Fun Ideas for Read Across America

Read Across America began as a celebration of Dr. Seuss, but if you want to go beyond Seuss in your celebrations, or you have older kids who aren’t into his books anymore, there are lots of things you can do.

Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher has a full week of free activities planned, including a STEM day, rock day, pajama day, tourist day and doughnut day. Kids could dress up for some of these, and they include a book (and a list of other books) to read as a class and other activities related to the theme. So fun!

Check out Your Thrifty Co-Teacher’s ideas for Read Across America in upper elementary that include things like reading buddies, book tastings (we’ll get back to that one in a minute), designing your own book jackets and more.

Erin Waters EDU has some more good ideas like exploring different genres of books, having a book fair by unique trait (such as books all by women or people of color or who write stories about aliens) or setting up a literary scavenger hunt.

There are lots more great ideas at Buzzing with Ms. B. I love the idea of having kids make bookmarks or doing a March Madness style bracket (or even just voting) to discover the kids’ favorite book. You could ask each child for their (one of several) favorite book they read last year, or use books you’ve read in the classroom.

Draw your own or grab one from Novel Effect.

And I mentioned book tastings above, which I know I’ve talked about before, but also check out this post from I Love First Grade about doing a “reading restaurant” that is a little bit the opposite of the way I’ve seen it done before because here the kids are “reserving” the kinds of books they’d like to read and the teacher picks out some books for them to sample, rather than having the kids report on a book. But either way would be fun.

Do you do anything special for Read Across America? I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo via Your Thrifty Co-Teacher]

10 Christmas Themed Young Adult Books

Explaining Dia de Los Muertos to kids can be difficult because most of us don’t generally talk about death or what happens when we die a lot with our kids. But Dia de los Muertos is actually a happy, not scary occasion that allows us to remember loved ones, share stories and come together as a community.

While it is mostly celebrated by people of Mexican heritage, the day has become more well known thanks to movies and other media representations. And there are some great children’s books to help explain and allow you to celebrate the holiday if you want.

Dia de Muertos by Jaque Jours, illustrated by Alejandra Ruiz (48 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by words & pictures, suggested retail price $14.99) tells the story of a family getting their ofrenda (altar for the dead) ready and how they remember people who have died through decorations, food and sharing stories.

It covers the classic decorations and rituals of Dia de los Muertos including using cempasúchil (in English we call them marigolds) and papel picado (cut paper banners), pan de muerto and la catrina, the elaborately dressed, skull faced women that are a common site at Dia de los Muertos gatherings.

The back of the book explores how the day is celebrated throughout Mexico as well as the meanings of different symbols. There’s a recipe for pan de muerto, a tutorial for making papel picado and tips for doing makeup to look like like la catrina/el catrin.

Want to try more traditional foods? The Dia de Los Muertos Cookbook is a companion to The Dia de Los Muertos Story, both of which are by Andrea Jáuregui de la Torre and illustrated by Laura González (52 pages, hardcover paper over boards, published 2026 by becker & meyer kids!, suggested retail price $19.99).

The book opens with some discussion of the meaning of Dia de los Muertos and why food is an important part of the day. The recipes included are easy enough for kids to make with minimal help, and all based on food memories from her childhood.

There are recipes for hibiscus iced tea, Mexican corn and salsa, tortillas, molletes (open faced sandwiches with beans and cheese), jicama fries and sugar skulls to name a few.

Other activities in the book include papel picado, coffee filter marigolds, making your own playlist and making an ofrenda.

Together these books give young readers insight into this holiday that might be new or confusing to them, while also giving you a chance to get in the kitchen together and make your own Dia de los Muertos memories.

Have you read?

Leave a Reply