Idea of the Month - 2013
May
Many Awesome Yarns
May is truly the beginning of spring - time to relax and take it easy. Make this month the month to encourage readers to read a book just for fun - something that they just want to read.
Display the titles of the books they read on a bulletin board that reinforces the story/yarn connection. The heading of the display is, of course, "Many Awesome Yarns.
Make a large basket and fill it with skeins of yarn. Pull yarn out of the skeins, and readers can tie (or staple) the title of the good yarn they've read onto an appropriately colored piece of yarn - for example, yellow yarn may hold titles that are bright and cheery, red could be titles that are hot (popular), etc. Readers can designate colors to be particular types of books.
Another option is to take a skein of yarn and roll it into a ball. As readers select and read their good yarns, they staple the titles of the books read onto the yarn. Roll the yarn with titles into a new ball, so that by the end of May the original ball has been re-rolled.
Then, use this title-filled skein of yarn as a book selection tool to help readers find good yarns to read. They randomly choose a number. They then unroll the ball of yarn that now has titles of good books, counting the titles until they come to the one that corresponds with the number they selected - if they select the number 9, they unroll the ball until they 9th title appears. That title, then, becomes the next book they read.
These ideas are intended to help readers share what they have read and enjoyed with other readers. Sometimes the strategies also help readers select the books they want to read next. They are easy to implement and appropriate for a variety of ages. You will find a new idea posted each month; some are appropriate for the particular month, most are appropriate at any time. Don't forget to look at ideas from previous months to help motivate your readers.