4 Ways To Celebrate National Reading Month

Can you think of a better idea than to have a whole MONTH dedicated to books? As a bookstore owner and former teacher, I can tell you, a whole month celebrating the magic that lives in the pages of a book is about as good as it gets. Here are a few ideas for how YOU can celebrate this wonderful month!

1. Dress Up

We’re always looking for a reason to put on a fun costume so this is another great time to do so! When I was a teacher, we dressed up as our favorite book characters for Read Across America Day (March 2). It was fun to see kids come in dressed as a character. You could even step it up a notch and have kids have a “Meet the Character” activity in which they talk to another classmate, small group, whole class, or even a younger grade, about who their character is and what they like to do!

2. Read-A-Thon

I’m not a huge fan of making prizes for reading. I really believe that reading IS the prize. One way to do a little of both is to have a Read-A-Thon! Make a class goal and work towards it. It would be fun to see if you can get your whole class to read over 100 hours in the month of March. Each student can track the hours they read at home and in school and you can tally them up. Making some kind of visual way to track this will encourage your students to keep going and build excitement as they reach, or surpass, their goal!

3. Start a Book Club

Have you ever finished reading a book and you were just looking for someone who could talk to you about it? Maybe you have had book clubs before but they fell by the wayside with the pandemic. Well, National Reading Month is a great time to get one started – or restarted! You can go with a traditional book club – you and your friends gather together to talk about a book you have all read – or you can spice it up a bit! What about a book club where you read a book and then FIND other people who have read the same book?? A sort of mystery member book club! Or perhaps you do a long-distance book club! You and a family member who lives far away read the same book and then video chat about it. Or pick a favorite genre – graphic novel book club, cook book club, mystery book club, books only written by a certain author! You can even make food to go along with the book when you gather. Read The BFG and then make your own snozzcumbers and frobbscottle!

4. Support Local Bookstores and Libraries

There are magical places where the people inside are just waiting for you to come in and talk to them about books. Librarians and book sellers make their whole lives about books! Hop on into your closest library or bookstore and see what books THEY have been reading! I bet they will be more than ready to chat.

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Note: Fresh Ideas for Teaching blog contributors have been compensated for sharing personal teaching experiences on our blog. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.