Mark your calendars for June 20th! It’s National Summer Learning Day – an annual celebration dedicated to promoting the importance of summer learning for all children and helping close the achievement gap.
This year, we’ve teamed up with our friends at the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) to share three BIG ways to celebrate with the kids you serve or your kids at home! You can get involved by organizing your own activities or by joining an event nearby.
Already have something planned? Find local summer learning events on the Summer Learning Day Event Map or add your event to the map to join the fun.
Check out three BIG ways to celebrate National Summer Learning Day.
- Host a family literacy celebration. Invite the caring adults in your kids’ lives to attend an event focused on the importance of families reading together.
Have kids prepare a performance or a piece of art based on one of their favorite books, or organize fun activities like a healthy cooking demonstrations or a visit from a local storyteller. Consider inviting a local library representative to share information on services the library provides and how parents and kids can get library cards. And be sure to check out First Book’s Best of Summer Book Lists for great summer reading suggestions for kids of all ages.
Explore new activities, places and cultures. Summer is great time for kids to explore new subjects and develop new skills.
Read a story about gardening and then work with your kids to plant a garden. Research which plants grow best with each other, map out a plan, visit your local nursery and dig in the dirt!
Explore new cultures through the books featured in our Stories for All Project. Make the stories come alive by seeing a play, cooking a dish or visiting a museum exhibit connected to that culture.
Bring more books to your community. What better way to share the importance of summer learning than by bringing books to your community?
Set up a Virtual Book Drive to raise funds for your program or programs in your community serving children in need. Simply set up your page, set a fundraising goal and share the page with your community. A $10 gift brings about four books from the First Book Marketplace to local kids.
For even more ways to celebrate, visit NSLA’s National Summer Learning Day page!
The post Three Big Ways to Celebrate National Summer Learning Day appeared first on First Book Blog.
Today is not only the official first day of summer, it’s also National Summer Learning Day. First Book couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than by bringing 150,000 brand-new books to the National Mall to stuff into backpacks going to children in need all over the country.
The nation’s capitol is having a stretch of lovely weather this week, so our staff is joining the United Way and their army of volunteers to make this happen.
Summer is a great time of the year for readers. Instead of reading what you were told to read, you get to read whatever you want. And, if you’re lucky, you get to sit on the beach, reading and getting sunburned.
But for lots of kids, summer isn’t a time for reading. And that’s not so great, because there is a very real drop-off in achievement for kids from low-income homes. This gap puts them even further behind their more fortunate classmates, leading directly to lower test scores, lower rates of graduation and lower chances of going to college or finding good jobs.
But you can help turn it around! Visit our friends at the National Summer Learning Association to find out ways to help kids in your life, and if there’s a school or community program near you that serves kids from low-income neighborhoods, reach out to a librarian, reading teacher or program leader and tell them about First Book. Once they register with us, we can ensure they have a steady stream of new books, this summer and throughout the year.
The truth behind the Kindle craze
This article takes a hard look at the benefits to reading print books while making the case that the Kindle and other technology will never replace traditional books. Tell us what your opinion is by leaving a comment below!
Scholastic Summer Challenge Reading World Record heats up
Scholastic, Reading is Fundamental and the National Summer Learning Association have teamed up to bring kids a great incentive to read this summer. Kids from all over are attempting to break the current Scholastic World Record of minutes spent reading.
Children’s Book Movies
With the recent release of “Ramona and Beezus” as well as several other movies based on children’s books this year, many are taking a closer look at what attracts audiences. Take a look at this article which analyzes the appeal of these movies to all generations.
Youngster proves that it’s never too early to start writing
Seven-year-old I’deyah Ricketts wrote her first children’s book Where are the Animals when she was only four years old. Currently she spends time encouraging early literacy in her hometown area of Chicago. Ricketts has proven to be an inspiration to both young and old alike.
Finding solutions to the literacy gender gap
In schools, boys have traditionally lagged behind their female counterparts. Attempts to close this gender gap through traditional means have shown little progress. However, it is oftentimes not the act of reading that is objectionable to boys but rather the subject matter.
