4 Super Easy Ways to Celebrate Reading Month in Your Classroom

National Reading Month is all about celebrating the joys of literacy. While it’s not hard to look for reasons why reading is amazing 365 days a year, finding ways to keep the celebration for National Reading Month alive all March long can be a little intimidating. Luckily, Edmentum is excited to help!

Here are four easy ways you can observe Reading Month in your classroom:

Challenge your students to read every day

One of the best ways to celebrate National Reading Month is to simply make a little time to read each day. Keep things fresh by rotating between independent reading time, reading aloud, reading in groups, reading as a class, or another fun reading activity. For ideas on how to find a different way to read each day, check out Edmentum’s free downloadable 30-day reading challenges:

30 Day Reading Challenge Grades K-6

30 Day Reading Challenge Grades 7-12

Read aloud to your class

Who doesn’t love story time? For emerging readers, time spent listening to fluent reading models is invaluable to building reading pronunciation and expression. Reading aloud to your class can also help your students build classroom community through critical-thinking discussions about the text, build reading comprehension skills, and motivate students to read independently.

Looking for some recommendations on good read alouds? Check out these blogs!

14 Read-Aloud Books That Educators Love

[Ask an Educator] Teachers Share Their Favorite Classroom Read Alouds

Five Read-Aloud Books to Support Social-Emotional Learning

10 Back-to-School Read-Alouds to Teach Classroom Rules and Expectations

Try out some no-fuss book reports

Book reports can be an effective way to encourage students to dive deeper into independent reading and assess their understanding of a text. But sometimes it can be hard to find the middle ground that preserves the fun of the learning experience of the book report without it turning into a giant arts and crafts project, or a dry writing assignment for students that makes reading for fun feel like work. Take a look at these five fun (and glue-free!) book report ideas that will satisfy your craft-loving students, and still keep them focused on comprehension.

Give your classroom library a little love

When classroom space and storage allow, building your own classroom library to supplement scheduled trips to your school’s library is a great way to encourage kids to look for books that interest them, explore new topics, and become proficient, independent readers. Take some time this month to revisit your classroom library space and give it a little reading month love. Whether that means dusting off the shelves, adding a (real or fake) plant, introducing a few new titles, or just reminding your students that the library is there, is up to you! And don’t forget, there’s always the digital library too! Find out how E-Books and Reading Eggs can help you redefine the classroom library.

Looking for more ways to celebrate reading and literacy? Be sure to check out Edmentum's fantastic free Reading Month resources, including printable reading log bookmarks, 30-day challenges, games, classroom activities, and more!