“To learn to read is to light a fire.” –Victor Hugo
Here at EITA, we know the importance of high quality early childhood education, early intervention and the role that literacy plays in early success in schools. So, on Thursday, October 27, 2016, we encourage you to join Jumpstart, a national organization that is working toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed, in “reading for the record.”
This is the 11th anniversary of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record®, a global movement towards transformative change in early education. On October 27th, children and adults around the world will highlight the importance of children’s literacy by participating in the world’s largest shared reading experience. This year’s campaign book, “The Bear Ate Your Sandwich” by Julia Sarcone-Roach, is a classic tale of a bear’s epic journey and the mystery surrounding one delicious sandwich.
There are tons of ACTIVITIES you can do in a classroom, support children and families to do at home, or elsewhere in the community to celebrate #ReadfortheRecord and hit on crucial skills necessary for language and literacy development at the same time.
- Sing together!
- Visit readfortherecord.org for music and lyrics to the song Going on a Bear Hunt. Sing the song with your child and pretend to go on your own bear hunt!
- Write more!
- Encourage your early learners to write a story about other adventures the bear could have. It’s okay to use pretend writing, draw a pictures, or just talk about adventures the bear might want to go on.
- Go on a scavenger hunt!
- Explore the grocery store or market! Try to find the letter S, like in sandwich or B, like in Bear! Talk about the items that you find.
- Read more!
- Check out other stories featuring bears, like The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. Talk about things that are the same in the books and things that are different.
For more resources to promote early language and literacy skills in young children, check out our new Early Language and Literacy Topic of Interest page.
One last thing! Make sure to register on the Jumpstart site and submit the number of people (both young and old!) that you plan to read with to be counted towards breaking the world record! You can even print “World Record Reader” certificates at readfortherecord.org. Let us know in the comments below how many World Record Readers you read with so we can celebrate right here in Pennsylvania!