'I Love to Read' Month

Thanks to the frigid weather of Minnesota, I get to enjoy a "weekend" in the middle of my week. With this extra time, I decided to use my time to prepare for "I Love to Read" Month.

Previously, I worked at school that was so stressed out with behavior and the upcoming testing season, that we would seldom do anything to celebrate. Now that I am at a smaller and slightly less stressed school, I decided to come up with some fun (yet simple) things that I could do to celebrate such a month. Like most teachers I dove deep into the Pinterest world for ideas. Below is a list of ideas that I found.

Student & Family Reading Night

Book Walk:

 As a school, we are kicking off the month by inviting families and students to our school for a 'Book Walk' event. Each grade level is in charge of genre and will decorate their table to represent the elements of that genre. All of us teachers pulled together a couple of our favorite books for that genre, for our grade. This way, each table will have a variety of books, across the grade levels for that genre.

Postcards & Genre Graph:

I have also created postcards for each genre that the students will collect, so that they can write down a few books that intrigue them and rate their interest. At the end of their 'Book Walk', they will vote for their favorite genre, on a giant graph, that will be posted in our lunchroom. You can find the rest of the postcards at my TPT store. Click the picture for the link.

Bookmark Decorations:

The students and families will also get to decorate their own bookmarks. We just ordered blank bookmarks from amazon and provided them markers, stickers, yarn, etc. I will upload pictures of their creations once they are done!

Reading Challenge

As a teacher, reading logs have always been a challenge of mine! Some questions that I always ask myself are... How do I motivate students to read at home? How do I hold them accountable for reading? How do I not take out the joy of reading? If you're looking for the answer to these questions, I don't have them. If you can answer these questions? Please let me know! In the mean time, I have seen several reading logs that offer up a variety of ways for students to read at home. While these still aren't perfect, they don't get some kids excited to read; which I consider a win. Click the picture below for the free download. 

Mystery Readers 

Another activity that I found was called "Mystery Readers." You can have family members come into your classroom and read a picture book. Before they come into the room, they will give you 3 clues and your students will have to try to guess who the mystery reader is. Click on the photo below, to my TPT store for a copy of my Mystery Reader's Pack.

Book Tournament

I found this next idea on The Primary Punch Bowl's blog and decided to revamp it for our school. Each month our school has a character trait that we focus on and February's theme is 'kindness.' So, I choose 16 books with 'kindness' as the theme for students to vote on. Each week, we will narrow down the books, until we have "The Ultimate Kindness" book!

Below, is the list of books that I have come up with so far. 

1.  Each Kindness  by Jacqueline Woodson
2. The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig, illustrated by Patrice Barton 
3. Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell, illustrated by David Catrow 
4. We're All Wonders by R.J. Palicio 
5. Enemy Pie by Derek Munson, illustrated by Tara Calahan King
6. Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen 
7. Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Jen Hill 
8. Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson, illustrated by Fumi Kosaka
9. Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds 
10. The Sandwich Shop by Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah & Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Tricia Tusa 
11. Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun by Maria Dismondy & Kathy Hiatt, illustrated by Kim Shaw
12. Try a Little Kindness by Henry Cole 
13. The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
14. Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones 
15. Stick & Stone by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld 
16. I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoet 

Dress Up Days

• Cat in the Hat : Hat Day 
• Fox in Socks : Crazy Socks Day 
• Green Eggs in Ham : Wear Green Day 
• Oh, the Places you Go : Dress for Success Day 
• Book Character Day 
  

What are some things that you or your school does to promote reading or celebrate 'I Love to Read' Month? I would love to hear more ideas!

Enjoy the Outdoors!