How To Celebrate Read Across America Day In Elementary
As teachers, it’s part of our job to promote the love of reading and show our students how wondrous diving into a great story can be. And, lucky for us, we have a whole holiday where we get to do just that- Read Across America Day!
This day falls on March 2nd, but it can also be considered Read Across America week for a full week of literary fun and wacky activities! I always loved this time of year in the classroom because it’s so fun when students get excited to read. Honestly, there’s nothing better!
If you’re looking for Read Across America ideas or Read Across America activities, you’re in the right place.
What is the purpose of Read Across America Week?
As stated above, this is a time to celebrate the joy of reading and learning. For educators, it means that we get to go all out and celebrate our favorite books and reading strategies with our sweet students. Whether it’s Read Across America dress-up days or book-themed parties, this is the day to fully embrace it!
How do you celebrate Read Across America Day?
As always, it’s up to you to decide what the perfect celebration for your students is, but here are some engaging and fun activities to get you started.
- Book dress-up days: Each teacher dresses up like a children’s book or character that they love. You can even get your students involved and invite them to wear a certain color or dress a certain way to make a whole classroom theme!
- READ! This sounds obvious, but it’s the whole reason for the celebration! Invite students to dive into books they find interesting. Set up cozy atmospheres in your classroom for your students to get lost in a book. Let them dive into the pages while laying under their desk or on a bean bag chair. Pull out flashlights and let them read by flashlight in the dark. Take a book outside and read. The possibilities are endless!
- Do a book scavenger hunt. Find some children’s classics and make a scavenger hunt based on the things inside the book.
- Have a book exchange. You can do this by having each student bring in a book from home to exchange, or you can have each student pick out their favorite book at the library and then do a big swap in your classroom so students can explore new books that they may not have read before.
- Make bookmarks. Get out some paper, markers, and other craft supplies to allow students to embrace their creativity and make some bookmarks. For older elementary students, you can even encourage them to find their favorite quote in a book and put it on their bookmark.
- Invite guest readers to your classroom. Principals, gym teachers, or teachers from other grade levels are perfect for this! Invite them to come and read a book to your students and have an engaging conversation with them afterward about the story.
This is also a great time to focus on reading strategies, especially for younger students that are still perfecting their reading skills. For some ideas on different strategies that you can do with your students, check out my post here.
For some engaging Literacy Week activities that are minimal prep and easy to implement in your classroom, check out my resource here!
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!
What are your favorite activities to do on Read Across America Week? Let me know in the comments!
