Instead of reading, writing and arithmetic, the students at Valley Grande Elementary School spent Thursday morning jumping rope, bowling, swinging and running the bases.

The school celebrated achieving the state Department of Education’s Adequate Yearly Progress report, an annual analysis of a school’s 2009-2010 performance based on standardized testing scores, with an outdoor fun day.

“This is more of a fun day to say a job well done on making our Adequate Yearly Progress,” said Valley Grande Elementary Principal Sharon Streeter. “I feel that this is a sense of motivation. If kids know that you appreciate what they’re doing, if you tell them that they’re doing a great job, they tend to do better. This is what we do to motivate them to strive even higher for excellence.”

Streeter originally planned to bring the children to Taylorville Family Fun Entertainment center, but had to change plans when the facility closed on Aug. 8.

When fifth grade student Grace Robbins heard the school would have an outdoor fun day, she couldn’t wait.

“It was really exciting for us because we only have one field day a year, and now we’ve got two,” she said.

Grace Allen Ivey, fifth grade student, enjoyed jumping rope the most of all the activities for the morning. She is proud of herself and her classmates for their work.

“We worked really hard to get those scores,” Grace said. “I thought that they prepared us enough that it was pretty easy.”

Fifth grade teacher Amy Elam wants the positive reinforcement to encourage students who struggle with testing to put in extra study time and pay attention in class.

“This helps them be able to see what hard work and determination and putting forth the extra effort, it helps them to be able to realize that not only will they see the fruits of their labor on the test, but they’ll also be rewarded through fun days like this,” Elam said.

Alabama Math and Reading Test is for students third through eighth grade and Stanford Achievement Test 10 is for students third through eighth grade.