6 Tips for Practicing Literacy Skills Over Winter Break with Reading Eggs

As the end of the semester approaches, most of us look forward to a well-deserved break! However, if your aim is to tie in some instruction to address learning losses, we’ve put together five tips for supporting reading growth over winter break.

Reading Eggs is loaded with engaging features designed to capture students' interest as they work through activities aligned to the five pillars of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Edmentum’s three-in-one learn-to-read program features three learning areas: Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, and Fast Phonics. Check out these unique ideas for leveraging the program while school is out:

1. Encourage Daily Reading

Daily reading correlates to many positive outcomes, including improved language skills, academic achievement, and empathy; students who read often and widely get better at it over time. Although not all students will have access to physical books, you can encourage daily reading from home through the Reading Eggs Library.

Featuring over 3,000 fiction and nonfiction texts, students can select books that interest them, write book reviews, complete comprehension quizzes, and earn golden eggs in the process. Organized by genre and Lexile® scale, this area is perfect for learners at any skill level! Educators can also assign books through the Teacher Library via the teacher dashboard. Search for, group, and assign Library books to an individual or group(s) of students! Students will find their assigned books in the Library at the librarian’s desk by clicking on “Your Books.” From there, they can select the books they want to read on their own time, and at their own pace. From the student view, all shared books and collections are available for 7 days from their date of assignment. To learn more about this feature, check out the Teacher Library User Guide under Quick Links > User Guides in the educator dashboard.

2. Support Reading for Pleasure

If your students need a little extra motivation to read daily during their winter break—look no further! This past fall Reading Eggs introduced the new Reading Journal to engage students and support the essential practice of reading for pleasure. The interactive Reading Journal is available in both Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress and enhances each student’s reading experience by tracking progress and celebrating reading milestones. 

Encourage motivation to read during the holiday break with a progress tracker, monthly stats, student book reviews (including a star rating system!), and fun sticker packs! Students can also customize their journal covers, as well as the theme of their journal. If you'd like to take things a step further, planning a reading competition is easy with the Reading Record included in the journal. Simply direct your students to read as many books or chapters as they can, and check the tracker once you're back from break! A book or chapter is considered “read” when the book’s comprehension quiz in the Reading Eggs or Reading Eggspress Library has been completed. 

3. Create a Scavenger Hunt

Develop a checklist of fun activities for your students, and challenge them to complete it during the break. Ideas include playing an Arcade game, reading a book in the Library, completing a lesson, buying a new hat for their avatar, earning a perfect score on a Driving Test, and visiting the Fast Phonics learning area.

Taking it a step further, individualizing your students’ scavenger hunts may be a great opportunity to help target their growth areas. If you know that students struggle with sight words, for example, steer them toward Driving Tests. If students have been taking a while to finish their Map or Peak, challenge them to complete their lessons in time for the new year.

4. Take Advantage of Assignments

Assignments in Reading Eggs or Reading Eggspress are a great way to ensure continuity of learning over the winter break. Selecting these assignments to meet the differing needs of each student may be especially helpful with the recovery of learning losses. In addition to helping close skill gaps, assignments can help your students preview upcoming content in your prescribed scope and sequence. Assignments are easy to schedule out in advance, and students will be alerted of the due date as soon as they log in.

5. Announce a Competition

Students love earning golden eggs in Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress and Yeti coins in Fast Phonics. Keep the fun going over the break by announcing a “most eggs” or “most Yeti coins earned” competition. You can also challenge your students to a competition involving “most books” or “most pages read” from the Reading Eggs Library.

Before school lets out for the break, take note of each student’s starting point. Set a goal for achievement and add a small prize, like a homework pass or a virtual lunch with the teacher, for extra motivation. Not only does this encourage your students to learn over the holidays, but it reframes the effort as a leisurely way to spend some downtime.

Check out more tips for incentivizing and generating excitement around your challenge(s) using these tips for student motivation.

6. No Tech? No Problem!

While Reading Eggs is fun to play, a break from screens can be a welcome change of pace. Leverage printables in Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, and Fast Phonics so that students can practice their reading, spelling, and handwriting skills.

Did you know that there's a coordinating worksheet for every core lesson in all three reading areas? Build customized packets based on student needs, or jump straight to Fast Phonics, where reading packets are already assembled for you!

Here are two sample Fast Phonics worksheets to take a peek at:

Phonics Practice | Handwriting Practice

Don’t let winter break put a damper on your students’ literacy skills! Check out these tips for helping students maintain good reading habits over the break. 

This blog was originally published December 2016 and has been updated.