Thursday, January 8, 2015

Sick Day Sneak Peak!

My body may be home sick today, but thankfully my mind's not!
I'm curled up on the couch with my laptop working on ideas for a school-wide reading celebration. Our PK-8 school started using the STAR reading and math assessments this year from Renaissance Learning. When I logged in on Monday I noticed a new banner announcing their Read the Most Coast to Coast reading celebration on February 27, 2015 (Which lines up perfectly with NEA's Read Across America Day, or Dr. Seuss Day) The goal is to see how many books students across the country can read in one day. Progress will be tracked live on their site as students take quizzes on Accelerated Reader. Click on the banner below to learn more:
So, I signed my class up and brought the idea to my principal to have a school-wide reading celebration. Which is why I'm spending this sick day doing some Pinterest surfing on the couch. I've gathered some great ideas and started working on a few of my own.
Here's the rough beginning stages of sports themed reading bracket challenge. Books will face off against one another as the school votes to determine which book students like the best.
The "East Coast" side of the bracket represents the elementary half of our school, while the "West Coast" bracket represents our middle school. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top!
I'm thinking about passing out blank brackets for students to fill out and make predictions. Accurate brackets will earn a free book at the next school book fair (or Scholastic book club order).

So, what do you think? What types of reading celebrations do you have in your schools? Our school has never done anything like this before so I would love to hear about what's happening where you teach!

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome! I wanted to do something like this last year as more of a March Madness bracket but I love this idea! We do a whole school reading challenge where out goal is to read 1 million minutes as a school and the students keep reading logs but this is much more interactive than just a reading log! I hope it goes well I can't wait to read about it :)

    http://sparklinginsped.blogspot.com/

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