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Towards the end of February, I was contacted by one of our elementary Reading Specialists asking if I would be willing to help them out with their Reading Month activities. They had decided on a theme of YouTube (as all the kids are OBSESSED with watching all sorts of videos) and called it "Be a YouTube Reading Star!". After meeting and brainstorming some ideas, one of our other elementary Reading Specialists from another building wanted to join in on the theme. The more the merrier! Together we came up with some activities, rewards, and fun things to work into the month. I thought I would share some of the videos and activities below!
Our two elementary schools created their own calendars of events for the month, but each tied back to the YouTube theme. Our K-2 building took some of the popular kinds of videos that kids like to watch and put their own reading spin on it to make some new videos. We had several students at the high school who were eager to help out and be part of the Reading Month activities, that we were able to have them help film our videos. It was great to have them do it, as several of them had younger siblings or cousins at that building, so it was a nice surprise when the teachers showed the videos and the little kids could see big kids they knew. The YouTube challenges that the K-2 building put their own twist on was the Real vs. Fake Challenge and the Mystery Wheel Challenge. The students LOVED them and were so excited to see how the challenges played out. They also had a slime challenge and brick building day as rewards. The students were so excited to explore reading books that related back to these challenges and earning materials to use for the reward parties.
Our 3-5 building took on some different themes/challenges as they implemented their YouTube theme. They took on Unboxing, Product (Book) Recommendations, Slime, and Glow in the Dark. They also had a calendar of daily activities/events that students could do in their classrooms or at home that related back to the Reading Month theme or simply encouraging reading.
The first reward that was up for grabs was that of a Glow Party. After the first full week, the class in each grade level who collectively logged the most reading minutes earned a STEAM Glow Party. I hosted these parties for the three classes and it was so much fun watching them in a classroom transformation setting with a variety of STEAM activities for them to pick from and explore. Students could chose activities and move at any time during the party. Some students stayed and worked on the same activity for the whole time (the brick building station was a popular one for this!), while others hopped from one to another. The second reward was that of a slime party. Like the Glow Party, this was awarded to the class in each grade level that had logged the most minutes reading for the week. This was a great way to incorporate some Math as part of STEAM for this activity. Students were each able to make their own batch of slime in which they had to measure out the ingredients, mix them togethers, and problem solve for when it might have been too sticky or too liquidy. They were each able to add two mix-ins to their slime and it was so fun to see their choices when they had freedom to design their slime however they wanted. The last part of their festivities was doing an unboxing. Each classroom put together a wish list of some books and the Reading Specialist was able to purchase some books from their lists to do a special unboxing. We asked one teacher to do her unboxing where we recorded the whole thing so that we could show other classrooms what they look forward to with their unboxings. We tried to get each teacher doing their unboxings, but sometimes it was hard to coordinate schedules. Either way, the teachers and students thoroughly enjoyed their unboxings and the additions to their classroom libraries!
This was such a fun spin on Reading Month! At the end of the month as we were finishing up recording videos, we were already starting to talk about what we could do next year for Reading Month. We really tapped into something that was meaningful to students and tying their passions into their learning at school!
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At the end of February, our District Media Specialist an I received a request from our K-2 principal about putting together some kind of read aloud books for Reading Month. One of his teachers started the conversation based on books from Storyline Online, and we ran with it! We put it out for teachers to volunteer to read a book of their choice. We had a great time putting this project together and the students loved hearing familiar faces read the books. It was a great project for all students in the school to read the same book everyday for the month of March.
As part of the project, we put together an interactive calendar so that teachers could easily see which book was scheduled for the day and even share the calendar with parents so that students could listen to books at home. I have shared the calendar below, but if you have problems viewing it, you may view the interactive calendar here.
Downloading Note
You may see this image when you try to download the file.
No worries! Just go ahead and click the Download button. It is just a big file and Google Drive cannot provide a preview for the document. There are many book resources after all!
Please leave any comments below on how you use these in your classroom or any other ways you use QR codes in the classroom. I always love hearing new ideas! As February leads up to March is Reading Month, I wanted to share some technology resources that can be used to supplement activities you might be doing in the classroom. There is no way I could compile of a comprehensive list of resources or ideas, as I know that so much varies between teachers, students, classrooms, and schools. Some resources that would be fun to use in the classroom: Another option is to check out YouTube and see what books have been made into videos. This often adds a different dimension to a book after you have read it with students. Often times authors will narrate these videos, which is something fun to share with students! (I leave you with a video of a favorite book at my house - Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice.) Book Creation Tools Are you thinking of having your students write their own book? Below are some web and iPad tools you can use to have your students write and publish their writing. How are you celebrating March is Reading Month with your students?
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