When I left my job 10 years ago, shortly before I had my first baby, several of my co-workers asked me what I would do to keep busy. (As though having a baby doesn't keep one busy.) I clearly remember saying that I would like to volunteer somewhere, and that I would like to help kids learn to love reading. Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to do that on a small scale, volunteering in my kids' school classes and helping kids individually with their fluency and reading skills.
Covid-19 has made that impossible this year, but I'm thrilled to be working on a project that aims to help kids learn to love reading on a larger scale!
I'm creating a summer reading program for our school!
Over the past two weeks I have spent hours on planning the program and getting materials prepped to distribute during the last week of school. I've also been helping with a book fair and getting students excited about summer reading. One thing I love about this is that it can serve ALL of our students, which is always a goal of PTA sponsored programs. PTA has been a great place for me to utilize skills I developed in the workplace, and to develop new skills like project planning and execution. This week's big lesson was in time management and balance. I spent 5 hours on this project last week, and over 27 this week! Sometimes that can't be helped. Deadlines or events might make extra work necessary for a time, but it's all about finding balance in what you do. I'm also keenly aware that I could not do any of this entirely alone. I have had family support, friendly advice, and professional mentors to help me along the way!
Here's the general plan:
Students will read 10 books over the summer break (that equates to about one book a week.) They will track their reading in a reading log that they will submit to their teacher in the fall. Each student that submits a reading log will earn clips for our schools' new fence mural.
Each week, we will have a social media challenge where students and their families can participate for a chance to win a small prize in a drawing.
We'll begin building the mural before school starts, and write the first names and last initials of students who participated on the back of the fence clips. We can continue building the mural throughout the first few weeks of school, and hopefully have it done by the end of September when we have our Fun Run event.
Here are some materials I have created for this program. I should note, Canva Pro is my favorite tool for designing great materials:
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This has been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work! I am looking forward to officially launching the program, and getting the weekly challenges going. I'm hopeful that we'll have a lot of students participating and enjoying some great books over the summer. Readers become leaders!
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