Sizzlin’ Summer Reading Ideas for Kids!
JUN
11
2008
With the school year rapidly coming to an end, don’t be tempted to take a vacation from reading! Summer is a great time to reinforce skills, to foster individual interests, and to make sure your child does not lose critical reading strategies aquired during the school year. Experts agree that kids who read over the summer make reading gains, while kids who don’t read often experience reading losses or setbacks.
Going on vacation? Attending a baseball game? Going to the movies? Encourage kids to read by incorporating reading into the activity. Have kids read a book, magazine article, picture book, or internet site about their favorite sports team, sport, or player. Go the movies, but also read the book! (Isn’t the book always better anyway?). With the recent release of Prince Caspian, challenge your older elementary children to read The Chronicles of Narnia Series!
Capitalize on the Summer Olympics by checking out one of the following books that center around one of the official sports of the 2008 Summer Olympics!
Ages 6-8
*Boing by Sean Taylor (trampoline)
*Super Fast, Out of Control by Louis Sachar ( mountain biking)
*Young Pele: Soccer’s First Star by Lesa Cline-Ransome (soccer)
Ages 13 and Older
*The Outside Shot by Walter Dean Myers ( basketball)
*Open Court by Carol Clippinger ( tennis)
*Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher (swimming)
*A Whole New Game: The Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Sue Macy (baseball)
Reading for Reluctant Readers (Middle School Age)
* Amazing Spider- Man: Coming Home by J. Michael Straczynski (graphic novel)
*Basketball’s Best Shots & Baseball’s Best Shots from Dorling Kindersley ( photographs of your favotite sports stars!)
*The Great Book of Optical Illusions by Al Seckel (contains more than 300 visual puzzles, patterns, and designs)
*Midnight Magic by Avi ( a Medieval fantasy that is full of suspense)
*The Everworld Series by K. A. Applegate ( history’s great tales set in a modern day fantasy)
Ideas for Families
* Visit the library often! Register your children for the summer reading program at your local library!
*Talk with your kids about what they read and what you have read, are reading
*Relax the rules for the summer! Allow kids to read books at their “easy level” ( below their reading level). Reading easy level books helps to improve fluencey and comprehension! Don’t require kids to only read fiction or books. Encourage nonfiction reading of maps, pamphlets, brochures ( great for when you are on vactions!), magzines, comic books; ok, you get the idea!
*Pack along content-related books, picture books, maps, etc. while traveling to your vacation destination! Last year before our trip and during our vacation to Vermont, my son and step-daughter enjoyed reading various materials about some of the landmarks and states we would be visiting!
*Integrate writing with reading when you can! Encourage kids to write thank-you notes, send postcards, keep a journal or scrapbook, make a picture book for a younger sibling, etc.
*Start a mommy and me book club in your neighborhood!
Have fun this summer cooking up even more ways and ideas to make reading sizzle!
