Community Events

Bedtime Reading Session

Pick a day or evening to hold a “bedtime reading” time at your school. This is an easy and fun event for everyone. Children are encouraged to wear their pajamas and bring a teddy bear, along with their favorite book. If this is a family event, then they should be encouraged to bring their favorite readers, too! The only rule for this event is to find a comfortable spot, cuddle up and read! Refreshments are cookies and milk, of course!

When done as a school, the entire evening event would take about an hour. Fifteen-twenty minutes for a whole group read aloud. The same amount of time would be needed for the cuddle up and read time. End the evening with cookies and milk!

Beach Blanket Reading Session

Another variation that is fun to do in the dead of winter is a “beach blanket reading time” complete with bathing suits, sunglasses and beach towels. This is fun to do as a school and even more fun if the teachers and parents dress up as well. Of course, you may have to select your “beach reading” a bit more carefully than you might in the summertime. Refreshments are lemonade and watermelon, what else!

Story Questions

Students are given a book related question with their morning message. Answers are written on a piece of paper with the students name and grade. The answers are dropped in a box in a central place. Each day several papers are drawn out. Students receive a token prize--bookmarks, pencils, and stickers.

Breakfast with Books

You may want to enlist your parent group of volunteers for this activity. Choose a day to hold a breakfast with books. Provide doughnuts and juice and invite the children to come with a book to talk about while they eat and drink their treats. The kids love it. Make a list of all the books that were shared for all the kids.

Literary Luncheons

This can be done school-wide or classroom-by-classroom. Designate a day or two for a literacy luncheon. The library is a great place to hold this if your librarian is willing. Children bring their lunch and a book to share with others. You may want to consider holding several around the school so that as many children as want to can be included.

Stop, Drop, and Read or Write

“Stop, Drop, and Read or Write” announcements will be made over the loudspeaker asking everyone to stop what they are doing and read or write.

Readers from the Community

Invite community members to share their favorite book with a class of students. Try for the mayor, a fireman, the police chief, coaches, parents, grandparents, and school community members.

Book Characters

Students and faculty dress as their favorite book character for a day.

Book Cover Doors

Each classroom decorates their door as a book jacket of one of their favorite books.

Reading Incentive

The whole school sets a goal of how many books to be read. The students do this reading at home. Parents must sign off on amount read. The challenges can vary: number of pages, books, and minutes read outside of school.

Book Bags

The local grocery store gave us enough new brown paper shopping bags for every student in our school. Students in every class made a book jacket on grocery bag. The bags were then returned to the store to be used to pack groceries. This was done as a project during art class.

Real Readers

Invite parents, administrators, special guests... etc. to come and share the book or books they are currently reading with the class. Ask them to talk about how they choose their reading and whom they get recommendations from.

Favorite Book Character Mural

Have students add their favorite book character to a common mural space in the school.

Read Around the School

Choose one day and a common time for this celebration. Have each teacher choose a different book to read aloud in his or her classroom at this common time. Each classroom participating would then create a poster to hang outside their room telling of the book that this teacher will read aloud. Have the children all sign-up to go to different classrooms to hear a story for about twenty minutes. This can be repeated with a second reading following directly after the first reading. Creating a master schedule of books being read and teachers reading would help with the management of this activity.

Book Related Trivia

We have a primary question and an intermediate question on the PA system each day of I Love to Read and Write Week. The librarian asks a question about some book and kids write down the answer. Someone in each class takes the answers to the librarian. Then the Iibrarian checks to see who has the correct answer. These names are put in a basket and a name is drawn out – one for primary; one for intermediate. The winners get a free book!

Mystery Book Clues

Each teacher chooses a children's book for this activity. On Monday they put up one clue about the book on their classroom door. Then they put up another clue on Tuesday. They continue in this way until Thursday. At the end of the day on Thursday, everyone in school tries to figure out just what book each teacher was highlighting during the week. On Friday, a list of all of the books is posted in a common area so that everyone can see how well they did!

A Not So Silent, Silent Reading Time

Pick a day to hold this event. I usually do this at the end of a school day. I invite all parents, siblings, and school community members from custodians to lunch persons to principal to school board directors to attend. The invitation lets them know that they will be listening to a read aloud and will be participating in a “not so silent, silent reading time” with the students in my classroom. I pick a story to read aloud to the entire gathering. This is a great time to model for parents just how interactive reading aloud can and should be! Then we all get our personal books to read and find a comfortable place to read them in.

My students know that no adult should be alone at this time. And they know that if their family could not come, it is a great time to help out with folks who do not have children in the classroom. I find a book and a place to read and we begin. I usually set the timer for about 20 minutes. At the end of our silent reading together, we usually have a snack. On the notice sent home, it invites participants to be creative and bring a literary snack. We have had Frobscottle to drink, along with carrots from Farmer MacGregor’s garden and even a snack mix made out of cheerios. My note gives little direction for these snacks; it is most fun to see what comes in. It is always a surprise!

ROCK –N- READ

Materials needed:

Children (lots)
Adults (some)
Books (lots)
Rocking chair in a central location within your school (1)

Goal:

To keep the rocker with a reader in it for a day or an entire week (or more) allowing children to see other children, parents, teachers, and community members reading and listening to reading for pure enjoyment!

How to get started:

Decide how long you want the rocker reading.
Have participating classrooms in your school choose a day to rock-n-read.
Place the rocker and a basket of books in a central location.

REMEMBER:

It is important to have someone reading in the rocker CONTINUALLY throughout each school day of the challenge period.

Classroom teachers will want to:

Send out invitations to parents, faculty and staff inviting them to come spend 15-30 minutes rocking in the chair reading their own choice books or selections from the basket.
Make a schedule for their day.
Sign the children up for a reading time.
Plan to have the class read aloud out at the rocker.
Take pictures.
ENJOY!

Children LOVE to eat their lunch reading in the rocker!!! class=MsoNormal>

Ideas to use in your classroom:

Circle Retellings

In this activity, several groups retell the same book using circle wedges. Individual groups need to work together plus each retelling will be slightly different!

Choose a book to read aloud to your group or class. The story should have a complex story structure that is sure to engage the children in some real thinking and intense conversation about the story and how to retell it. After reading the story, place your children in groups of six or seven students. A heterogeneous grouping works well for this lesson. Give each group a set of prepared circle wedges. An easy circle to use as a tracer is the cardboard circle underneath of your last take out or frozen pizza! Cut this tracer into six equal wedges.

Now it is each group’s turn to work with the story and their circle wedges. They should number the wedges 1-6. Then as a group decide how they should illustrate each of the six story parts. Each group should talk and discuss for a while as they revisit and revise their story retellings before they start to illustrate. This would be a good time to hold back the art materials until they have a firm plan.

Each group then assembles their wedges into the circle and does a retelling for the class.

Here are a few book titles that work well for this activity:

Hattie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack
Babushka’s Doll by Patricia Polacco
Company’s Coming by Arthur Yorinks
Wizzil by William Steig
We Share Everything by Robert Muench
Adelita by Tomie dePaola

After your children get the idea of these circle retellings, you may want to have a group try one from the book they are reading for guided reading.

Morning Message Ideas

Nate the Great is a ______________________?

What does the fox in Dr. Seuss’ book wear?

What phrase begins most fairytales?

What could Peter Pan do?

What happened to Pinocchio’s nose when he told a lie?

What kind of animal is Ping?

Who is the bad guy in the series about the Beaudelaire orphans?

Secret Message

Better yet, use the above messages as fuel for secret messages. Your children will love discovering your question as well as answering it.

MINIMAL-CUES MESSAGES/SECRET MESSAGE

Minimal-cues messages are a means to teach children some very powerful attributes needed in the reading process. Messages are written out that look very much like those in Hangman. Blanks are left for letters in words, and words are grouped together into phrases or sentences. Students are led through mini-discussions about the message and how they can solve it. The reading strategies of prediction, reading on, and trying again are all part and parcel of this quick, game-like activity. Through it all, they are actively involved in the meaning-making of the message.

Example :

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - ’ - - - - - - - - - - -, - - - - - - -

- - - - - - -.

The class first reads the message all together. The question “What do you know about the message?” is asked. The children begin to note number of words, number of sentences, marks of punctuation, etc. Much discussion can be derived from this most minimal-cues message BEFORE any words are discovered.

Next, the children begin to solve the message. They are asked to note the placement of their prediction, giving a whole word clue. That is, they may say, “I would like the word the for the first row, first word.” I would respond, “That’s right. How would that word begin?” “With a capital T.” “Why?” “It is the beginning of a sentence.”

At this time I might ask the question “Can you solve the message now?” All of the children will know that the word the is not powerful enough to help them solve it. They will realize that they need the context of the message to help them do this.

As the message is filled in, we read it aloud. This gives the children many opportunities to predict text and to practice those skills used by more flexible strategic readers. If the class gets stuck and cannot go on, I let them “buy” a vowel and a consonant to help with the process of discovering the message.

Our best messages are related to the read alouds being read in the room. Often they are in the form of a question. We will then take the time to discuss the point made in the message. Again, I ask the children to use that reading skill of prediction in the conversation.

Answer to the message : The Newberry Award winner for 1996 is The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman.

NOTE: Many classroom teachers use minimal-cues messages but keep some letters in their message. That is, if they are working on vowel sounds in the class, their message might look like this:

G - - d m - - n - ng cl - ss.

Retelling Glove

A literacy teacher in Norfolk, Connecticut first shared this idea with me. She carries a retelling glove into all of the primary classrooms she visits and leaves it as a classroom gift.

The glove is used to scaffold a child or class’ retelling of a story. The “reteller” wears the glove. The first time, I would wear the glove and my group of students would help me retell a story just read aloud to them. You will want a good strong story for this to work the best. As the children give me ideas for our group retelling, I would put down the finger on the glove that goes along with their retelling. When all fingers are down, then we have told the “heart” of the story – not everything – just the heart!

Once your students understand how to do their own retellings, then this glove can become the basis for an independent literacy center. Children come to the center with a book they have read that is just right for them. They put on the glove and retell their story to a friend or two. This is an example of one of my favorite centers…it involves no set up or take down. In fact it has a life of its own!

While a teacher shared this idea with me, I also found this idea in the book, Revisit, Reflect, and Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension, written by Linda Hoyt. This book is available through Heinemann (ISBN: 0-325-00071-9).

Story mapping - Accordion Book

Having children fold strips of paper into 6 equal parts can make this very easy book.

1. Give each child a long strip of paper.

2. Fold into 6 equal parts.

3. Attach the front fold to a piece of cover material with white glue.

4. Do the same with the last fold.

5. Write the title of the book on the inside of the front cover.

6. Draw a map of the story on the four inner pages.

7. Add information about the author on the final page - this could actually be the child illustrator of this story map book.

READING BINGO

Make a BINGO (4 across, 4 down, or 4 diagonally) by interviewing and discovering friends who have different matches than you for each category. When you find a different match, have that person jot his/her answer in the box, along with their initials. You should try not to use any one person more than two times.

A book with a bunny in it:

____________________________

Your favorite bedtime story:

____________________________

A book with a sad ending:

____________________________

Your favorite read aloud (picture book) from this school year:

____________________________

Your favorite read aloud (novel) from this school year:

____________________________

A book with a giant in it:

____________________________

A book with a happy ending:

____________________________

Your favorite author:

____________________________

Your favorite Vermont author:

____________________________

The title of a Red Clover Book for 2003:

____________________________

A favorite poem:

____________________________

A favorite movie based on a children’s book:

____________________________

A favorite poet:

____________________________

A book with a dog in it:

____________________________

A book character you would like to meet:

____________________________

The title of the book you plan to read next:

____________________________

Here is a blank BINGO board for you to create your own!

READING BINGO

____________________________

Shared Reading

whole group and small group - a shared experience used to play with language, model fluency, and teach reading skills in context

BIG books

poetry on charts

songs

How to:

Using an enlarged text that all can see, the teacher involves the children in the reading. Children join in on refrains and in multiple readings.

Why?

A shared reading is the closest we, as teachers, can get to an “in-the-lap” storytime with a large/small group of children. “In-the-lap” listeners pick up on reading strategies in more incidental ways. In a shared reading, the teacher deliberately draws attention to the print.

A shared reading:

· builds on previous experiences with books

· provides language models

· expands vocabulary

· supports earliest readers

· allows teacher to model fluent reading

· gives a context for vocabulary

· allows teacher to draw attention to critical print concepts

· helps children become familiar with texts

· models strategies to be used in guided reading and independent reading situations

· is a social literacy event

· is enjoyable

And don’t forget:

Independent Reading

individual reading of known text and text at instructional level of the reader

multiple copies of already-read text

texts of similar levels

literature circles

How to:

Children read on their own, to themselves, or with partners, with little support from the teacher.

Why?

Independent reading allows children an opportunity to apply reading strategies independently in a sustained reading activity. It challenges children to work on their own with these strategies. It also promotes fluency through rereading of familiar texts.

Use the following sheet as a guide for helping your students choose books that are “just right” for them to read on their own. This sheet was designed for use with parents and others who interact with children who read.

How to Help a Child Choose a Book that is Just Right…

We all want to help children to enjoy reading and to get them to actually read a lot! We can help them most by teaching them how to choose their own books. Real readers don’t wait for others to give them books; they are actively seeking them out. But young readers don’t have the knowledge needed for doing this…so the best rule is to teach this skill and to model this skill both at home and at school.

Choosing a book that is just right for you – by this I mean books that fall into their instructional reading range - that is books that take a little work to read – but not too much, not too little. “Just right.”

A just right book will allow a reader to use his or her reading strategies but will also allow them to enjoy what they are reading, too!

1. The easiest strategy for teaching book selection is the “5 finger rule.” Here a child picks up a book, reads a page and lifts a finger each time they make a miscue. Five fingers up mean the book is probably too hard for the child.

2. Pick a book that interests you.

3. Choose a book by a favorite author.

4. Read lots of different kinds of books out loud – nothing better than hearing a book to know if you will like to read it yourself.

5. Try a book in a genre that you really like – mysteries, poetry, fantasy, non-fiction

6. Try a book that was recommended to you by a friend.

7. Select a few books that might be possibilities, and give a “book talk” on all of them – then let the child decide.

8. Read silently in front of the child. Share what you are reading to get them interested in real reading, too!

ãEllen A. Thompson, Inc.

ALL VERMONT

SILENT READ

THURSDAY

FEBRUARY 13, 2003

1:30 – 2:00

This is an invitation to thousands of Vermont students, teachers and community members to read silently for thirty (30) minutes.

Promote the power of reading throughout your school and community by reading!

All classes read

Adults in your school community read

Invite businesses to take time to read

HAVE YOUR SCHOOL OR CLASSROOM JOIN IN

I Love to Read and Write Booklet

Evaluation Form

Please return this evaluation form by March 15,2003 to:

Ellen A. Thompson

89 East Shore Road

South Hero, VT 05486

1. Did you find this booklet helpful for organizing I Love to Read and Write activities for your classroom or school? YES NO

2. Did you use any of the ideas from this booklet in your planning? YES NO

3. Did you or your school conduct a silent reading half hour from 1:30 – 2:00 on Thursday February 13, 2002? YES NO

If yes, estimate how many students had the opportunity to read silently at that time #_________ of students

4. Do you think this is a project the Vermont Council on Reading should promote each year? YES NO

5. How many students did this booklet influence? ___________

6. Do you have an idea or activity to share in a future I Love to Read and Write publication? Write these on the back of this form. Be sure to include your name and school for proper credit.

7. How can this booklet be improved?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Comments:

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