Engaging Activities for National Literacy Month

7 activities that will get your scholars excited about reading and writing

September is National Literacy Month, making it the perfect time to spark a love for reading and writing in your classroom. This blog will explore engaging, hands-on activities to boost literacy skills. Discover creative ways to make reading and writing fun for students of all ages while reinforcing essential skills that will last a lifetime.

1. Candy Corn Word Building

This is a wonderfully engaging activity for young readers. You can make these candy corn word building elements by using the  MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine and the Candy Corn Die Cut. You will also need to use an alphabet set as well; the one pictured is the Block Alphabet - 1" set. You can cut out letters and glue them to the different parts for the candy corn. This is great for scholars reading at the CVC level. Give your students a candy corn that has all 3 parts still attached and then say a word for them to build on top of it, they will grab a small top, medium middle and large bottom piece to build the word you said.  Once they have built that word you can move on to the next.  

2. Long Vowel Trees

If you are working with students who are working on their long vowel sounds and who need practice writing words with those sounds this is the perfect activity for them. You can make one of these trees for each of the vowels. Use your  MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out the Tree-No Leaves #1 Die Cut and you will need to cut out many of the Leaf-Oak #3 Die Cut leaves. Place the bare tree on your desk and ask students to take the leaves and write words that make the long vowel sound. You can make a tree for a specific sound spelling for that sound, as you see in the image where all the words have the “ee” spelling. You can make different trees for different sound spellings. Another idea would be to add a mixture of sound spellings for the given long vowel sound such as adding words that have the “e,” “ea,” and the “e_e” spellings. Let the activity work for you and what you want scholars to practice and notice.  

3. After Reading Wheels

Moving on to students who are at the developmental stage to be reading on their own. After reading a story they can work through these wheels to help build their comprehension around what they have been reading. Use the MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out a Practice Wheel-Wedge (2-Die Set) for each of your scholars. Once you have assembled, use a pen to write questions or statements for the students to answer about the book they just read. Here are some sample questions and statements: What was your favorite part of the story and why? What is the main idea of the story? Describe the story's setting. What happened in the story? What was the problem in the story? Was the problem resolved? If so, how? Describe the main character. Students can write their answers or discuss their answers with a classmate once they have finished their reading. 

4. Green Eggs Sight Words

This is an adorable way to connect reading a story to reading sight words. To create these sight words you will need your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine and the Eggs and Ham Die Cut. Start this activity by reading Green Eggs and Ham to your class and then pull students up to your teacher desk so they can play the game. Start with all of the words facing up. Have the children take turns choosing a word to read. If they read the word correctly then use the spatula to flip it over. Pass the spatula to the next player. If you laminate the eggs you can use this activity every year with your students. 

5. Corner Bookmarks

Another great tool that will encourage your students to read are the fun and creative bookmarks. For each book they read they could select a new bookmark and they can create collections of them over the course of the school year. To create the bookmarks you will use your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine and the Bookmark- Corner Die Cut. Cut out a square and a corner piece from construction paper or cardstock then place adhesive onto both of the tabs. Next, wrap tabs around the square, lining up the edges to form a small pocket for the page of a book. Then cut out teeth, eyeballs or ears depending on what creature you are creating. Lastly, glue the designed pieces to the bookmark. Create as many designs as you want or you can even have the students create their own if you have pre-cut parts for them to select from. 

6. Read Around the World Display Board

During this month using a display board that you can add to as you read books around a theme. A fun theme would be to read about stories from around the world. This could even be looking at a genre such as fairy tales and finding books that tell the same story but in different places. To create this eye-catching board you will need to get out your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine. You will also need Luggage Die Cut, and you could pick die cuts that connect to the stories you are going to read such as the Statue of Liberty Die Cut, the Eiffel Tower Die Cut, and/or the Globe #2 Die Cut. You will also need to use your alphabet set. The one shown is the Shout Alphabet - 4" Set.  Start by cutting out the letters for the title from black construction paper. Then arrange them on the paper-covered bulletin board as desired. Using a variety of brightly colored construction paper you can cut out suitcases for each story that you will read and write the title of the stories on each of the suitcases. You can add the suitcases as you read the stories to your class. You can also cut out and add globes, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower to the board as well. 

7. My Acrostic Poem

Extending your scholar's writing ability is always worth the time. This activity has them get creative with their writing while also thinking about and reflecting on who they are as people. Make these by using your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out the Person- Folding Die Cut. Begin by cutting the "body" background out of yellow construction paper and create an accordion by folding along the perforation lines. After that cut two arms, two legs and a head from whatever color of skin-toned paper is desired for your students. Allow your students to decorate the arms, legs and head using crayons, markers or colored pencils. Then cut around the decorated part on the head and glue googly eyes onto the face and attach it to the top of the accordion fold. Next, glue the arms to the back of the accordion towards the top and the legs to the bottom back of the accordion. To finish, have students write their name in big letters down the left side of the accordion then think of sentences or words that start with those letters and write across the accordion body.

These are just a few simple examples of the amazing things you could do to make literacy month come alive in your classroom. The goal is to connect their reading and writing to something creative and visual that will help get them excited about literacy in their classrooms. Bringing books to life and allowing students to write about their learning and reading and experiences is such a fun way to promote their growth in literacy! 

Written by Amy Pinegar.