Grades
PreK - 8
These teacher tips will keep students reading all summer long.
For veteran third-grade teacher Alycia Zimmerman, summer reading is a logical extension to the reading culture teachers create throughout the school year. “We read because we love it, and we read even more during the summer because our relaxed schedules allow more time for reading,” Zimmerman says.
You can keep your students reading all summer! Here are Zimmerman’s top tips for keeping students engaged with books.
Thrill your students with one final classroom read aloud! Throughout the school year, Zimmerman reads out loud to model strategies for being a proficient reader. But in the last few weeks of school, she selects a “juicy” chapter book with a new focus for her modeling: the total, unfettered pleasure of reading!
“I get lost in the book with my students—I share my excitement, my daydreams about the characters, and my intrinsic commitment to reading,” she says. “I read a bit longer each day, building a sense of urgency and celebrating my students' reading and listening stamina. I also spur my students to read for longer periods of time each day, as we get ready for the luxury of limitless reading time during summer vacation.”
TIP: While they bask in the pleasures of reading, have your students fill out a “reading wish list” to plan for their summer of reading.
Zimmerman’s favorite end-of-year read aloud is Roald Dahl’s The Witches!
Send your students home for the summer with a parting gift that will make them feel connected to their reading community.
Zimmerman likes to make each of her students a commemorative bookmark by using free word cloud websites. She types in all of her students’ names and other words relevant to the past school year and customizes the design colors and fonts for each student. She prints the rectangular bookmarks on cardstock, laminates them, and threads a ribbon through a hole in the top. For the finishing touch, she writes a personal message on the back of each bookmark.
Introduce your students to the wonderful mecca of books available all summer: the public library! (If it's possible and safe to in your county or state right now.)
A few weeks before the end of school, Zimmerman plans a visit to the local branch of the public library. She recommends coordinating with the children’s librarian ahead of time to pick up library card applications. If you send the applications home with your students and return the completed applications to the library before your visit, the librarian has time to prepare the new cards in advance.
On the day of the library field trip, your students will be thrilled to find their new library cards waiting for them! Students with a signed permission slip can even borrow a book from the library. Send home this letter with any students who check out a book so their families know to return it on time.
Sign up your students for the Scholastic Summer Reading program—a free, safe, and exciting summer reading experience!
Readers enrolled in Scholastic Summer Reading can track their reading with Reading Streaks™ in the Scholastic Home Base digital destination, earn virtual rewards for their achievements, and engage with their favorite authors in special virtual events. Readers can even help unlock a donation of 100,000 print books for kids with limited or no access to books.
Register your class for the Scholastic Summer Reading Program.
Stay connected with your students over the summer.
If you can, organize an optional meet-up at the public library once or twice during the summer. Invite your students and their families to meet you in the children’s room at the library where they can catch up with their friends, share book recommendations, and read with buddies. Alternatively, a virtual meet-up works, too!
Connecting over the summer gives you an opportunity to check in with your students’ reading progress and help them pick out new books to read. It’s also a chance for another teacher-led read aloud as a nostalgic reminder of your reading adventures the previous year.
TIP: When you connect, encourage your students to share their recommendations—and even write reviews!—of the books they read over the summer.
Put books in students’ hands this summer with the great titles below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.
Best friends Unicorn and Yeti have lots of fun in these laugh-out-loud stories. With full-color artwork and easy-to-read text throughout, this adorable book is perfect for new readers!
In this story from Super Bowl champion Malcolm Mitchell, a magician shares books that make every kid's dream come true.
In this adorable, quirky picture book, Macca the alpaca loves splashing in puddles and gives the best cuddles. But when he bumps into a big bullying llama, Macca must prove the value of smarts and kindness.
Follow little llama, who is depicted in a wheelchair, and friends on their adventures, rendered in vibrant, detailed art featuring an adorable cast of animal friends.
This nonfiction series is full of facts, photos, and realistic illustrations, and it includes a range of mammals, sea creatures, insects, and dinosaurs to satisfy all kinds of animal fans.
While on a field trip to the zoo, Buzz and Fly Guy discover the world is filled with weird and unusual animals! From blobfish to naked mole rats, there's plenty for the best friends to explore.
Evil wizard Astrid has trapped Drake's friends in stone and she is getting closer to casting an even more dangerous spell! To stop her, Drake and Ana travel in search of Ka, a mysterious and greatly feared Lava Dragon. But who is Ka's Dragon Master?
This inspirational picture book reminds listeners and lap-sitters of the value of being themselves.
Keiko feels pulled in two directions. Should she try to help her friends—even if it means losing one of them—or follow her heart? When it comes to flirting, friendships, and fallouts, how is Keiko supposed to keep it all together?
Dav Pilkey's wildly popular Dog Man series appeals to readers of all ages and explores universally positive themes, including empathy, kindness, persistence, and the importance of doing good.
With illustrations by Michelle Mee Nutter, Megan Wagner Lloyd draws on her own experiences with allergies to tell a heartfelt story of family, friendship, and finding a place to belong.
Inspired by young coauthor Libby Scott's own experiences with autism, this is an honest and moving middle-school story of friends, family, and finding one's place.
Learn all about the science of climate change, the kids—from the United States to Australia—taking a stand, and the little things you can do to make a big difference.
When an 8-year-old boy and his grandmother come face-to-face with the Grand High Witch herself, they may be the only ones who can stop the witches' latest plot to stamp out every last child in the country!
Marrying magic realism and a coming-of age, this novel imagines a pre-teen spending a summer with her grandfather as he ebbs into dementia.
Twelve-year-old Adrianna Villalobos and her older brother Feye travel the globe with their parents, the hosts of a suspenseful nature show called "Wild Survival!"
Twin sisters Maureen and Francine are best friends, but with the approach of middle school they are growing apart, and Maureen doesn't know how to stop it.
Eleven year old Max fears his dreams are slipping away, so when the opportunity arises he embarks on a dangerous journey and finds more he imagined.
