Homeschool Creations

Friday, June 4, 2010

Preschool Corner: Summer Reading Challenge

One of the things that I love to do is read…and I hoping that each of our children have that same love for reading instilled in them. During the school year we have the books that we read for our ‘school time’ but we try to encourage the kids to read when it isn’t required of them.

And for those who can’t read yet, we read to them…or encourage siblings to read to them.

Our local library and bookstore both run some great incentive programs for children during the summer months, but we try to keep the momentum going all year round with reading charts. We use these charts for our oldest right down to the youngest.

  Spring Reading Challenge Summer Reading Challenge

 fall reading Chart  winter reading chart

Click on the thumbnail to download each file.

The goal is to read 75 books during that ‘season’ ~ spring, summer, fall, and winter. The prize? It can be anything we want it to be ~ a camping trip, a trip to the Dollar Tree, maybe a new movie that is in the theatres {because that is really a special treat!}. One bar is marked off for each book that the kids read {chapter books over 60 pages count as 2 books for us}. I write the name of the book in each bar and the kids color them in.

Really, it’s a win/win situation.

At some point during our school year I stopped reading aloud to the kids at lunchtime…and that is something that we are putting back into our day. I miss it and they do too! Captive audiences with their mouths full {and unable to talk} are lovely! During this time we read more advanced books ~ ones Laurianna might be able to read, but we’re exposing the kids to different literature…and they LOVE it!

I’ve included a carousel below of some of the books that we’re reading right now {My Father’s Dragon is our current table-read} and a few that are on our list for the summer. What read-alouds have your kids enjoyed? I’d love to have a few more to add to my list too!

Stories & Books on our ‘Read-Aloud’ List

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Please link your exact blog post here and be sure to include a link back to the Preschool Corner. I will delete any entries that do not link back to the site. Thanks for understanding. :)

 
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posted by Jolanthe at 5:30 AM

21 Comments:

  • Great idea! I am going to use these this year too! Thanks for sharing!

    Love you,
    Jill

    By Blogger Unknown, At June 4, 2010 at 7:26 AM  

  • Thanks so much for this idea. My kids are too young for the summer program at the library, but we love to read.

    By Blogger MECR, At June 4, 2010 at 8:36 AM  

  • So do read alouds qualify for these charts??? How do your youngest do with chapter books? Mine are 3 1/2 and 2... we read the original Winnie the Pooh books, but I've been tempted to try real chapter books.

    By Blogger ~Babychaser~, At June 4, 2010 at 8:46 AM  

  • Read-alouds absolutely count!! :) Kaleb might zone out a bit during some of the reading {he's 3 1/2}..so I try to spice it up with different voices, whispers, etc... :) But the whole point is to read to them, have them read to me, or just read!

    By Blogger Jolanthe, At June 4, 2010 at 8:55 AM  

  • We read Little Pear last year and my kids LOVED it!! We can't wait to read the follow up to it. :)

    By Blogger jackie, At June 4, 2010 at 9:01 AM  

  • These are so great Jolanthe!

    By Blogger Rebecca, At June 4, 2010 at 9:03 AM  

  • I've been wanting to track books read, and I'm just starting to track them in Shelfari - we'll see how that goes! It lets me rate and tag them, so I can do a search for unit study topics and see what books we might have on the shelf, what we've already borrowed from the library, etc.

    And I love your idea about reading during lunch! That's how I get chapter book reading in - mealtimes, bathtimes, coloring times... Otherwise, it's picture books all the way!

    By Blogger Mozi Esme, At June 4, 2010 at 9:09 AM  

  • These charts are wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing them. I too like the idea of reading over lunch. That might also keep my wandering eaters at the table better. Thanks again...your website is a great resource and I am glad I stumbled onto it a couple months ago.

    By Blogger shauna, At June 4, 2010 at 9:27 AM  

  • Thanks Jolanthe! I just printed the summer reading challenge chart. So fun!

    And thank you for adding a Google search box to your blog!! I was going to suggest it to you, but I kept forgetting. It's so much easier to find things now. Yay! :)

    Thank you for all you do.

    ~Catherine

    By Blogger Catherine, At June 4, 2010 at 9:40 AM  

  • Thank you so much for sharing! Love having goals to work toward! :)

    By Blogger Christin, At June 4, 2010 at 10:40 AM  

  • THANKS!

    I have the spring one on the fridge. works great!

    Aimee

    By Blogger Threebusybs, At June 4, 2010 at 12:59 PM  

  • Love these! I just signed Sammy up at the library.. if you want a 3rd place to throw in the mix I heard that books a million has a summer reading challenge and they dont have a younger age limit on it.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At June 4, 2010 at 1:39 PM  

  • I never thought to read to the boys during lunch. we started today and it was great, not only did we get reading in but everyone finished all that was on their plates {no nagging from me} because they wanted me to keep reading. Thank you for such an easy suggestion!!

    By Blogger {leah}, At June 4, 2010 at 5:08 PM  

  • Thanks for the printables! I'm doing our summer reading program at the library for both my kids (ages 3 and almost 1), but I lose track of what books I've read because the program just asks how much time we've spent reading. I'm going to tape these up with a pencil so I can keep a record!

    By Blogger Sela, At June 4, 2010 at 5:31 PM  

  • That's a good idea reading to them at lunch. Certainly better than my have them watch an educational cartoon. But I eat so slow I don't know if it would work, but maybe I can convince Jeff of this.

    By Blogger Ticia, At June 4, 2010 at 8:16 PM  

  • I love these. : ) We recently read the first in the My Father's Dragon series, and then my 6 1/2 yr old flew through the rest of the series without me! : )

    By Blogger Stephanie, At June 6, 2010 at 8:44 AM  

  • The Little House and Boxcar Children books were some of my favorites at a little girl. I read them over, and over, and over again :) I can't wait until Susannah is old enough to start reading them to her or giving them to her to read :) (which is going to be a couple years as she's only 12 weeks!)

    By Blogger Miriam, At June 7, 2010 at 1:26 PM  

  • Just popping in to say hi!

    By Blogger Heather, At June 9, 2010 at 9:22 AM  

  • Just popping in to say hi!

    By Anonymous Heather, At December 15, 2010 at 1:03 PM  

  • The Little House and Boxcar Children books were some of my favorites at a little girl. I read them over, and over, and over again :) I can't wait until Susannah is old enough to start reading them to her or giving them to her to read :) (which is going to be a couple years as she's only 12 weeks!)

    By Anonymous Miriam, At December 15, 2010 at 1:03 PM  

  • Read-alouds absolutely count!! :) Kaleb might zone out a bit during some of the reading {he's 3 1/2}..so I try to spice it up with different voices, whispers, etc... :) But the whole point is to read to them, have them read to me, or just read!

    By Anonymous Jolanthe, At December 15, 2010 at 1:03 PM  

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