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Home › Classroom Resources › Calendar Activities
June 21
Celebrate the first day of summer with summer reading.
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| Grades | 1 – 12 |
| Calendar Activity Type | Holiday & School Celebration |
Summer reading is an important component of an overall reading program. Research shows that summer vacation often has a significant negative effect on student learning. Providing opportunities for students to read regularly during the summer can prevent documented reading achievement losses. The bottom line is that students who read during the summer do better in the fall.
A June literacy fair for students and their families is the perfect way to end the school year and get students off on the right track for the summer. In addition to standard carnival fare (face painting, games of chance, etc.), offer a variety of fun literacy-based activities.
- The cost of entrance? Ask students to bring a lightly used book as an entrance pass, to be collected on a table or display. As students leave, each person can select a book to keep from the donations.
- Hold a literary trivia contest, with new, donated books for prizes.
- Invite an author to your school for a book reading/signing event.
- Don't forget to invite families to your event and to include informational material.
- Summer Reading and Learning
This NCTE page is the perfect place to begin looking for summer reading resources. Teachers can find links to teaching ideas, lesson plans, booklists, professional reading, and related NCTE resources.
- Learning Beyond the Classroom
This minisite from ReadWriteThink is designed for parents, caregivers, and tutors and includes activities and other resources to use with children over the summer months.
- Authors' Summer Reading Lists
What do authors read over the summer? The developers of this site asked favorite young adult authors to tell readers about their favorites.
- Summer Reading Guide
Reading is Fundamental provides ideas to keep kids reading during vacation. There are activities, tips, and articles on encouraging children to love reading.
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss
Young readers create a classroom book modeled after Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham to celebrate all the places they can read
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Recurring Lesson
This lesson describes how small groups of students can plan meetings to discuss what they've read in a "just for fun" book club they've organizedand that they control.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
You Know the Movie is ComingNow What?
In this lesson, students read a literary text with the eye of a director, selecting scenes from the text and putting a cinematic spin on them.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Authentic Persuasive Writing to Promote Summer Reading
Turn summer reading lists from a teacher-centered requirement to a student-driven exploration by asking students to create brochures and flyers that suggest books to explore during the summer months.
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