle of the Books list. They reviewed the books and showed comprehension and study skills; going over plot, characters, authors, and details from each book throughout the course of the year in order to be able to compete at the school level against peer teams answering a variety of questions from each book. They met with the schools Instructional coach several times throughout the year to go over progress and had team meetings during their lunch periods to prepare for the competition which was held Thursday May 7th 2026 in the GGS gym in front of the whole school as well as family members who came in to watch. Younger students who were not participants were extremely engaged audience members and after the event were talking about how they wanted to participate in the future because they thought it looked so fun. The winner this year was a team that scored 23 out of a possible 28 pts possible. They will go on to compete against the winner of Nehalem Elementary’s Battle of the Books competition in a few weeks and then compete against Tillamook’s Battle of the Books Team the first week of June.
By Tracy Bennett, Instructional Coach and Curriculum Specialist, Garibaldi Grade School
