AHOSKIE – The principals at Ahoskie Elementary School decided to “clown around” last week.

On Thursday morning, Principal Stan Warren and Assistant Principal Kimberly Scott surprised AES students by dressing up as clowns.

The gesture was to promote literacy and reward the students for exceeding their goal of how many books they could read within a school year.

According to Scott, the students were challenged with a goal of reading 8,000 books by the end of this school year. The students’ reward was for Warren and Scott to dress up as clowns.

“We exceeded that by an awful lot, they have read 10,522 books,” she said.

Warren said the challenge was based upon a district-wide literacy initiative implemented by Hertford County Public Schools.

“With literacy they can read and perform in all other academic areas,” he said.

During an extended fire drill, Warren and Scott made their grand entrance with a little help from the Ahoskie Fire Department who transported the administrators to the school on a fire engine.

Donning colorful wigs and silly outfits, Warren and Scott made their way down past the playground where lines of children laughed and giggled.

Warren and Scott presented awards to the students who read the most books.

“This makes learning fun,” said Warren about the reason behind putting on the clown suits.