Read Across America Day!
March 2nd is one of my favorite days to be a teacher, because it is READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY! You can find out all about the history of this day and tons of ideas and resources at the National Educational Association (NEA). This is the perfect day to celebrate books, authors, and everything reading!
These are 5 FUN & FREE celebrations we’ve done in the past! You can get all of our templates free this month in the Reading Rev Free Resource Library. You can also find them here. Share your celebration ideas in the comments!
School-Wide Read Across the Genres
#1- We love celebrating all the genres of literature by having a school-wide “Read Across The Genres!” month. We created a bulletin board in a central location in the school. Then, we spent the month creating a bar graph to show which genres were the most popular. Classes and students could also track and graph their personal favorites throughout the month. This was a great way to teach about genres, but also bring the school together. Teachers could stop by the bulletin with their whole class or send just a couple students to add a “dot” after a book was read. Our most popular genre was fantasy!
Books are… Everything!
Inspired by Grant Snider’s Books Are… poster, we created a school-wide bulletin of kids reading their favorite books in their favorite spots. Students then created some of their own Books Are quotes.
Students loved bring pictures in from home. Teachers also added pictures throughout the month of students reading in all corners of the school!
Some of our favorite student creations:
Books are time capsules.
Books are loyal pets.
Books are quicksand.
Books are portals.
School-Wide or Classroom Bookmark Contest
What better way to celebrate reading than by making bookmarks! Students each get to create their own design and then peers can vote on their favorites! Creativity and possibilities are endless!
Our school then made copies of the winning bookmark to send home with a book to read over spring break!
Host a Book Swap!
This can take place in your classroom or even school-wide. Have each student bring 2-3 books that they have gotten tired of reading. Then, put all the donated books on tables or the floor. Each student then gets to take 2-3 new books home! Make sure that you ask for extra donations or have some additional books available for those students who may not have books to swap.
Invite Mystery Guest Readers!
When I taught second grade, we would have a Mystery Guest Reader once a week! My students LOVED guessing who the guest reader would be and it was always amazing to see the face of a child light up when someone they knew walked in the door. This would be a great way to celebrate Read Across America Day/Week/Month. Inviting community members like police officers, business owners, firefighters, or local grandparents in to read is also fun.