SANDPOINT — Friday was adoption day as about 60 Farmin Stidwell Elementary first graders were introduced to their new friend, stuffed golden or black puppies.

The students’ new best friends are part of a district-wide reading program in which the first graders can earn all kinds of things for their puppies. The reading puppy program is paid for through a grant from Panhandle Alliance for Education, a nonprofit organization that supports students, parents, teachers and staff of the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

“They’ve been asking for a month now when they would get their puppies,” said Farmin Stidwell first grade teacher Leana Nitcy. “It’s definitely a highlight.”

And highlight it is — as soon as the students made their way into the assembly, excited chatter filled the air as they spied Spike and Sparkle, Sandpoint High School’s mascots. The students knew that THAT day was when they got to meet their new best friends.

Nitcy said the puppy program is a huge motivator in getting students excited about reading, which helps lay a solid foundation for learning and gives the students confidence.

“When they get those puppies they just start taking off with their reading,” she said “Light bulbs are going on.”

After meeting their new friends, Nitcy said the students get an official adoption certificate and get to name their puppy.

Then, students are given a reading log where they can keep track on how much they read every day. Every 20 minutes nets a sticker with each prize for their puppy requiring a certain number of stickers. Prizes include everything from collars and name tags to puppy checkup as well as getting to take the puppy to the library, or to lunch.

“It’s the biggest motivator,” Nitcy said. “Once they get puppies, they really start. The kids who haven’t been reading nightly for 20 minutes, they start up because they know they’re going to start getting prizes for their puppies. And then there’s some competition in there because I tell them if you double your time, if you read 40 minutes, you’re going to two stickers. So once they see one or two kids doing that, it’s like ‘I’m going to be doing that, too.’ ”

The program has been taking place for about 10 years, Nitcy said, adding that students hold onto the puppies for years after they graduate the first grade, pointing to a puppy waiting patiently outside a second-grade classroom for its owner to reclaim it.

“Some day we need to have a puppy reunion and have some of our older kids bring their puppies back,” she said.

The program also is an incentive for the parents, some of whom may be tempted occasionally to skip the nighttime reading.

“Parents who may say we don’t have to read tonight, the kids are, ‘Oh, no, we are. One more sticker and I get a collar. So they’re getting that push from their kid,” Nitcy said.

At the end of the year the students will be allowed to take their puppies home.

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.