Reading Promotion and Guidance

After seeing the success of Blind Date with a Book in middle school and high school, the LMS decided to give it a go in elementary school. The kids absolutely LOVED it. Books were barcoded, and a sticker was added stating the reading level.

Students could either pick a book based on the level or pick any book they wanted.

When the first week of Blind Date with a Book ended, the students begged to do it again.

As a result, two weeks later the LMS ran the promotion again and it was once again a hit. The kids were bummed when they came in two days later and all the books had been checked out!

The LMS has always wanted to try Book-Tasting but was nervous to do it. This year, it was decided that it was time. Tables were decorated with checkered placemats. Beginning chapter books were selected. Books in a series were chosen so that if students fell in love with the book, they could keep reading and move on to the next book in the series.

24 books were offered for students to choose from, which gave them a large selection in a variety of genres.

Students were asked to read either the first chapter or the first three pages of at least five books. (This was used as a guideline so students could complete the assignment in a reasonable length of time.)

After reading, they wrote a brief summary about the book.

Once students read at least five books, they had to decide which book was their favorite and write why it was their favorite. 

They then could draw or copy the book cover to help them recognize it when they came back to the media center.

Most of the students wanted to check the books out on the spot. The LMS had to break the news to them that they had to wait until the week Book-Tasting was over before having the opportunity to check the books out.

ESOL Students were provided with a selection of books in Spanish to choose from.

This year, the LMS also decided to take SSYRA Jr. voting to the next level by inviting the Supervisor of Elections to come out and host an election at our school.

As part of Kids Votes Leon County, we had voted in the General Election but did not have the opportunity to feed our ballots into the actual voting machine.

In addition to getting to pick their favorite SSYRA Jr. Book, the students were VERY excited to be able to feed their ballots into the voting machine this time! 

They wanted the election results right away and had to wait patiently for the data to be tabulated.

The data was compiled into a presentation and shared with the school the following day (see below).

To help support National Read-a-Book Day on campus, the LMS created read-alouds of several books across grade levels and sent them out as a PDF to students and teachers. 

Teachers and students could then click on the image of the book or books they wanted to read so that everyone on campus was able to participate in this initiative.

To protect copyright, the read-alouds were only accessible with the links, and the videos were taken down at the end of the day.