{"id":15560,"date":"2023-02-15T14:42:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T02:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kamiapp.com\/?p=15560"},"modified":"2024-02-09T10:33:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:33:48","slug":"read-across-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u201cThe books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.\u201d Matilda <\/em>by Roald Dahl.<\/em><\/p>

Have you ever read a book and been so enthralled that you have to keep turning page after page to see what happens? Then you\u2019ll know there\u2019s something magical about reading. Instilling that magic and a love of reading in young people is what national Read\u00a0Across America Day is all about.<\/p>

What is Read Across America Day?<\/h4>

Read Across America Day<\/a> is an annual celebration designed to encourage children, young adults (and grown-ups) throughout America to pick up a book and discover the joy of reading.<\/p>

It is organized by the National Education Association (NEA)<\/a> and the first Read Across America Day took place in 1998. The program now runs year-round. But the main focus is on the month of March which is National Reading Month and March 2 or the closest school day if the second falls on a weekend which is designated as Read Across America Day.<\/p>

The date was chosen because originally Read Across America Day was closely associated with Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Geisel)<\/a>. March 2 marks the birthday of Dr. Seuss and was chosen because the author was such a popular choice for young readers, and Dr. Seuss’s books like Green Eggs and Ham<\/em> and The Cat in the Hat<\/em> were often children\u2019s first reading books.<\/p>

A few years ago, however, a discussion was raised around whether Dr. Seuss’s books had racist undertones, and some of the illustrations in them have been labeled as problematic.<\/p>

Since then, the National Education Association has diversified the Read Across America program, and now, while it is still celebrated on Dr. Seuss\u2019s birthday, instead of being tied to one brand or author, it centers on celebrating reading and writing as a whole and introducing children to a range of diverse books.<\/p>

Each year schools, libraries, communities, and families come together to celebrate reading and books. From grass-roots events to celebrity support to proclamations from the President<\/a>, Read Across America Day is celebrated by people across America.<\/p>

This year’s theme: Celebrating a nation of diverse readers<\/h4>
“Diverse stories provide kids with different perspectives and help them see how others think and feel<\/em>.” (Marley Dias, RAA Ambassador 2021\u201323)\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>

Exploring books from diverse authors opens our eyes to the wide world of stories and experiences, teaching us the value of every voice. Every story brings us closer together and teaches us something new. It’s not just about reading \u2014 it’s about building a world where everyone’s experience matters. Through these stories, we learn to appreciate our differences and see the beauty in our shared humanity. Let’s dive into this adventure together, discovering the joy and understanding that come from embracing all stories.<\/p>

Why should you get involved with Read Across America Day?<\/h4><\/div>

Learning to read is a crucial part of a child\u2019s development, from the initial learning about phonological and phonemic awareness<\/a> to reading whole books. Good reading skills help to set the foundation for all other learning and can be tied to better academic achievement. If you\u2019d like to discover the perfect learning-to-read books,\u00a0check out this blog<\/a>.<\/p>

Reading can also:<\/p>

Help to fuel imagination<\/b> – Children\u2019s literature, particularly classics like The Cat in the Hat,<\/em> Peter Pan<\/em>, or Harry Potter, can fuel the imagination and provide<\/em>\u00a0an escape from the everyday world.<\/p>

Help to make sense of feelings and identity<\/strong> – Reading books with characters that look, sound, or feel like them can help children make sense of how they\u2019re feeling and understand that those feelings are ok. For younger children, books can help get them ready for big events like going to the hospital or starting school.<\/p>

Help to create a better understanding of the world<\/b> – By giving students access to a wide range of books, we can help to create a nation of diverse readers who can understand a wider range of perspectives. This is important for all ages, particularly for middle school and high school students who are developing into young adults and will help to shape the world for their generation.<\/p>

Making reading fun rather than a chore is essential to set children on the path to enjoying books rather than avoiding them, and Read Across America Day is the perfect way to kickstart that fun with a range of activities<\/a>.<\/p>

How to celebrate the NEA\u2019s Read Across America Day in your classroom and promote reading all year round<\/h5>
  1. Set up a reading challenge<\/strong> \u2014 Encourage your students (and teachers and families, too, if they\u2019d like to join in) to read a certain number of books over a month or read for a certain amount of time on March 2. Or challenge students to read a book by an author or in a genre that they\u2019ve never read before. If you are counting books, then our book tracker doodle<\/a> is a great way to keep a record.<\/li>
  2. Have a story time session each day of National Reading Month <\/strong>\u2014 If you teach younger students, then a read-aloud session is a way of sharing some classic children\u2019s books or picture books.<\/li>
  3. Hold a book-related dress-up day<\/strong> \u2014 This is a great activity for elementary school and middle school students. Students can dress up as their favorite character or represent their favorite book. Don\u2019t forget to dress up as your favorite character too!<\/li>
  4. Run a book fair <\/strong>\u2014 Book fairs are a great way to get the whole class or even the whole school involved. You can set up book-related games or scavenger hunts, craft activities like designing bookmarks, or have a second-hand book sale.<\/li>
  5. Write book reports<\/strong> \u2014 Have your students write a report about their favorite book. Use Kami\u2019s book report templates<\/a> to make it easy for students to add details about their book and explain why they like it. You\u2019ll find templates for all ages and stages in our library.<\/li>
  6. Get students to write their own story<\/strong> \u2014 Middle school and high school students could have a go at writing their own short story or drawing a picture book.<\/li>
  7. Invite an author to visit your classroom<\/strong> \u2014 If you have a local author or illustrator near your school, invite them to speak to your class about their work and maybe do a book reading with them. If you don\u2019t have someone local, you might be able to find an online event like a national read-aloud session<\/a> to take part in or find something on social media to help you.<\/li>
  8. Visit the library or bookstore<\/strong> \u2014 Organize a class trip to one of your local libraries or bookstores and have someone show your students around or attend a reading or story time session at the library. If your students are high schoolers, check out [<\/strong>this blog INSERT HIGH SCHOOL READING BOOKS<\/strong> BLOG] <\/strong>for reading book ideas.<\/li>
  9. Organize a book swap or a book drive<\/strong> \u2014 If your students have books they no longer read, then you could organize a swap day at school or ask students to bring in items for a book drive and donate the books to your school library or a local charity. You could involve local community members as well to help get more books.<\/li>
  10. Start a book club <\/strong>\u2014 If Read Across America Day sparks a joy of reading in your students, then think about starting up a year group or whole school book club where students can read and share their thoughts. You can all read the same book, read different books from the same genre or on the same theme, or just all read a different book and then give your review<\/li><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.\u201d Matilda by Roald Dahl. Have you ever read a book and been so enthralled that you have to keep turning page after page to see what happens? Then you\u2019ll know there\u2019s something magical about reading. Instilling that magic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[28],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrating Read Across America All Year-round - Kami<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Get ideas for the official day and learn how you can keep your students feeling inspired to read diverse and inclusive literature all year!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round - Kami\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get ideas for the official day and learn how you can keep your students feeling inspired to read diverse and inclusive literature all year!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kami\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kamiapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-15T02:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-08T21:33:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kami\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kamiapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kamiapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kami\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round - Kami","description":"Get ideas for the official day and learn how you can keep your students feeling inspired to read diverse and inclusive literature all year!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round - Kami","og_description":"Get ideas for the official day and learn how you can keep your students feeling inspired to read diverse and inclusive literature all year!","og_url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/","og_site_name":"Kami","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kamiapp","article_published_time":"2023-02-15T02:42:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-08T21:33:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1400,"height":740,"url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kami","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kamiapp","twitter_site":"@kamiapp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kami","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/"},"author":{"name":"Kami","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/57e54d4bfe82a0fcd4875c5a82bcc25a"},"headline":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round","datePublished":"2023-02-15T02:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-08T21:33:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/"},"wordCount":1290,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png","keywords":["learning"],"articleSection":["Inspiration"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/","url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/","name":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round - Kami","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png","datePublished":"2023-02-15T02:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-08T21:33:48+00:00","description":"Get ideas for the official day and learn how you can keep your students feeling inspired to read diverse and inclusive literature all year!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Blog_Read-Across-America-Day.png","width":1400,"height":740},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/read-across-america\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Kami Blog","item":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Celebrating Read Across America All Year-round"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/","name":"Kami","description":"Bring learning to life","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#organization","name":"Kami","alternateName":"Kami","url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Group-1.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Group-1.svg","width":93,"height":32,"caption":"Kami"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kamiapp","https:\/\/x.com\/kamiapp","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kamiapp\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Kamiapp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/57e54d4bfe82a0fcd4875c5a82bcc25a","name":"Kami","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d08197ba409f587376127c402bbbc9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d08197ba409f587376127c402bbbc9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kami"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15560"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30461,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560\/revisions\/30461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}