Reading Rodeo | Video

Kristin Clouston | 3/1/2013

An elementary school principal went above and beyond the call of duty today when his students surpassed their reading goal. And they celebrated their success and "Read Across America Day" in a unique way.

With an entrance like this you`d think Rita Murphy Elementary Principal Matt Fricke was a cowboy super star! He promised students if they met their reading goal he would ride a mechanical bull.

"The reading challenge was to read over 3,000 books in the month of February," said fourth grader Matthew Ibach.

"and they read over 5,600 books," Fricke said.

Fricke is man of his word, and after a short dance with the bull it was time to ride.

"It was just really cool because I don`t know a lot of principals that would have the guts to do it!" he said. "I was a little nervous, most importantly I didn`t want something bad to happen, the last thing I wanted to do was get hurt and traumatize the kids."

As an added bonus, other teachers feared the beast, all in the name of reading.

"It was very exciting! It`s great to have the kids cheering and that just pumps up the enthusiasm and the adrenaline," Fricke said.

Fricke says he has no idea how they`re going to top this one, but he`s pretty sure the librarians and students will have something even better next year.

Read Across America Day is usually held on Dr. Seuss` birthday, which is tomorrow. But since school won`t be in session, more than 45 million readers celebrated by reading books today.

COMMENT ON THIS STORY