Read Aloud Suitcase Pack a read aloud suitcase to share with students Where will we go today? Choose an item daily to pull out of your suitcase and share with students. Item should reflect what your read aloud will be. Give students an opportunity to explore the item and make predictions about the book. Magic School Bus always comes to mind! Here are great activities planned out for you! Suggested Items/Books/Activities Seashells: Seashells, Crabs, and Sea stars/what Lives in a Shell: Dissolve a shell Carrot: Creepy Carrots: Carrot Science Read Aloud Topics Engineering Art Space Ocean Magical Worlds Foreign Lands/Cultures Crayons: The Day the Crayons Came Home: Postcards (could establish district pen pals) Paintbrush: The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush: Watercolor Sunset
Reading Journey As educators, we should be sharing our reading journeys with students. Cult of Pedagogy 3 Ways to Share Your Reading Life With Students I have been exposed to situations where students are expected to only read certain books/levels. They haven t been free to grow in their own reading identity. Suggested Booklist Journey by Aaron Becker The Highest Mountain of Books in the World by Rocio Bonilla Book by David Miles (EPIC!) Our Reading Journey Sometimes students don t comprehend that reading doesn t end after school. We need reading skills for life. They don t understand that our reading journey continues into adulthood. A great way to show them is to share our own professional and personal reading journey. You could do this by creating your own passport to show your professional and personal reading goals and growth.
Chart a Course Create Reading Passports to set reading goals Text Pairing One of my favorites things to do in my library is promote text pairing. Have students select a fiction book and then find a nonfiction book that will somehow support their fiction reading. Example: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling (current obsession). Students could read a book about saguaros cactus or tarantulas. Create a Reading Passport or Map World Map: Cultures/countries to learn about Genres Series Historical Timeline Newbery/Caldecott/NYRA Brochures for travel Have students make a brochure to promote their book. Fiction or non fiction. Suggested Book List The Once Upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Hennessy This book will quickly take a student through fantastical worlds that they may want to read more about. Atlas of Adventures by Rachel Williams This is a great place for a student to start their journey. Take a quick look and decide what/where they want to read about.
Pack Your Luggage What do you need in your Reading Suitcase? Paper Bag Suitcase Maybe as a precursor or during a event with parents: have students make a reading suitcase out of a paper grocery bag. Students can then put their reading essentials in them. Instructions: Cute Ideas w/ video tutorial Bookmarks Journal FREE TPT Template I purchased the displayed Reading Journal from Lu and Bean. I love the map and empty bookshelves to set reading goals! These ideas can also be turned into passports. Map or Passport Don t forget your ever important map and or passport! If we ask students to journal about their reading journey (how they feel about a text) it can be effective! I reference the Cult of Pedagogy Article from Reading Journey Station.
Art Art in books and Art from books! Continuing a book s journey through art! What do we do with a book when you can t repair it? Recycle it? Sure! But we can also celebrate it by repurposing it. Create a journal with the book cover. Use pages with text for poetry. Use pages with images for art! Host an art show with art created out of worn out books! Drawing Books Do you utilize drawing books? Drawing books are one of my #1 methods of getting kids into the book stacks. They look for drawing books and find other nonfiction books along the way. Poetry Basket Concrete Poetry! Kids like visuals! Have them create a poem in a shape! I used an appropriate quote and made it a globe! Suggested Book List Using literature to inspire and spark creativity! I don t know about you but I have experienced students not having access to art and/or music. We can use literature to introduce these things to students. Books like Peter H. Reynolds The Dot Matthew Gollub s The Jazz Fly can be great introductions to art and music!
A Book s Journey From how a book is made to life after a library From the words of Lauren Oliver A video series demonstrating the 7 step process or making a book. Suggested Booklist How This Book Was Made by Mac Burnett Celebrate the life of a book From the words of an Illustrator Video of Peter Brown explaining his illustrations for Aaron Reynold s Creepy Carrots. Books have their own journeys. They don t last for forever. How can we give them a new journey? By celebrating them in an upcycled way! Create art with the pages and a journal with the cover!