Oh, The Places We Can Read!
Read Across America Day was always an important beginning of an integrated week of curriculum activities in my classroom.
For those of you who don't know the history of Read Across America, it began in 1998 by the NEA to promote the love of reading to students. It was celebrated on March 2, the birthday of Theodore Giesel, Dr. Seuss.
Through the years I did various activities, but I know the students and I delighted in the joys of reading. So whether you are homeschooling, virtual schooling, or able to do in-class schooling, here are some ideas.
- Read as many Dr. Seuss books as you can to your students. Send books home to read for homework.
- Let them: Read to a friend, to a pet, to themself, or to a toy. Have them keep a reading log.
- Invite guest speakers to come in and read to the class.
- Dress up as a SILLY Dr. Seuss Character
- Wear silly hats or colorful or mismatched socks for a day.
- Gather Dr. Seuss's books and let students observe and make a picture using one of his pictures as inspiration.
- He loved multitudes of colors. Let them use their imaginations to make as many imaginary scenes and creatures as they can. Adding extra arms, legs, feet, whatever they can imagine.
- Use his books for counting, multiplying, and see where it takes you!
- How many feet do you meet? Count the feet you meet in a day! A perfect way to keep tally marks!
- Go outside and move like some of the characters in his book. Yertle the Turtle, Horton, Cat in the Hat, a book you just read.
- Cooking: Make green eggs and ham and see who likes them.
- But first, they need to write a recipe, follow it.
- Then they need to graph the results! Can they add other ingredients?
- Read the Lorax and talk about the importance of trees! This discussion can lead to the importance of pollution on the environment.
SAVING MY BEST FOR LAST!
Making a class book was always the best idea!
We would brainstorm places we could read in the school.
Oh, the places we could read. Each student would tell me two places they could read that would rhyme, For example:
I can read a book.
I can read and look.
Then I would take pictures of them reading in these two locations.
After I printed up their pictures, they would be posted on a page with their sentences.
Each child received their printed pages to take home. All of the printed pages were also put together to become a class book.
This book was kept for parents and visitors to read. At the end of the year, we had an Author's Tea and each student was able to read their own pages from the book!
I have a resource in my store that you might want to use in your classroom to make a class book: Oh the Places You Can Read! You can use it any time of the year. I have used it beginning, middle, and end of the year. All have worked well with the students. Here is the link for you. 
