Displaying our Love of Reading

One way I've been able to encourage reading in my classroom is through keeping track of books we read. I read anywhere from 3-5 books a day in my classroom, whether it be me reading or books on CD. I expose the students to as many books as I can on our topic for the week. They get excited about reading and ask to read books again or listen to them independently in the listening center.

For each month, I create a reading display to keep track of what we read. The students can see our display grow, and they get involved in helping with it. I assign a job as a library helper. This person is not only in charge of keeping the books in order on our library shelf, but also in charge of helping to hang the display each day. Once we get into the routine of writing books, the students always remind me to write the book down after we read it. They get excited to see our display grow daily!

To start, I create a monthly display for our reading center. I usually base it on either holiday themes or our major monthly theme. Next, I create a simple design that I can cut out from paper. This will be the shape we add to our display with each book. Finally, I write down the title an author of the book we read and hang it on our display. The rest is "literacy"!

Below are some examples of displays I have used. Some I use each year, and others I change. Some years I do a seasonal display, and others are monthly.

 

 

 The options are endless! Other ideas are:
               Back to school: Write book titles on a book cutout
               Fall: Write titles on leaves, then attach to a tree
               Pumpkins: Create a pumpkin patch by writing book titles on each pumpkin
               Thanksgiving: Create a turkey in the middle and write book titles on a feather
               Space: Use stars on a black background


When I first started this idea, I did one to match my classroom theme of trains. We used a train car for each book, and the display grew quickly, as did the love of reading! That is when I decided to expand this concept. Giving the students a visual helped them to see how many books we read, and it made them want to read more. Give it a try, and see for yourself how students will grow!