10 Ways to Celebrate National Reading Month

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, March is designated as National Reading Month. National Reading Month is a month dedicated to motivating students to read every day.

We begin the month of March with Read Across America Week and celebrating Dr. Seuss on March 2nd. I love to devote the first week of March to reading and learning all about Dr. Seuss in the classroom. I have listed some of my favorite ways to motivate reading in the classroom during National Reading Month.

1. Share Your Favorite Book With the Class- Students will create a mini-presentation about their favorite book and share it with the class.

2. Poster Contest to Promote Reading- Students will create posters to advertise and promote reading.

3. Daily DEAR Time- DEAR stands for Drop Everything and Read. Set aside time each day to allow students to read. Allow students to choose a place to sit in the classroom to read. I like to do this activity for 20 minutes each day.

4. Write Your Own Book- Students will become authors and illustrators by creating their own books. Afterwards, allow students to share their books with the class.

5. Watch a Movie Adaption of a Book- Each year we read Charlotte's Web and after we finish the book, we watch the movie. My students love this so much! The movie really brings the book to life.

6. Genre Study- Students will learn all about new genres by reading a wide variety of books.

7. Author Study-An author study is a unit centered around the books of one author. It gives students an opportunity to learn more about the author and explore many books written by the author.

8. Virtual Guest Readers- Parents and people from the community can be guest readers and share their favorite books with the class.

9. Story Swap- Students to go and share a book with a class in a grade below or above their current grade. Teachers will swap grades and share a book with former students or future ones.

10. Reading Challenge- Motivate students to read by doing a Classroom Reading Challenge. Students who complete the challenge will win a prize.