Jonwilson, did you have them read any books they wanted or did they read about the continent they were on? The director wouldlike to make it a cultural and georgaphic learning experience too.
Hi.
We just completed the Around the World in 80 books. The kids had a sheet of paper with ten lines on it for books they read or their parents read to them. Also on the sheet is a space for the child to put what was their favorite book out of those ten. When the sheet was filled, the child returne it to school to advance to the next continent. There was a large world map at the entrance of the school. Each student as well as teacher, nurse, secretary and principal had a marker in the shape of a boat, plane, hot air balloon,... with their name on it to track their progress. Each also had a passport. For each ten books, they would get a stamp in their passport and recieve a little prize and advance their mode of transportation to the next continent. It takes 70 books to travel the seven continents and then 10 more to reach North America again. Once a student made a complete trip around, they got a star on the marker and they continued around again. Most completed one round trip with a few completing two and two almost thru three trips. The program was a resounding success. I'd highly recommend it.
How about doing the "World's Fair" for everyone-maybe as a kick off and have the big prize be a nice globe(my kids love theirs), an atlas and maybe a collection of books about different countries? Or could you find someone who does hot air ballon rides?!
Haven't done this, but I like the idea. Our reading incentive programs usually track the number of pages read, as opposed to the time reading. Maybe a map with 80 hot air balloons on it, and you color in a balloon every time you do 'x' number of pages (number would depend on how long the program runs)? Or read a book that has something to do with that country/area?
The DOE has a suggestion for a program called Around the world in 80 books. It doesn't elaborate except to say you could keep track of reading goals on a map. Has anyone done this? Even if you haven't, could you give me some suggestions on how to do it?
We do "Race to Read" with Bandimere Speedway and someone suggested that we do it alternate years. I mentioned this idea and the chairman loved it. We just need to figure out how to do it.
For the Race to Read program, the kids do "laps". They mark off boxes of time as they read (15 min k-2, 30 min 3-6) Every 4 or 8 hours of reading is a lap. They get prizes for each lap they complete. It's great because the boys really get into it and race.
We thought we could do continents instead of laps and require the kids to read books about those places. It could include geography, animals, folk lore, culture studies, ect. We are just toying with the idea right now.
I think we also need a big prize too. I can find little incentives for the smaller goals but the big one is kind of hard. I know some programs just do a medal. The race rewards students with tickets to the speedway when they complete 3 laps. I thought something to do with geography would be good. Maybe a mini "World's fair" featuring dancers, sports, food and things from countries around the world would be fun. The chairperson worked in Kenya and has cool stuff like a Zebra pelt that we could show the kids.
That's about as far as I got. Any ideas?
(I tried this on another thread but got no responces. Maybe it was the wrong place to ask.)
