Read Across America Archives

Host A Book Tasting With A Fun Twist

February 18, 2022 teachersbrain Reading

Have you ever done a book tasting with your students?

Book tastings are a unique way to learn about different books, genres, and authors. It introduces students to a variety of books so that they can sample them and discover new interests.

What Is A Book Tasting?

Generally, you’ll set up “tables” or centers with a menu and you’ll “serve” your students different stacks of books to choose from. After they get some time exploring the books they were served, you rotate them out for a second stack of books.

You can organize your books by genres, topics, authors, styles, etc. It is so fun to see the students branch out and check out books they wouldn’t normally look twice at. I have found this to be a great way to encourage a love of reading in my students. Even the students who claim not to enjoy reading get engaged in book tastings!

This reading activity would be a great addition to your Read Across America Day celebrations! I love that it can be done with students no matter their age. So literally any teacher can host a book tasting.

Take Your Book Tasting To The Next Level

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good book tasting. But sometimes, you just want to add a little extra something to get students really excited about reading.

Cue escape rooms!

Escape rooms are all the rage because they are so engaging for students. They make such a big impact on students that they often remember doing these activities long after they leave your classroom. How cool is that?

Given my love of book tastings and escape rooms, I had to create a resource that is the best of both worlds.

I created this Book Tasting Escape Room activity so that you can add it into your lessons too!

This resource includes step-by-step instructions that guarantee student engagement while they learn how to work as a team and help the store owner discover new book genres and escape the room with a book tasting!

Sounds fun, right?

With just a little prep, this activity will have your students teaming up to break into the box to escape the room. The best part? You can use any books you want to with this activity!

You’ll get everything you need including directions, menus, place settings, paper keys, signs, help cards, homework passes and bookmarks, banner pennants, and more!

Check it out here!

Have you ever hosting a book tasting for your students? Let me know in the comments!

Reading Strategies For Read Across America Day

February 11, 2022 teachersbrain Reading, Teaching Tips

National Read Across America Day is coming up on March 2nd. This is a fun day to celebrate one of the best things ever- reading! This day was established to get students more excited about reading and the wonderful stories we get to enjoy.

For younger students, reading is still a little more challenging because it is still so new to them. Unfortunately, this means they may not be as excited to read on Read Across America Day.

Here are some strategies you can work on with your students to help them find more joy and satisfaction in reading.

Preview

This method is when students skim a text to get the main idea and important points before they start to read. Research shows that this improves comprehension which makes the reading experience more enjoyable and satisfying for students.

Picture Cues

Teach students that the pictures in their books connect to the words on the page and they can look at them for clues about what is happening in the story when they get stuck. Ask students what they notice about the pictures in the book and what they think it means for the story.

Making Connections

Show your students how they can connect what they learned in another story with what they are currently reading to help them better understand what is happening in the story. For example: “This story is about an elephant. Do you know any other stories about elephants?” This helps students think more deeply and get more engaged in the content they are reading.

Predicting

Readers can gain meaning from their text by predicting what will happen next in the story. They can do this by using their existing knowledge or illustrations to make an informed prediction. When reading, pause and ask them what they think will happen on the next page based on the information they have.

Ask Questions

Teach your students to ask questions before, during, and after they are done reading to help them better understand what happened in the story and why.

With some practice, these simple and effective reading strategies will increase reading comprehension and help your students gain more confidence while reading. Ideally, this will help them develop a lifelong love for reading!

If you’re looking for some reading-themed activities to do for Read Across America Day, I have you covered!

These reading activities are just what you need to get students engaged. It comes with over 100 pages of language arts, math, STEM, and crafts with the “celebrate reading” theme in mind!

Here’s a preview of what’s included:

Language arts activities: rhyming words, creative writing with prompts, write the room activity, sorting nonsense words from real words activities, poems, and more.

Math activities: word problems, adding to 10, shapes counting, 1 more and 1 less.

Plus a STEM activity, awards, reading pledge, bookmarkers, journal cover, and a recipe for a treat!

I hope you love these activities! Let me know your favorite Read Across America activities in the comments!

How to Celebrate Read Across America

February 25, 2021 teachersbrain Dr. Seuss, Reading, Teaching Tips

Read Across America (RAA) always falls on Theodor Geisel’s birthday without coincidence. The goal was to create a day to motivate children to read and to celebrate the joys of reading. RAA has been linked to the classic Dr. Seuss books for years with schools dressing up as characters, sharing his work, and cooking green eggs and ham. Ever since Dr. Seuss has been linked to major criticism with allegations that The Cat in the Hat and other Seuss books are racist, the National Education Association let loose of Seuss. They want all kids to see themselves in popular culture. Now they are celebrating reading with diverse books during the event.

Even though a child who might bring in their favorite Dr. Seuss book to share with their classmates on their “Show and Tell” day should never be discouraged to share their love of a book, change can be good! This post is not to bash or support Dr. Seuss. Educators are trained professionals and should be trusted to use what is best for their students to promote reading with students. I personally used his work in the past to teach positive lessons about inclusion, social justice, and responsibility for years. However, I encourage you to look and listen to both viewpoints before you move forward with your reading week celebrations to form an intelligent conclusion about what types of books should be included in your week.

Read Across America Dress Up Day Ideas

Everyone loves to include dress-up days during the reading week. Here are some ideas to consider:

Dress for Success
Rainbow Day (Reading is Colorful… Diverse books)
Hat Day
Camouflage Day (read books about animals)
Neon Day (Reading makes you BRIGHT… Science books)
Wacky Day (Wear clothes backward, mismatched, crazy hair)
Character Day (Dress up like your favorite book character)
Pajama Poem Day
Wax Museum Biography Dress Up Day

Magic School Bus

FRESH Read Across America Activities

My favorite reading celebration activity now is to have a Book Tasting!
This is where students get to read a little (a taste) of different book genres. You can use any books you have access to from the library. Students read them for a few minutes and then switch to a different genre. This does require a little prep to set up the room to look like a restaurant, but this resource can help you out! It is a fun escape room with the book tasting! You can have it low key with the printed placemat or go all fancy with students dressing nice and you dressing up as a hostess or waiter.

Wacky Week Ideas

Do you love Wacky Wednesday? Why not do a whole WACKY week of reading activities?

For math, have wacky reading word problems to solve. Invite students to create a wacky animal with different animal parts. Then, they can write about their animal with details. Using any rhyming book, have students create a wacky rhyme. Use mystery pictures of hidden objects that are out of place for students to find. Make a day of Where is Wacky Waldo and share those books. Mess your room up with an upside-down clock or socks sticking out of the tissue box, see if the kids even notice during the week.

Try a Wacky Digital Escape with your students! This one has riddles, puzzles, hidden pictures in art, and non-sense word activities. If you are virtual, let them wear their favorite wacky hat while they do the escape.

March Themed Activities

Finding reading resources that are March-themed can be used with any book during the week. You can do a reading Write the Room activity with words like library, spine, characters, fiction, etc… Rhyming words, nonsense words, St. Patrick’s Day-themed activities in any subject area can inspire reading across curricular. Students can take a reading pledge and get certificates or bookmarks to encourage reading. March is a great time to introduce reading about hot air balloons. The season for hot air balloon rides runs from April to October. Kids are fascinated with them! Curious Gorge has a book about hot air balloons. Others include The Great Balloon Hullaballoo, The Noon Balloon, The sky Above my Eyes, and My Hot Air Balloon.

Some teachers use a circus theme in primary grades to promote reading during the week celebration. Their activities included books about animals, popcorn, snacks during reading/writing time, animal and clown crafts, guest story readers, dress-up clown day, Write the Room activities where students look for book titles, and ended with a reading carnival with prizes and games.

Elephant Hat – Never Forget Reading Rocks

What’s the Point?

The purpose of having Read Across America is to get your students reading! Not just to read, but to enjoy it, love it, and want MORE! Whatever theme you choose, make sure you are sharing your joy of reading books with your students. Then, watch them grow.

Grab a FREE Reading Pledge and bookmarks

Read more about using Theme Days to Teach in Elementary

Let us know what activities you will be doing to encourage reading!

Read Across America, Book Tastings and MARCH Lesson Plans

February 25, 2020 teachersbrain Dr. Seuss, Reading, St. Patrick's Day Ideas

Hello Teacher Brains!

I hope you all have ready for some March fun with your students! My dad would say, “Work hard and play hard.” So, before you hit Spring Break, let’s talk about a lot of work that has gone into helping to ease your workload, but still makes you look like you have been laboring 24/7!

No More Seuss?

Next week is Read Across America Week. Did you know that they are rebranding? The week is no longer limited to Dr. Seuss for the celebration. They even have a new logo that appeals to students of all ages, backgrounds and will celebrate a nation of diverse readers. Of course, who doesn’t enjoy dressing up like Dr. Seuss characters and serving green eggs and ham, but now the new theme is opening ideas for more activities and resources to encourage reading!

This brings me to my NEW baby! Okay, it’s not a human baby, but I birthed it! Lol

I loved the idea of doing a Book Tasting for the celebration, but I also love doing Escape Rooms. So, I made a resource to include both! Check it out! You just add books, plates and tablecloths to the celebration while students discover a challenge and work to beat the clock by “tasting” different book genres. The genres include non-fiction, fiction, biographies and poetry. There is a fun video to use at the beginning to HOOK your students. You can decorate your room simple with adding plates and table clothes or go all out making it a Harry Potter theme or Pizza restaurant. The sky’s the limit!

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon too! This is one of my favorite weeks with leprechaun footprints, glitter and messy rooms. Here are some of my favorite resources:

St. Patrick’s Day Escape the Room K-3

Leprechaun Headband (hilarious! The kids love this one!)

Rainbow Craft

How to Catch a Leprechaun Writing

The Paper Leprechaun Activity

Lucky Charms Sorting and Graphing

Leprechaun Unit with Writing and Crafts

Color by Sight Word St. Patrick’s Day Edition

NEW *****NEW****** NEW ******NEW ********NEW

If you Give a STEM Challenge! This is my new series of STEM activities that relate to Laura Numberoff books. She is one of my favorite authors. I was even LUCKY enough to meet her one time when I first began teaching. She inspired me to be a writer. I have two completed.

I f you Give a Mouse a Cookie has students reading the story and building a mouse house! This one is good for primary and intermediate students with different activities to differentiate in a SNAP.

If You Give a Pig A Pancake has student reading the story and building a treehouse for the pig’s brother. So much fun!

Do you need editable word wall templates? Well, I have you covered with this download. Just type your words in the text boxes provided, pick your favorite fonts and colors to match your room!

FIRST GRADE TEACHERS,

Check out the 120^th Day of School Mystery Escape Room!

I hope you all have a fantastic month! Make sure you are subscribe to my website newsletter so you can keep up with new releases, teacher-author courses and giveaways.

Sprinkling Lucky Fairy Dust on YOU so you can have a great month!

-Cindy