Readathon From Dawn Arbogast, a fifth grade teacher at East Marshall Middle School in Gilman, Iowa: ìOur 5th grade class is fund raising for an overnight field trip later on in the spring. We are having a read-a-thon. Students are asking parents, grandparents, and friends to sponsor them for a few cents for every minute they read. This is also a good math activity because first we estimated how much a good pledge would be. When the class found out their estimate would cost their parents over $30 they soon found a better estimate.î