February sure has lots of fun holidays and events to celebrate – Groundhog Day, President’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. The list goes on. But do you know what we can celebrate on February 1st? World Read Aloud Day! World Read Aloud Day is a day to celebrate the power of reading aloud and sharing stories.
It is the perfect opportunity read books aloud and bring some fun into your literacy block. If you hang around here often, you know that I love read alouds, especially interactive read alouds. Exposing our students to different types of texts, new genres, and different topics can bring reading to life for them.
Now let’s just into some activities to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.
WorldLit founded World Read Aloud day in 2010. They have some fun printables on their website to kick off the celebration like a reading crown, a banner, and printable bookmarks. You can find those on their website HERE!
Storyline Online is the perfect way to celebrate World Read Aloud Day. This website put on by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation has books read aloud by actors. There is a large variety of genres, themes, and topics. You can be sure to find a book for your students to listen to that they will love!
This was always a hit in my classroom. First, find a volunteer to come read to your class. It could be anyone that you think your students would be excited to see. Some examples could be someone that works in the school like a principal, librarian, or support staff. You could ask parents/student/s family members. It could be someone who works at a place they may visit like a dentist’s office or the snowcone shop. One time, my coworker had her college daughter come read to her class, and her students were super excited.
After you’ve secured a mystery reader, you’ll start giving your class hints about who it could be throughout the day. I liked to start with broad, vague hints and then narrow them down as time got closer and closer.
Another way to celebrate World Read Aloud Day is to invite parents or family members to come and read aloud to the class. You could do a few on February 1st or spread them out over the month. My students always loved getting to help their parents pick out the books to bring to read aloud to their friends. If your school has rules about parents bringing in books from home, you can encourage parents and students to visit your school’s library to choose a book.
The Let’s Celebrate Reading Flip Up Book works with any book and is perfect for Word Read Aloud Day! It has six pages of activities to complete after reading a book. You can use this after a read aloud, for students to complete after buddy reading, as an independent activity, or even to use with an author study.
Next, you can have your students participate in a buddy reading activity. You can do this in several different ways. First, you can have students partner with each other and read aloud. Next, you can get a class on your grade level to buddy up with. Partner one student from each class together and have them read aloud.
Finally, my personal favorite is to buddy up with a class from a different grade level. The older kids love reading to the younger kids (and it boosts their confidence), and the younger kids always feel so proud to be able to read aloud to an older kid.
Reader’s theater is a fun and interactive way to get kids reading aloud. Students will “perform” short stories by reading scripts aloud. Students can both practice their reading skills and build confidence in reading aloud in a way that gives them an authentic purpose for reading aloud. You can group students together, and then have the students perform for each other.
An in-depth author study is a great way to introduce students to authors, learn different techniques that make authors unique, and potentially find new favorite books. They’re a great way to expose students to different literary styles and voices. Then, students often take what they’ve learned from authors and apply it to their own writing, too!
I have two different author study resources for you: David Shannon and Jonathan London.
The David Shannon study is a week long unit focusing on making inferences with 5 of your favorite David Shannon books. It has a directed drawing of David and an engaging whole class activity for making inferences!
The Jonathan London resource has activities for both Froggy books and nonfiction activities about frogs. It’s a great one for integrating literacy and science!
If you want to take your read alouds to the next level and make them interactive, but you don’t want the stress and hassle of planning them, I can help. The Read Aloud Library is your solution to saving time and delivering effective, powerful read aloud lessons to boost your students’ reading comprehension.
Each month, members of The Read Aloud Library receive:
You’ll be totally set for all of your read aloud lessons and activities while developing strong comprehension skills in your students. I’d love to get these lessons in your hands today!
Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!
I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers. Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!
