Several people asked me to post a hit of responses to my question about PARP
(parents as reading partners) activities. Thank you so much to the people
who responded. Here's what they said:
What we do is
1) start with a theme i.e. "There's snow better time for reading," etc.
Upstart has great themes to choose from.
2) We have a contract the parents & student must sign saying they will read
15 min. per day. Each day that is read, parents sign a form. These are
handed in at the end of the week. Students get a little prize for reading
each week.
3) On our lunch menu we have a daily idea - Read a Sweatshirt Day, Hawaiian
Day, Backwards Day, Wacky Day, Hot Chocolate Day, Hat Day, etc, etc.
4) We always bring in a musical group for our Kick-Off Day as well as the
final Celebration Day.
We do pretty basic stuff, so I would love to hear what others do.
The official PARP or Parents As Reading Partners program is a program
sponsored by New York State PTA. They publish a guide to help put together
a program. If your school is a PTA (part of the state and national PTA not
a PTO) the PTA president should have received a package from NYS PTA with an
outline. You can also get information directly from the state office by
contacting nysparp@nypta.com. There is also a link from the NYSPTA webpage
(www.nypta.com) under the events PARP conference link. PTA recognizes
winning programs from each PTA region in the state. All this said, many
schools hold “PARP” programs that have nothing to do with PTA. Checking out
the material could give you some ideas even if you are not an official PARP
entry.
A PTO is not part of the national Parent Teachers Association so yes they
are on their own. I can only tell you that some of the best parent/child
programs I have seen in my PTA experience involve the whole school. Most of
the PARP programs have a theme such as racing around the school, (setting up
paper charts where the cars move along indicating the # of books read),
climbing mountains etc. Sometimes it ties in with the schools mascot or a
community or local event and sometimes it hooks on to an outside theme such
as 100th anniversary of Lewis and Clark expedition, Wright bros. flight,
Polar Express movie, etc. Often local businesses sponsor prizes or donations
to buy a book for each child as a final prize. I don't remember your
original e-mail so I am not sure if the PTO is sponsoring your program but
you need a committee to help organize this.
I'm sure the LM-netters will have some great ideas to share with you.
Good luck!!
I open my library one afternoon a six weeks for parents to visit the library
with their children to check out books (in their child's name) - I serve
cookies and it's a time when parents can also pick up their child's report
card, a day before they are issued, and they can also talk with the teacher.
I'm in the process of planning our program. First, I like the name
"Partners in Reading." I'm actually going to use that this year. While I
think having kids read with parents is the ideal, the reality is that it
won't always happen, and I'm happy to have them reading with anybody at all.
As far as themes/activities: I don't do too much with themes. I keep it
pretty general and vague. Since it's always in March, I've used slogans
like "Spring into Reading" and such. Some of the activities I've done (most
more than once) that have been successful are:
- Guest reader day. We have district administrators, local personalities,
town officials etc. come and do a read aloud. We have a reception in the
library, then students come and escort their reader to the classroom, where
they'll spend about 20 minutes or so. Some readers are better than others
of course, so I always solicit feedback from the teachers. It's wildly
popular with the readers themselves, and we always have more people willing
than we can accomodate.
- Teacher swap-and-read day. A variation on the guest reader theme, but we
mix up the teachers and have them read aloud to a different class. I try to
switch primaries with intermediates, so that younger students meet the
teachers they may someday have, and older students get to see their
kindergarten or first grade teacher again.
- Bookmark contest. I cut a regualr sheet of paper into 4 strips (2.75x8.5)
and students can use any medium to design a bookmark promoting reading.
Winners are selected from each grade level, and they I make color
photocopies of them (that's why the size is important - so it fits on the
copier) and put them out in the library for students to take. I usually
have to stop students from taking a complete set, so that there's enough for
everyone.
- Book "commercials." Students complete a form about a favorite book,
giving their name and class, the title, author and a short summary and
explanation of why they like the book. Then, they note whether or not it
can be found in the school library. Students read them daily over the
morning announcements.
- Bingo for books. An evening family event -- requires a good selection of
books to give away, either new or gently used. Winners get a book. At the
end, I have also always allowed anyone who didn't win to take one as well.
Refreshments served.
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