One of our elementary schools has a B.U.G. club. (Bring up grades) Teachers hand over names of students to receive a free book from PTA after the second and third quarter of school. The books are gleaned from donations, garage sales and some purchased from the buy one get one free book fair. It is an elementary of 250 students. They hand out between 150 and 175 books each time. The teachers use their own dicretion as to who receives them. Sometimes it is just a student who has shown effort. They have budgeted $50.00.

kyptamom,

thanks so much for the info. our school principal is big on reading so these ideas sound great for us.

glo3364,
Here are the descriptions of those two things. I have found lots of ideas ont he PTA National website and these were on there.

Bagels, Books and Buddies
Before school or at the beginning of the school day, students invite buddies to bring a favorite book and join them for bagels and refreshments. They read together while enjoying their snack. This is a great activity to coincide with a book exchange or book fair. Variations include Dads and Donuts and Moms and Muffins.

Read Around the Campfire Transformed school lunchroom into a camp site for Read Around the Campfire evening.
Families brought a favorite book or books to read together while sitting on their sleeping bags. Snacks were provided, and a free book was given to each child along with a certificate of completion.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone!

Anyone interested in hosting a "reading night" should check out the following website: www.nea.org/readacross/.
It coincides with Dr. Seuss' birthday. This is a nationally recognized program with lots of ideas, tips, and items available for purchase. Our shcool has participated for the past two years with growing numbers of happy families attending.

Pardon my ignorance, but what are "campfire reading nt", and "bagel book buddies", all about? Sounds interesting. Thanks for the info.

We also had a family reading night but it was a bit different than those listed above. We held it during "March is Reading Month". We contacted the company we use for assemblies and asked if the had any reading themes...they sent a wonderful two person production of "The Time Machine". We had refreshments courtesy of our local Krispy Kreme,fundraiser food samples and drinks. We held the event in the evening so more parents could come. We had them all rsvp so that each child that came could recieve a book (age appropriate), pencil, and bookmark. All of which we purchased at the "Dollar Store" so it was really inexpensive. We got great reviews and the kids all ages seemed to really enjoy it:)