Great Ideas for Summer Reading

April 24, 2018 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I hate to admit it, but summer will be here before we know it. My daughter’s school participates in a summer reading challenge, and there is the summer reading program at the local library, too. It’s a good thing she loves to read, but I know a lot of kids need some motivation in order to stick with those reading goals.

The Many Little Joys has a great post on summer reading, with ideas for challenging kids to read more (and different) books, why reading in the summer is so important for kids and how to make it fun.

Her post includes a printable chart they used to challenge her son to read 50 books in a summer.

If you need a reading log instead of a book tracker for older kids, I made a summer reading log printable that I shared at Our Daily Craft a couple of years ago. It has spaces for the date, the book being read, when reading time started and ended and the total for the day or session.

Admittedly we usually just try to keep track of time and not always the book that was being read, but it’s fun to look back at the end of the summer and see all the books you read.

How do you encourage summer reading? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: The Many Little Joys.]

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You can also see some of our other articles on reading activities and ideas here.

125 more activities to get your child to read.

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

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Snow Globe Crafts for Kids

Whether you have snow where you live or are on the wrong side of the world for that, these snow glob crafts for kids are a lot of fun to put together at home or in the classroom.

If you want to keep it super basic, you can download some snow globe coloring pages from Monday Mandala and have kids drawn in their own images (or color in what is there for the ones that are already filled). This could be a fun way to play with different media, having kids paint in one, draw in another, or use crayons in one, colored pencils in another, etc.

Or you can add your kid (or a classroom full of kids) to snowglobes with this craft from Twitchetts. It’s easy to make and fun for kids to help with, too.

You can also make snow globes with paper plates pretty easily, and there are lots of different options out there that should give you some ideas. This one from In the Playroom uses blue glittery pompoms as the snow and has a snowman in the background (though you can use whatever you want).

Mas and Pas uses a clear plate on top of a regular plate to make its snow globe, and Daydream into Reality just uses a paper plate to make the snow globe shape but there’s no snow involved. Their template includes different images you can put in the snow globe, or draw your own.

If you want to make a snow globe without the watery (so potentially less mess) you can make a waterless snow globe out of a plastic cup with this tutorial from The Pragmatic Parent. It uses tiny foam balls as the snow. Tidy Mom’s version uses a real glass jar and fake snow to flurry around.

And if you’re OK with using liquids in your snow globe, which will allow the snow to flutter like in a real snow globe, check out this version from 123 Homeschool 4 Me, which uses water and baby oil.

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