We had a shared reading station where everyone read together - parents and students. We had a storytime station - where volunteers read to students. We had a book walk. We had a In a Flash Station - Students were to read words from Flash Cards - they were eliminated if the word was mispronounced. Everyone got a small token (bookmark, pencil, etc.) The winner received a book prize pack.
At the end of the night all of the students created Reading Pals. Each student purchased a Reading Pal, they stuffed it (It was partially stuffed), and they recited a "Reading Wish" and inserted the wishing star inside of the animal. We had a company ship us assorted partially stuffed reading pals. Each came with a wishing star, birth certificate, and bookmark with the Reading Wish on it. The students had to make a commitment to read to their pals everyday. The Reading Pal Pack cost $20.00 per student and the school got to keep $5.00 for each pal sold. We sold 250 pals and we made $1250 and promoted reading in the same night.
Our school just started and a student told me that he read to his pal everyday over the summer.
How cool was that? The company was called Pizzazz.
The email of the School Representative is Angela Michaels at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Everything was shipped to the school with directions on stuffing the middles of the animals and closing instructions. The studetns chose the animal they wanted and I recited the Wishing Poem on the microphone and the students repeated after me.
If you look towards the top of this page on the blue bar, click on "School Family Nights" and select your catagory and it will lead you to a screen where you can select "Target Family Reading Night". THis should give you some good ideas.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
I am a new reading specialist this year and I am looking for any ideas on doing family literacy nights or reading incentives for students. Any information that you can give me would be great! Thanks so much.
