Hi I'm looking for some fun school wide (elementary) reading activities. Any ideas ? I'd really appreciate hearing what you have tried that was successful in getting kids excited about reading. Thanks ccw
-Comic books are a hit with the boys! -Reading children's favorite Cereal boxes or some of their favorite food items; empty boxes that you can have their parents bring in. -Knowing what each child's interest is and bringing in books on the subjects. My son loved baseball, so we had books about baseball for him to observe and enjoy. -Rhymes and riddles are a cool thing to start off with AND then actually pointing to the words as they start to memorize them. -I've mentioned before that I point to the words of the POA as they say them out loud. It's a cool way to see that they are reading off the words that are on the wall. -With my children's worksheets, I take an extra minute and make sure that I WRITE words of names of what's on their worksheets. e.g. If a worksheet is... Circle all the pictures below of things that rhyme with frog. If there are pictures of a log, dog, hog, etc., I will write the words below each picture. Some of them will ask about the words and they will try to sound them out! It's worth the extra time. -Walking around the neighborhood and reading signs that are on buildings or the road. Rebel1
Our school conducts a Reading Olympics, complete with gold, silver and bronze medal ceremonies. They get a medal depending the minutes they read during the six week olympics. We have a huge bulletin board in the hallway where they track their progress by moving a circle with their name into the different sections of the board (gold, silver bronze, honorable mention). It really motivates a lot of the kids to read more.
We do Read Tac Toe - Everyone has a grid. Kinders and 1st grade's grid is 3x3 and 5th is 5x5 I think. The other grades might be 4x4 or 5x5 - Idk. Each box has a different genre. Once the kid reads a genre and writes a response, the mark and x in the corresponding square in their grid. When they get a row crossed out, they get their name called on the announcements and a free prize from the library. The kids who like to read participate, and the one who don't like to read don't participate. It is not motivating IMO. I believe the upper grades might make it a requirement, not sure. I believe 3rd grade has the read with dogs program.
Teachers also carry around some pieces of paper that say "Caught you Reading" and whenever a child is choosing to read, we give that kid a paper. They fill out their name and info and put it in their grade level raffle basket. Each week our librarian chooses a name from each grade level. Winner gets to pick out a free book to keep. This is for when kids don't have to read but are choosing to (like in the car rider/bus lines, before school, during free time, etc.).
School read-in in the gym or outside Read so many minutes play dodgeball against parents. We are a K-12 school and our 1st graders read the most and played dodgeball against the HS football team.
We did DEAR as a school--the principal would come on the PA and announce that it was DEAR time, and everybody stopped and read.
We read so many books as a school to earn the chance to do something to the dean (set goal based on ar progress) we generated a list of possible things our dean could do and then we voted. Things like dress up like a girl and dance around the building holding a sign that says...I love to read with (our schools name), pies in the face (its always this one) , kiss a pig anyway. we keep track using a big decorative board with the book count and its updated weekly. This really motivates kids. The pies are made of paper plates and whip cream (donated from parents)good luck
Our school mascot is the Knight, so we did a "Kingdom of Readers" theme last year. Each classroom got a huge blowup of an empty castle, and the grade levels each decided on how to pass out bricks that the students could color and glue onto their class's castle. The race was on to see which class would fill their castle first. Pretty fun!
We follow a reading and writing workshop philosophy- truthfully, there isn't a problem in my school about being excited about reading. Every class has a well-stocked library, kids are reading at their own levels of comprehension and teachers are modeling not only mini-lessons, but a love and enthusiasm for reading- it's our culture.
Czacza, you're right! It would be the best scenario if we could just get kids excited about reading. There are several cultures, though, that the kids demand a reward, or they won't do it. So do we just let them not read, or do we try to make it fun? Our school has been in a heated debate about this too. I tend to agree with you - lets just show them how to love reading. Others want to offer rewards and prizes for reading. I've been in two very different school districts, and one was full of low income students who would not read unless they were rewarded. I'm now in a district where the students tend to have parents who support their reading more, and they don't need the constant motivation - they just like to read.
Reading program Are any of using the Scott Foresman Reading Program? If so, what do you have to say about it?
I truly believe this is my school and can't believe we have such programs. They are waste of time IMO. I don't hype them up because they don't work! The people who are motivated by these rewards are the kids who don't need motivating! I honestly don't have time to keep up with all the incentive programs they keep trying to throw down kids throats.
I find that some read alouds are particularly motivating...Some chapter books when read aloud suddenly become the 'hot' books to read in my room. Because of this, I make sure I read aloud books of levels representing the different reading levels in my room.
Thanks for all your ideas. I am a Title 1 teacher and I just want to try some new activities each month to bring our entire school body (K-6) together reading beyond their classroom Harcourt Trophies program. My idea to begin the year is a Reading Picnic Read-nic)Our principal will give a short reading plug and students go outside to read in the sun, with a pal or individually for 20min. We'll provide juice and bag of chips. I've plastered the halls with reading posters and I always put up a joke wall(Kids love reading the joke of the week and rereading the oldies, I put this by the water fountains). Anything to just get them involved in reading. Also we'll have Read My T-shirt Day, where kids can simply wear a shirt of words. Thanks again to everyone, now I've more ideas.
How does each teacher at your school have a well-stocked library, Czacza? I honestly wish teachers could acquire books easier- even when they are at thrift stores, some teachers still act discouraged at the thought of purchasing, even at lower prices. Has your school had a lot of training in this area? It really sounds awesome to hear it is your school's "culture".
I know this wasn't directed at me but we buy our own books. We go to garage sales, scholastic and any other way. Parents also give us gift cards to B&N and learning stores. We all read certain professional books (like Growing Readers) and have speakers worth listening to (like Irene Fountas) and have a lot of professional development. Our bar is set really high at our school. We have a lot of parental support and our teachers go the extra mile. It is hard to get a teaching job at our school and the teachers hired are exceptional (most of them). That all sounded really corny. But it's the truth.
We were a Columbia University Reading and Writing Project school for years, so that guides our philosophy. Since we don't purchase a packaged reading curriculum (we really don't purchase any packaged curriculum!), that money is freed up to spend on classroom books. I inherited many of mine when I moved into my classroom, some are my books from home (some from when my kids were younger), many are donated from families as their kids 'outgrow' books. PTO sponsored book fairs feature teacher 'wish lists'- I get many books donated this way. Also Scholastic points, library book sales, etc.
We do Six Flags Reading and all kids keep a log and get a free ticket to Six Flags if they read for 6 hours. We also have Family Reading Night, with fun games like scrabble, adults reading books, shaving cream to write in. Kids enjoy that family night the best.
