Creative Celebrations of March is Reading Month by Michigan Educators

March is Reading Month ALL YEAR LONG! The Michigan Department of Education is excited to share literacy engagement ideas from K-12 Michigan educators!

Our district celebrates March is reading Month by having classroom competitions of the most minutes read, we have a school- wide calendar that provides different reading genres for families to explore at home, reading curriculum night, guest readers, book and literacy game giveaways and reading- themed spirit week. -Wayne RESA We celebrate March is Reading Month by extending our library times and promoting reading as brain breaks while in the center. - Ingham County

Riverview Elementary is celebrating with a "Read For the Gold" Summer Olympic theme that will carry on into April when we will have our Book Fair and Family Literacy Night. Students have reading goals set, fun activities planned, and community readers set to come in and read throughout the month. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RE20HntraxjH6xQS6XR-bKaFmVK2q- oa?usp=sharing -Mecosta/Osceola We have an Eric Carle partnership with the elementary building. -Monroe ISD

Every month, we invite our families to celebrate a night of learning. In March, we celebrate our love for reading by hosting a Poetry Literacy Night, which our scholars lead. Families are highly encouraged to attend this event, where they can enjoy an evening of spoken words and poems emphasizing the significance of reading. -Genesee ISD We do a school-wide book, this year it is Stuart Little . We also have guest authors, a field trip to a play, bingo with raffles for students and classrooms, Battle of the Books, and more all based around, this year, animals like Stuart. At the end of the month, classrooms will watch the movie Stuart Little . -Monroe

At each high school, we have a Library Advisory Board made up of student volunteers. The students were waxing nostalgic for the magic and fun of their elementary March is Reading Month programs, and so they met several times to plan out requirements and prizes for both reading and reading- & library-related activities. They ultimately decided on several activities, including prizes for tracking reading time, prizes for our Library Bingo, movies based on books showing during lunch periods, and a celebration among the readers to culminate the month. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KgQDgx8kTa2ZrabbHaGj-- 6bbeEGPY4F/view?usp=sharing Bingo card: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hN7_dJhxVJM1aIcglnv0sGSn0YcUAVG0/view?usp=sha ring -Oakland

We pass out "Look Who Got Caught Reading" slips each year. (each grade will have their own color of slips.) Students will turn them in to the library for a treat and their names will go into a drawing for a chance to win a book at the end of each week. We have two different contests going this year as well: 1. Bookmark-making contest, the winner of each grade will have their bookmark made and handed out at the library. 2. Bookface competition: Use the face of a book to blur the lines between reality and what is in the book! 3. Look up Bookface online, and the staff is challenged to join this contest! The best picture wins a prize!! -Newaygo County NCRESA

Our students are very competitive, so we turned reading into a game! For every 30 minutes read, students get to get ahead of another grade. At the end of the month, the grade left standing gets an Uno competition and ice cream party. We have "radio trivia" in the mornings, a bookmark decorating contest, themed dress up days, and got caught reading raffles. Students decorated lockers with the covers of their favorite books! We even changed the sounds to our library system to Mario sound bytes! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12gl1jd18jB MhhKPt1RIm4hnXjByBpXY-?usp=drive_link -Saginaw ISD

At Colon Elementary, the month kicks off with a lively assembly in the school gymnasium. Some other events students will enjoy this month include: 1. Each week, students are challenged with a reading goal. Those who meet their goal are eligible for exciting prizes inspired by the Wild West theme. Local community members visit the school to read aloud to all classes, grades K-5. These guest readers bring stories to life and inspire students to dive deeper into the world of reading. Throughout the month, students receive free books to add to their home libraries, both from a guest reader and as a gift from the school. Designated dress-up days are planned. These days allow students to showcase their creativity and enthusiasm for reading. As March comes to a close, the school hosts a culminating assembly to celebrate students' month-long reading achievements. Students eagerly await the announcement of winners participating in the challenge. 2. 3. 4. 5. March is Reading Month is a favorite time of the year for our small school. Each year, we transform our building into a monthly theme. Each teacher and staff member participates in some way. Each year is unforgettable. This year s Wild West theme will surely not disappoint. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12gl1jd18jBMhhKPt1RIm4hnXjByBpXY-?usp=drive_link -St. Joseph County

We select a theme, this year is Mario Bros. We begin the month with a kick-off assembly, where we unveil the theme. Each grade level represents a world from the video game, the main goal is to read 600,000 minutes as school to be able to rescue Princess Peach (principal) from Bowser who kidnapped her during the kick-off assembly. We have activities for every day in the month of March, such as: trade a book, reading buddies, shine a light on reading, penny war, guest readers week, blackout week, read my shirt day, breakfast and a book, and a closing assembly "Mario Kart Race" teachers against teachers. Our literacy team has reached out to community members and people from other states with unique jobs to record themselves reading their favorite book to share with our locals digitally. We have also provided a full lesson plan over a read aloud and taught that in the classroom. The teachers get to observe a high quality read aloud and receive the lesson plan and activity once we leave. -Kent ISD -Hillsdale ISD

We are participating in one book, one school where everyone reads the same book. The purpose is to promote the connection between reading at home and school. Everyone is able to discuss the books- teachers, secretaries, food service, custodians, teachers, students and families. -KRESA Students listen to guest readers during lunches or volunteer to read themselves (we've had lots of student volunteers!). Every ten minutes of reading, they are entered into weekly gift card drawings. Classes compete to answer book related trivia Kahoots on a weekly basis. We also are giving away free books to students in a random drawing and we have voting on a weekly basis for which genre is our students' favorite in a bracket style competition! -Oakland County

We are enthusiastic about books and how our elementary schools began reading the same book, The Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. Every family in grades K-5+GSRP received one copy of the book, using at-risk grant funding, with a coordinated reading schedule which is to be completed at home with families. https://www.facebook.com/myLSPS/posts/pfbid02RP3 aFmGGEtC8BpihoddF71guVJwQ6TW wbCJp4RtQipaD61uRSUujTF5i8K82BDv8l -Macomb ISD We celebrate with a whole month's calendar full of special events including dress up days, author visits, goal of reading 60,000 minutes as a school and end of the month celebration. -Northwest Ed

We have a calendar full of fun activities each day and we have a pirate theme- Books argghh a treasure! A couple activities include: 1. Blackout day (dress in black and bring a flashlight to read in the dark) 2. Dress like your favorite book character day 3. Unveil our masked readers day 4. Book blast book opening day (during books for breakfast). We incorporate a theme each year to celebrate reading, this year is "We are READERS, watch us GROW." Students are invited to transform from caterpillars to butterflies by reading. In addition, we incorporate a reading calendar, read-alouds throughout the month, mystery readers and a Books Before the Bell Event open to families. -Tuscola ISD -Kalamazoo RESA

We have a student team of about 15 student leaders who volunteered to help create this Reading Month calendar to use schoolwide. Jackson ISD Activity Calendar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WemlVvLvDfFYaGgT7JU6 9WCqn4XiZRWa5yGtweMlNp4/edit?usp=sharing Students also collaborated to create a Google Quiz where kids would "Read the Lyrics" & match them to the correct song. Meet an Author Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/164q4jJqKCvZvMzqqpWQb BvyY6jengRoZdj_6YLoJVpU/edit?usp=sharing We created a link to "Meet Authors" that they had identified as quality middle school authors Elite 8 Audiobooks Links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EyAG3m5bsA4kglUAubjG pxB434LO8SHGLiRyCs4M2rI/edit We made an Elite 8 book list for kids to vote on their favorite books with links to listen to the audiobooks. Elite 8 Book Votes: Finally, every Tuesday/Thursday we create slides to share (in our advisory/homeroom classes) with pictures of 10-15 readers who were "Caught Reading" by teachers. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jbTkJUMXtsGIV6WQY5sxc9UJ oP8TpobbXTV6Se8P-oU/edit Caught You Reading Slides The winners of the quizzes, participation in voting and those caught reading all have the opportunity to pick a brand new book & a snack as a prize. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dWNOeT7LoM-JuAB- z38rkFIotpeI7p7BzOa7NkCg_IA/edit?usp=sharing -Jackson ISD