Read Across America - Sharing Our Love of Reading With Costumes

This week we celebrated Read Across America Day.  Yes, we celebrated.  Our school has historically used this day to spread the love of reading by inviting students and staff to dress as their favorite book characters.  In our school, the day is more of a celebration of READING rather than a celebration of a single author.

Our week had several parts, but all were student-centered and student-led.  Our activities for the week:

1. All classes participated in a Dr. Seuss BreakoutEdu.
2. We celebrated as a school by dressing up as favorite book characters.
3. We gathered as a school to celebrate reading, hosted by our Student Council.  The assembly featured a teacher costume contest (with student judges) and a video of student costumes, with our Reader Leaders as event photographers.

Here I reflect on our school-wide celebration.

Collecting photos

Students and staff were invited to dress as their favorite book characters.  In the morning, I enlisted in the help of our Reader Leaders to take pictures of students in costume.  Reader Leaders put on their badges and went to 1st and 2nd-grade classrooms with an iPad and clipboard to interview students and take their pictures.  They recorded the name of the student and their book character.

Reader Leaders interview students and take their pictures.

In 3rd-5th grades (where there are traditionally fewer costumes), I circulated iPads for students and teachers to take pictures of one another.  I collected all of the iPads and lists and created a video in Animoto of all student costumes.  Each photo appeared with the student's first name and book character.

One of my favorite student costumes.

Celebrating together

At the end of the day, the entire school assembled in the gym.  Our Student Council hosted the event.  Four students welcomed students, introduced the video, and invited teachers forward to share their costumes.  (Their script is here).

The Student Council then judged this contest.  After announcing winners of the student contest, the staff winner was announced.  The students began chanting for our gym teacher who blew us all away with his fabulous costume.  (A little insider information informed me that I came in second, but clearly The Man With the Yellow Hat was the crowd favorite)!

The Man With the Yellow Hat and Purple Crayon from The Day The Crayons Quit (me).

Following the assembly, students were dismissed to return to their classrooms to read.

My takeaways

Our assembly lasted only 20 minutes, but it was entirely student-led.  The video lasted 6 minutes which I was afraid was too long, but students cheered, laughed and were then able to see every costume in the building.

Staff costumes were fewer this year, but team costumes were popular, including a fun 5th-grade display of Pete The Cat.  This is a great way for the staff to demonstrate OUR love of reading.

It was a highly successful day, ending on a very positive and energetic note.

My costume

My inspiration

I usually create a costume for this event and this was the year to make the crayon box that I had been wanting to do for years because I had the right tools.  With grant money I purchased Makedo supplies and used them to cut and reinforce the box.  

The saw is a game-changer.  I can hand this to a student to cut - a job once relegated to the adults.

My family joined in the fun in the early stages of costume making.  

I spent the next few days drawing and painting.  It was great fun!