Summer Reading Log

On the last day of school, we have a "Meet the Teacher" session, where we get to meet our upcoming students. It's a fun 30 minute meeting to tell a little about yourself and get to know them a little bit.

In my class, reading is very important, and I wanted to warn my upcoming students about this in a fun way. I started the conversation by telling them that, for me personally, I use summer to get my "fun" reading done and that they should too! To encourage summer reading, I wanted to give them a little something. I looked on Pinterest and found a couple of ideas on Simple As That & Creative Mamma blogs, but adapted them to be my own.

I gave each student a Reading Log for them track information for each book that they finished throughout the summer. Of course this is an optional activity, but I encouraged them to bring back the reading log with as many books as they can read and I would reward them for their hard work. I think I'll make a "Free Homework" pass to give to the students who chose to participate. Here' a copy of the log I gave them:

And, because just a piece of paper isn't enough... I gave them some Summer Bookworms! I went to Wal-Mart and got the biggest bags of sour gummy worms and put 10 worms into separate zip bags.

Then I made and stapled this label to the top of each bag. This label I found on Creative Mamma, but I put my name on it.  I really love this quote by Dr. Seuss about reading!

I know that doing this little act probably won't change some student's attitudes about summer reading... but one of my students said, "I'll eat one worm for every book I read!" and that comment made me feel like it was worth it! We will see how many kiddos turn in their list at the start of the school year!

 ~ Ashley