November is National Family Literacy Month. This month I will post online and real world resources related to family literacy.
Last week, I hosted our preschool Family Reading Night. The theme was “fall fun” and families were encouraged to read to perform a task. This was the fourth Reading Night event I’ve coordinated for my daughter’s school. This one was a bit bittersweet, because she is moving on to kindergarten next year.
To prep for this Reading Night, I found or created two fall related crafts. The first one was a Paper Plate Scarecrow from DLTK – a fantastic site for crafts for all ages! The second craft I created myself using the familiar “hand tracing” turkey. I also located a fun recipe, Sweet T.O.M. Turkeys, from Family Fun magazine.
I always like to provide a little bit of background literacy information for parents at these events. I developed Reading to Perform a Task for parents to have a few strategies on hand as they read with their children.
In preparation for the event, the Community Association (our parent group) kindly helped me stuff folders so that each family had the necessary supplies to perform their tasks. Each folder contained the info sheet for parents, the directions for the two crafts, the materials for the crafts, the recipe for children and their families to make at home, and a free book! Our Community Association has a small budget and with that I was able to purchase 25 dollar books from Scholastic book clubs.
Families enjoyed creating crafts, listening to the director read aloud a few Thanksgiving based books, and eating snacks. We had a great turn out and everyone had a great time!
Do you want to plan a Reading Night for your school? Email me at DLittle [at] linkstoliteracy [dot] com to find out how I can help.
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