Celebrating Literacy

We celebrated Family Literacy Day not too long ago at our school. Our Literacy Committee did a great job of preparing some activities for the special day.

One of the activities that the students across the grades enjoyed was a “Book Quote” contest. Our school spans K-7 and so the book quotes were quotes that students of various ages could recognize. The quotes were announced using the PA system throughout the day and students wrote their names and guesses on ballots. Ballots were drawn and the winners were awarded prizes. It was a really simple and fun idea.

I was thinking, though. Why not celebrate literacy more than once a year? Why not have a similar contest the last Friday of every month? Perhaps winning students could get a free book from the book order.

Taking it one step further, as I often do, I was thinking you could also carry this contest idea into your individual classroom, rather than being school-wide. This way, the book quotes could be geared directly toward your grade level. You could even select books only from your classroom library and make it almost like a year-long scavenger hunt! Quotes could be given out once a week and students could have a recording sheet to keep track of their guesses. You could decide to give a little prize at the end of the month, term, or even the year for the most correct quotes. What a great way to encourage literacy in your classroom!