Help students avoid the dreaded summer slide with these easy summer reading ideas, activities, and programs! A FREE Summer Reading Challenge is included.
Jess has written about using Scratch Tickets for Teen Summer Reading in the past (and her idea actually got picked up by School Library Journal!), but I (Kat) am here to write a little bit about how I've used this in my own libraries, with a few variations on Jess's brilliant theme. If you read the article we linked above, you will see how Jess set things up. In a library of that size (over 35,000 people in her town!) it was phenomenal. In my town, it was a little bit too much. I scaled back a lot, and it worked well for me. The Basics If you're new to the idea of Summer Reading Scratch Tickets, here's the basic idea: Instead of trying to get teens to sign up for things, you hand out homemade scratch tickets (I usually call them "scratchies") to anyone in grades 6-12. Teens will scratch off their ticket and either instantly win a prize, or write their name on a non-winning ticket and be entered to win a big raffle prize at the end of the summer. Participants must write their name on the ticket to claim their prize or enter the raffle, so you have a count of how many people participated right there, without having to get the teens to sign up for something (which, in my experience, they don't want to). How I Changed It Jess had categories of tickets; one prize could only be won by checking out a nonfiction book; another was for graphic novels. I had one ticket. Check out *something* and you get a scratchie - one per person, per day. Want to try again to win that prize you have your eye on? Come back tomorrow and you can get another ticket! I am also planning for this summer to give out a ticket to any teens that come to programs. There's a whole tutorial in our other article about how to paint the stickers so you can scratch them off. I was lazy busy and bought a roll of 1,000 scratchable stickers from Amazon. 3/4 of the tickets I made were instant winners. These were split fairly evenly between candy, gift cards to local places (free ice cream cones and mini golf games), and a choice of selection from the prize box (summer reading incentives, like water bottles, tote bags, phone chargers, and the like). I also made specific tickets for random medium-sized prizes (such as a 5 pound gummy bear, and some of the nicer donated gift cards). You had to scratch the ticket that said "Winner! Giant Gummy Bear!" to win that specific prize. It kept some of the kids coming back time and again because they really wanted something. 1/4 of the tickets said, "Sorry, not a winner!" and were used to pull the end-of-summer Grand Prize winners. Making the Tickets Jess made a template that has served us well (right-click to save!); if you print it in grayscale on colored cardstock, it looks amazing, and the circles are where you type in what the prize is (or, "Sorry! Not a winner!"). The circles can be covered up by the 1" round scratch stickers that I linked above. Originally, the square on the right was for the category - ficiton, nonfiction, graphic novel, etc. I used it to put the name and address of my library. The blank space in the middle is where you write NAME: PHONE: EMAIL: and/or whatever disclaimer information you want to make sure is on each ticket. Last summer, mine looked like this: Gorgeous! Prize Ideas As for prizes: can I just say, Cape Cod is amazing? Since it's a vacation wonderland, there are touristy-type things *everywhere.* I sent out a letter requesting donations to various local businesses, and got a flotilla of coupons for free mini golf games, free ice cream cones, free bowling games, free arcade tokens, and gift cards for restaurants and other local attractions. The local candy store gave us a huge reusable bag full of boxes of candy (and nicely told us to "come on back when you want more!") We went through a lot of prizes, but we got a lot of really wonderful feedback. The grand prizes I made were gift bags including a lot of the summer reading incentives, some candy, and $25 gift cards to Amazon.com. They were very popular. I'm in a different library this year, without the vast abundance of places to get free stuff. I am still planning on candy and incentives, and am sniffing around for places to get coupons for ice cream cones and such. I'm planning to ask my new T.A.B. (once they start meeting in a couple weeks) to help me pick the grand prizes - but probably gift cards again, because everyone loves a gift card. How It Went Teen Summer Reading 2015: 4 teens. Teen Summer Reading 2016: 86 teens. My friends, this is an increase of almost 2,000%. (I felt like a library rockstar.) The adults wanted scratch tickets. The kids wanted scratch tickets. Teens I've never seen before came out of the woodwork and got scratch tickets. SCRATCHIES FOR THE WIN! I know this idea has really taken off in the last few years, and we would love to hear your variations. Did you like it? Did it work for you? What did you do differently? Tell us in the comments here, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter.
These summer reading ideas are a great way to help your students continue to read while they're on summer break.
Help students avoid the dreaded summer slide with these easy summer reading ideas, activities, and programs! A FREE Summer Reading Challenge is included.
Looking for lemonade-themed activities to do with your upper elementary students? Check out these ideas that are fun AND hit the standards!
Want a fun summer reading chart printable to keep track of the books your children read this summer? This free reading chart created by a librarian is FREE!
Are you looking for fun Summer Reading Activities that the kids will love? We've got them for you. Scavenger Hunts, Bingo, Roll & Read, Reading logs & more.
This is a super simple idea sort of based around my summer punch cards. Most kids like having visual cues and these summer reading challenge bookmarks are perfect for that. They can...
We are big readers at our house, but sometimes the kids need a little extra motivation to get their reading in for the day -- especially during the summer. Reading logs help our kids track their progress and get them excited to read. This summer our littles have the goal to read 100 books each
When I started at my new library, one of the first things I did was change my summer reading program to a summer learning program. Our old program might have looked like yours. For every hour or ev…
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Keep kids reading this summer with these fun summer reading challenge printables.
Ultimate summer reading programs for kids guide and updated 2024 summer challenge for reading rewards and free book programs! A summer kids reading challenge are great additions for kids summer fun and great programs to encourage and help kids read for free prizes. Check out these children's summer book list ideas for freebies, incentives and fun reading activities at home, including best online reading program for struggling readers!
Most of my 2nd to 5th grade students tend to read within the same literary genre. Fantasy is by far the most popular, from the Magic Tree House to the Deltora Quest and Percy Jackson series. To mot…
Help students get some fresh air without losing instructional time with these outdoor learning activities and ideas. Great for litearcy, math, and science!
One of my favorite books to read at the beginning of the school year. It is a fun book to read because of the rhyming and the pictures are so vivid. I like to use this book as an example of how exciting a story could be when you use your imagination. I will usually have my kids add some imagination into their own story about what they did for summer vacation. When done they read their story to the class and we all guess what parts are true and what parts they made up. It is a lot of fun and makes the writing process "not so boring". Along with the writing there are plenty of reading skills and strategies that work great with this book. I have included a FREE story element activity that can be used with this book after reading. Not only can you use it with the book but your students can fill it out as a starting point for their own story - who are their characters, what is their setting and what was the problem and how was it solved. Reading level: 2.5 Theme: Imagination Genre: Humorous Fiction Suggested Vocabulary: westbound, plains, wrangler, cowhand, stampede, matador, buckaroo Reading skills and strategies: asking questions - {possible questions before} Did the cowboy save the boy? {possible questions during} Was Wallace afraid when he was taken by the cowboys? Is Wallace ever going to get to his aunts house? Why did all the cowboys hide when the cows were stampeding? {possible questions after} Is that what Wallace really did for summer vacation? Why can Wallace hardly wait for summer vacation? author's point of view - First person point of view. Wallace Bleff, the main character is telling the story. author's purpose - entertain {evidence} The story is told in rhyme. The illustrator drew a phone booth in the middle of the desert. The story about being taken by cowboys is all made up, Wallace's imagination. All these things are silly which make an entertaining story. beginning, middle, end - {most important event from beginning} Wallace was take by a bunch of cowboys. {most important event from middle} Wallace learned some cowboy tricks - roping, riding, and making fire with sticks. {most important event from end} Wallace saved everyone at the picnic from the stampeding cattle. cause and effect - Why was Wallace telling this story? because he had to write a story about how he spent his summer vacation. Why was Wallace captured by cowboys? because they needed a new cowboy, the last one quit. Why did Wallace write to Aunt Fern? so she wouldn't worry. Why did Aunt Fern call? because the round up was over and she was having a barbecue. Why did the cowboys hide behind a tree at the barbeque? because a stampede of cows was coming. Why did Wallace grab the red tablecloth? because he used it like a matador would to scare the stampede of cows away. characterization - describe Wallace {looks like, feelings, thoughts, character} compare & contrast - your summer to Wallace's summer connections - {possible text-to-self connections} Riding a horse. Visiting family during the summer. Having to write a story at school about what you did this summer. drawing conclusions & inferencing - Do you think the teacher believes Wallaces story? {text clues}Throughout the story the teacher keeps looking at Wallace like she is not quite believing Wallace's story. {my conclusion} I don't think Wallace's teacher believe all of Wallace's story. plot - the turning point or climax in the story is when the round up was done and Aunt Fern called and invited everyone over for a barbeque. predict - What do you think the cowboys are going to do with Wallace? The story say's "there is more to being a cowboy than boots and a hat..." what do you think that means? Why do you think all the cowboys hid behind the tree instead of trying to stop the cows from stampeding? What do you think Wallace is going to bring in for show and tell? problem & solution - There are a number of "problems" in this story, here are a few you can talk about. 1. {problem} Wallace had to write "another" story about how he spent his summer vacation. {solution} Instead of making it a boring story Wallace used his imagination and wrote an exciting tale about his summer vacation. 2. {problem} Wallace was taken by cowboys and couldn't get to his aunts house. {solution} He decided to help the cowboys and wrote his aunt a letter so she wouldn't worry. 3. {problem} There was a stampede of cows at the barbeque. {solution} Wallace grabbed a red tablecloth and used it like a matador to scare the cows away. sequencing - Wallace headed out west to visit his aunt. Wallace was captured by cowboys. The cattle boss asked Wallace to help them and Wallace said yes. Wallace wrote to his aunt so she wouldn't worry. Wallace was given new cowboy clothes. He learned to rope, ride and make fire with sticks. Aunt Fern called with the roundup was over and invited everyone to a barbeque. They ate delicious food and listened to music. Someone yelled "They're gonna stampede!". Wallace grabbed a red tablecloth and used it like a matador to scare the cattle away. All the cowboys cheered because Wallace was a true buckaroo. story elements - list title, author, character's, setting, beginning, middle, end, or problem & solution. summarize - {someone} Wallace's parents {wanted} wanted him to visit his aunt {but} he got captured by cowboys who asked him to help. {so} So he got some new clothes and learned some new cowboy tricks. {then} When the roundup was all finished Wallace's aunt called and invited them all to a barbeque. {finally} At the barbeque there was a stampede and Wallace saved the day! IT'S FREE!! I have also created a True False Comprehension Game to be used after reading this book. Happy teaching!
These ideas give active reading a whole new meaning.
What summer fun will you have? Keep track with these summer activity stamps to keep in a booklet or passport.
Into the woods ... in the classroom!
Here are some camping theme ideas you can try at home or your classroom to start getting excited about warmer weather!
Looking to get your teens & tweens to read more this summer? This summer reading bingo is going to help them read more varied books when they are out of school. I am so passionate about teen reading, do NOT miss my podcast on it with a teen author that has tons of good tips:Continue Reading
Summer camp not in your budget this year? Don't sweat it. Here are 15 Camp Mom ideas that are sure to keep your kids busy and entertained this summer! Depending on where in the country
Repetition punch cards are a great way to keep kids motivated during the summer months. They're a tangible way to keep track of tasks. Get a FREE summer set
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KIndness Week Crafts and Activities are a great way to teach children to show kindness to others. There are so many simple ways we can choose to be kind.
Whether you're taking a trip to the beach, live by the beach or exploring a beach theme in the classroom these are the best beach books for kids.
