TKW Consulting

From the Children's Book Council here are 25 Ideas for Celebrating Children's Book Week (many of which can be adapted to your child care):

1. Host a reading and discussion event by a local children's book author. Or host an art exhibit and discussion event by a local children's book illustrator. For more information on hosting an author or illustrator visit, please visit the Author & Illustrator Visits page of the Children's Book Council Website.
2. Hold a Poster Contest.
3. Hold a book exchange day. Help your children explore new, yet popular, books and genres. Each student should bring a favorite book they own to class. All the books should be put in a box and handed out at random to the class until each person has a book that is new to them. Encourage the students to read their new books.
4. Show students how books and reading are the gateways to learning. Set aside a class period in which each student reports on the most useful fact discovered and the title of the book in which it was found.
5. Combine story hour with a craft for an afternoon of fun.
6. Send "Happy Children's Book Week" e-mails to friends and family. Include a recommendation for favorite new children's book. Attach our "Imagination" animation from Michael Chesworth.
7. Donate books to a local family shelter or children's hospital. Students should donate books they own that have been sitting their room or home unused. Collect the books in a big box during Children's Book Week.
8. Ask your class to write about the most interesting character they have ever encountered while reading. Emphasize that this is different than a favorite character sketch. An interesting character does not need to be loveable, brave, or fun. Students should explain why this character is interesting to them, as well as why this character may or may not be a favorite.
9. Invite students to bring in their favorite thing to read: newspapers, comic books, graphic novels, magazines, and of course, books. Foster a discussion on how each of these media treats a particular subject. You might even spark an informal debate over the question: can any medium treat a subject as completely as a book?
10. Find a book set in your area and take a tour, using the book as a guide. It's a novel way to sightsee.
11. Raise money to help a library, school, or day care center in your area to buy books. This is an excellent way to strengthen your town through community involvement.
12. Play In What Book? A Classroom Battle of the Books.
13. Inspire writing genius in your classroom. Pass out half of a chapter of a novel to be read in class. Ask your students to complete the chapter and then write the first paragraph of the next chapter. Pick an interesting book-- preferably one that no one in class has read--and watch those minds at work.
14. Hold a Favorite Book Awards ceremony.
15. Create your own books and stories. Use our Story Starters or begin from scratch in a blank book.
16. Start Children's Book Week with a challenge to your students to read a book a day during the week. Extend the challenge to reading a book a week for the rest of the year. Hand out copies of our Children's Book Week Book Lists as a starting point for finding books to read.
17. Take a trip to a children's hospital or nursing home and have students read to the patients and residents.
18. Organize a Read-In.
19. Write to your mayor or governor and have her issue an official proclamation declaring the week before Thanksgiving Children's Book Week.
20. Choose a short story and work with your students to adapt it into a play. The exercise of turning prose and narration into dialogue and set design can illustrate the amount of sensory imagery you can pack into language. Begin the adaptation as early as possible in the school year and stage the play during Children's Book Week.
21. Work on some Children's Book Week puzzles. Have students create some crossword puzzles and word searches of their own.
22. Set aside a time period each day—10 or 20 minutes—for silent reading.
23. Somehow, "book review" sounds better than "book report." Hold a contest asking students to submit 75-word reviews of their favorite books. Post the reviews in the library, on the class website, or in the school paper.
24. Show and Read: Pick the names of ten students and ask them to select an illustrated book from the library to read in class during Children's Book Week. Have two ready each day, to pass around for reading aloud, to ensure that everyone gets a chance to read aloud.
25. Host a Children's Book Week party.

Reading is one of the greatest things you can do with the children in your care. If you want to learn more about the importance of early literacy, I recommend taking some of the SEEDS of Early Literacy classes now being offered in Minnesota.

Have fun reading!

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:59 PM