"Reading Is For Everyone" For Read Across America Day!

It's Read Across America Day and we are celebrating at Van Meter Elementary all week long.

For our celebration and throughout the school year, we are excited to be focusing on Reading is for Everyone, the special conversation and reading advocacy program started by our friends at Capstone.

As the Reading is for Everyone site states, 

Giving kids reading choices helps build a foundation for a lifetime of reading. Whether it’s printed, digital, audio, or visual, kids need options and resources to learn in the way that is right for them. They need to be immersed in stories and facts about the world around them and develop the critical thinking skills to make sense of it all. They need to see themselves in those stories to feel connected and to grow and learn.

Join us in celebrating and advocating for the importance of reading. Let’s work together to make sure every child feels the limitless power of reading and proudly recognizes themselves as a reader. 

After all, #ReadingIsForEveryone.

Along with this effort, Capstone has created the Reading is for Everyone site, which is filled with wonderful resources that all of us can use for our libraries, schools and communities too.

Under Resources you will find several categories.  Let me know you a few in each.

In the Downloadables section, there are free kid-friendly resources, tools and giveaways which are all downloadable as PDF's. 

We have downloaded these posters and...

...bookmarks to give all of the teachers and students for our celebration.

There are several different ones...

...to choose from and you will...

...find them all to be so very special.

The Our Reading Rules poster is great and includes the statement at the top Everyone Is Included... 

...Reading is a great way to learn more about ourselves and others. 

There are also activities that will be perfect...

...for anytime of the year.

I just LOVE this little book mobile that would be fun to add to a Makerspace STEM activity.

There are also a lot of resources focused around certain series such as Katie Woo, Yasmin and Sophie Martinez.

Next under Resources are Booklists, which help us find the right book for every reader and topic. Each booklist has been curated by topic and are available at capstonepub.com.

I love the different booklists and have found them so helpful this year as we focus around putting books into our collection and classroom which include own voices, diversity and interest for all readers.

Next come Video and Book Trailers. As the site states,

Reading is for Everyone! If you are looking for kid-friendly videos to share with your classroom or library, check out Capstone’s book trailers and author videos that feature our most popular characters and authors.

Then there are Tips and Articles, which are very timely to use this week as you can find a few to share with teachers and families on the importance of reading aloud, the power of picture books and much more.

 I plan to share this article with our families today,

which includes a list of favorite picture books and topics. 

This will be a helpful one to pair up with the Let's Celebrate Read Across America Flipgrid that we plan to share with families today where they can read and share favorite books together throughout the week. 

You will find it in the Flipgrid Disco Library here and can add it to use with your community too. 

Under Own Voices, you will that Capstone proudly supports Own Voices with several diverse authors and illustrators have created picture books to middle school novels.

As you get ready for this special week around reading, I hope you visit the Reading is for Everyone site to find resources like this fantastic poster focused around the importance of reading aloud. I will be sharing this with families and teachers through emails and social media.  

It is the perfect way to kick off such an important week.