I couldn’t agree more with having children take home a pack of books to reading during summer break!

Although my children have access to books at home, I would still want this for exactly who it’s triggered for: the low income family. I know for certain that this extra expense for the school would be very beneficial for the students.

I would gladly give this giveaway winning to my daughter’s classroom.

I also agree with having children access to digital tools as well. My daughter has access to a family laptop at home where she mostly plays games but she’s navigating the internet and her favorite sites all by herself. She reads to know what to do and where to go. It’s a great thing and a tool she will use repeatly in coming years.

Thanks for the giveaway and happy reading!

Having access to books is important to me because that is what keeps my childrens reading levels at the advanced level. I encourage parents to have books on hand and make lots of trips to the library to keep your children’s skills sharp!

Couldn’t agree more! More ways to promote reading with the little ones ~ let them see you reading. Talk and converse with each other A LOT. Sing songs and read poetry together. Go to the library! Make time for books!

I promote reading in my classroom by making it a pleasure for my students as much as possible. I teach first grade and so much of our year revolves around DIBELS data. So besides my data driven instruction, I still squeeze in time for read alouds for pleasure, especially Junie B. Jones… I let students have free reading/choice time to look at and read seasonal/holiday books. I teach in a Title I school with a high free/reduced lunch population. So many of our students do not have a library of books at home. I would love to send home an entire pack of books for them to have. I always give each child a book for Christmas from Scholastic…

I would use these books in my classroom. Many of my children are in need of books to read at home. They check out books from the school library and our classroom library so they can have books to read at home. These take- home book pack would be great for them to have some different books to read at home. They would love them!

I love the idea of sending kids home for the summer with books. I wish we could give every child one book on the last day of school! We have a pretty good public library in our area, so we also need to make sure to get library cards in kids’ hands and let their parents know about all of the other resources available there (DVDs, Wi-Fi, etc).

Hi, I can’t imagine a home without books. It is so a part of who I am, and now both by boys are avid readers. I mean they bring books to the table and I start sounding like my Mom, “no books at the table!”. But I actually say yes sometimes. They even ask to bring the into restaurants! They can’t – and I mean can’t (their own choice) – leave the house without a book in hand, whether we are going on a long trip or just around the corner to CVS! I couldn’t be prouder and feel if there was one thing as a parent that I wanted to accomplish, it was this. My boys are now 11 and 9. We’ve started to talk about encouraging others to read and how we can help with that effort. This year we gave a book to the St. Vincent dePaul collection for children this holiday season. We give books as gifts as often as we can. I would like to start a home-based business (if not a full-fledge bookstore!) that involves books and with that I would take portions of the proceeds to purchase books and deliver then to people in need. Each Christmas as a family we accept a family to do the Tag Tree at our church. We made tags for all the members of the family and wrote out their wishes. It is my plan to also give each family member a book from our family. We Love Books!

Hello, although I cannot win (live in Canada), I just wanted to add something. My daughter is 6 and in grade 1, we have read to her every night since the day she was born, she is now at a grade 5 level of reading. After our reading time at night, we sometimes find that she has fallen asleep with a book beside her in her bed (and sometimes over her face). She is fortunate to have alot of books on hand in her mini library in her room and can read at any time. When she receives new books we go through all of her “older” books and she decides which ones she would like to pass on. Now in french immersion we find ourselves “starting over” but she is getting into and recognising words in french and is getting more interested in picking up the french books.

Wishing I could win )
Susanne

Books take children to places they would never imagine on thier own. Having access to books at school is for some the only place they can get books. By reading children add to their vocabulary and it helps them understand writing. Reading and writing are connected and books, lots of them help build those skills in children and adults.
Our school this year added a computer based reading intervention for the entire school. This was not easy to afford but we cut other items in order to have this componet available to our students. It does not replace reading an actual book but allows those who either can not afford to buy books or get to the library to have access to many more books than they normally would. We will see if this approach helps when we start testing.
We are trying to encage students in reading in away we can.
I read to my class and encourage them to tell the class about thier favorite stories. I hope that others will want to read what thier friends, classmates, and peers are talking about.
Having the take home packs would help open anothe avenue to reach students and encourage reading.

I started reading aloud to my children before they were born. We read every day . . . to each other and to ourselves. There are books in literally EVERY room of our house, and I am secretly happy when I have to ask my kids to put down their books at the dinner table. Books are my weakness and I have no qualms about passing that obsession on to my children. Books have taken us to places we will never go, shown us worlds we will never see, and have taught us more about relationships and history than we could have learned on our own. The single-most thing we can do to encourage children to read as parents and educators is to provide them with print materials!

As the mother of four and an avid reader myself I cannot imagine a home without books! My neices and nephews are 1200 miles away and are always looking for the book package from auntie Tami for all the holidays and special occasions and I think I have more fun walking through the bookfair or warehouse sale trying to find just the right books for them. As my kids have gotten older and their interests and reading levels have changed I cannot get rid of the books we read each night as they were growing up so I started letting the younger kids in my neighborhood come and “check” books out of my “library” to take home and read. Most of the moms work and it started when I was babysitting for one of the families part time and the kids would go home and talk about the books we had read that day and has grown into a fun time for me as I get to visit with the other moms and my kids who get to point out all their favorites to the little kids in the neigborhood! Sometimes we even have an inpromtu story hour and snack to celebrate! As we do finally decide to clean our bookshelves out we find the local shelters and fill their christmas stockings with the books we are letting go of to make sure someone else will be able to enjoy them like we have!

Though it sounds corny, books really do open up the world to everyone, and that is why having access to them is important to all. I’ll likely never get to Tibet – but I can read about it. I know I’ll never fly a rocket – but I can read about it.
The things kids read about give them ideas that they might have never thought about, show them careers and ideals and strategies and words that they might never encounter otherwise, but that they may latch onto and explore further.
Our PTA and school promotes reading by sharing Scholastic articles and Facebook postings, and by partnering with our local community to promote the Accelerated Reader Program.
I would just LOVE to have books to donate to some of our students who are really struggling, or who come from lower income backgrounds and might not have the same access as others!

I love books . Working at Head Start, I realize how manychildren do not have access to books and the parents do not know what to do with the books other than read the book to the child. As soon as I have enough bonus points to get every child in our center a book, I do. With the assistance of the other teachers, we create extension activities to send home with the book so the parents will have activities to do with the books we send home.

I love to read and I model that for my second graders every day. They love listening to stories and sharing books with their friends. They have book boxes filled with books at their reading level. They read and listen to stories on the computer. They check books out of the library and from my library. We celebrate authors’ birthdays in our classroom and feature their books each month. My goal is to get every child hooked on reading. I would love to win the book packs to give to my students. They would absolutely love them!

I am a school librarian for 597 elementary students. Their are many students in our learning community who would benefit from books that could be read over the summer. It would be beneficial to share the joy of reading with all our students through summer reading book packs.

Parents are a student’s primary teachers. Parent who read with children, and in front of children, are more likely to raise successful readers. It is proven that children who are read to before the age of five are more successful in school, and those who read every day with their families continue to succeed in all subjects. My goal is to give all families in my school fresh, interesting and fun reading material every day, so that they can share the joy of reading – together!

A great way to promote reading is to also promote an activity of some kind that goes along with the book. It could be taking a trip to a place in the story, or learning about an animal in the book, or playing a game that is connected somehow. Which brings up the point of creativity -one of the most important reasons children and adults alike need access to books. Reading opens our minds to learning knew things or considering things in new or different ways. We become more creative and insightful and that is what society has always needed to move forward more positively.

I was a child that would have benefited from a program like this. I was raised on a farm in rural farming community and attended one of the last one-room school houses in our state. Our school library was small but our teacher read aloud to us every day. We had only a few books at home that were read, re-read and re-read again. Access to a public library was nonexistant. Around the time I turned 11 or 12 the state library system began to offer a books by mail program during the summer that allowed us to check out books from a catalog and return them when we were finished along with an order for more books. It was like Christmas when the mailman delivered the small package of books to our mailbox. I now work part-time in a library as a youth services provider (storylady) sharing my love of books and reading with children and their parents. Our library staff is always looking for new ways to meet the needs of our community.

As a mom of a bright, imaginative son who has dyslexia, I have made it my mission that he may some day read to himself for enjoyment. We have read to him since he was a baby and despite his reading difficulties, he loves books. I assist an under-funded parent volunteer-led after school mentoring program that connects 6th through 8th graders with 1st through 4th graders to encourage them by reading together in unison in pairs, playing games and enjoying reading-involved activities. My son knows we are there ever week, he sees me actively involved and enthusiastic about the program. He sees me and my husband reading for pleasure. Parents have to lead by example and show their enthusiasm— kids love to see their parents excited and it’s never better than when we read and laugh together! Similarly, it helps the younger kids to enjoy a book with an older child, and vice-versa. If I were chosen for this give-away I would be so thrilled to share these books with all our 16 mentors and 16 students!

All kids should have access to books. I think it is important because they should be able to practice what they are learning at school. In my classroom, students take home a baggie book each night to read and discuss after they read it with a family member. I know for sure I could use more books to help my students with their reading! I would love to be the winner of this awesome giveaway!

Good books can enhance understanding, inspire greatness, and motivate goodness. The best part of my teaching day is hearing the kids ask to read ONE MORE CHAPTER in our current novel because they’ve gotten emotionally involved with the characters.

My students love read aloud time. I allow them to check out books from my classroom in the hopes their parents will read aloud with them. My school is approx. 95% free/reduced lunch and I was shocked one day when I asked them how many had never had someone sit down and read to them at home. Shocking and so sad!!

My students are thirsty for books…When the book order box from scholastic arrives, you can feel the excitement and the energy in the room. Books offer my kids (50% who receive free and reduced lunch) a doorway to dream big. Each year I have more kids that don’t know what it’s like to have books read to them. We have older kids record their voices while reading books, then send the players and books home with younger kids, this way kids can listen to someone reading to them.

I so admire Scholastic and their commitment to putting books in kids’ hands. I work with students who need a boost in their comprehension skill, and I can almost see their faces when they get a backpack full of new Scholastic books to take home and share with their family. Books offer them an entertaining story, new things to learn about and another opportunity to grow reading skills. I hope my name is drawn, but either way, the kids who will be reading these books are the real winners! Thanks for all you do!
Sincerely, Leslie McKinstray

I promote reading by donating books to the classrooms at school. When the wishlists for the Scholastic BookFair and BookClub are available I try and purchase a few books for each class because funding has been low.
After seeing that Walmart and Kelloggs partnered with Scholastic I sent emails and flyers out to the staff and students around our town and district to let parents know that purchasing these products can earn books for their school/class.
Volunteering at the library and especially for the summer reading events at our local library has been a great way to talk about books with kids also. I find that getting group book exchanges can get new books into the hands of readers regularly. We host book exchanges with our schools and with our community groups and that way there are extras to hand out. I love reading and getting books into the hands of readers of any age is important, but the youngest kids especially. Raising a reader is vital.

Oh my goodness…I would surely give the books to my daughter’s 1st grade class….she daily shares her love for reading with her class of first graders. She even gives scholastic books as holiday gifts for her class. She encourages reading for Accelerated Reading by vowing to wear a blue wig when the class gets to a certain number of points….charting it with a pic of her in the wig!~ Class LOVES it and can’t wait to read their books~!~
I appreciate being considered for this giveaway!~

There are so many ways we promote reading in our Title 1 school…. Scholastic Book Fairs, book parade, quest readers, author assemblies, Magic Carpet Theatre, Read Across America, donating books to classrooms and hopefully our first ever, all-school book swap this winter. We really try to get the kids excited about reading and they love it!

In our school., we try to promote literacy in our school through our Book Fairs, Book Parades, Read for the Record, and we are hoping to start some new family reading events this spring. We really try to get children and families excited about reading by providing them many opportunities to read books whether it is in the classroom, at home, through the media center, or as a community.

I love and agree with the new Scholastic tagline: Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. We need to continue to create a culture of books for all students so that all have access to potentially life changing stories, poems, and information. We do this through our classroom and schoolwide programs, bookfair, support of our fantastic media center, to name a few. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

I think the best way to promote a love of learning is to model good reading behavior. If kids see parents and teachers reading, and have access to quality books in the home and school settings, they will learn to love reading as well.