Instilling a love of reading and curiosity in books comes down to making the activity memorable and enjoyable for your students. While it might seem challenging to instill that love of books in every student, there are many ways to promote a more positive experience every time children read.

Great stories are the building blocks of a successful reading routine. Start by exploring different genres of books together, like fiction, nonfiction, or fantasy. See what sparks each student’s imagination and interests, and keep a collection of popular themes. Next, try different types of books to read aloud together: picture books, chapter books, comic books, and graphic novels to appeal to both advanced and struggling readers alike. 

Then, try out some of the ideas below to help your students enjoy reading! 

1. Make It Immersive 

Creating an immersive reading experience brings your students’ favorite books to life. Build a reading area in your classroom, where you can enlist props and decorations to create the same theme of the book your class is reading aloud or at their own pace. 

For example, if your class is reading a book about camping, use a blanket and some throw pillows donated from home to build a tent in which to read. Equip the tent with a flashlight or two so that it can double as the perfect place to read some spooky stories! 

Ask your class to come up with some themes they would like to read about, and then change your reading area to reflect it! You could even use art time to create decorations for your agreed-upon themes (think: construction paper animals for books about nature, or paper plate planets for books about the solar system, etc.). This is a way for students to make real-world connections with what they read while making reading fun. 

2. Have a Party 

Celebrate your students' reaching their reading goals by throwing a party! Use pocket charts to outline a daily, weekly, or monthly reading challenge for your classroom. For example, you can encourage your students to each read three books a month independently which they can track on their own score cards. Or, you can have a shared reading goal to read one book from a certain genre together a week. 

Then, once you’ve completed them, have a dance party. Let your students offer suggestions for songs they’d love to dance to. Bring in some fun disco lights to brighten things up and have fun! This gives your students something to look forward to while they explore new genres and sharpen their reading skills, which in turn builds their confidence and encourages independent reading.

3. Share Your Favorites Day

One of the best ways to introduce kids to genres or subjects they wouldn’t normally gravitate to on their own is to have them share their favorite books with each other. Dedicate a day every week in which your students can bring in their favorite book to talk about with their peers. 

Similar to a book report but more informal, this gives students the opportunity to provide book recommendations to each other and showcase a favorite author, a specific interest, or a character who they love. This helps make reading fun and kick-starts conversations around books.

4. Make Art of Favorite Characters

Another way to make reading fun is to bring your students’ favorite characters to life. Whether you choose to all draw or paint a character from a book you’re reading as a class, or from independent reading time, use this opportunity to let their creativity shine by creating art of a character of their choice, like Dog Man or Captain Underpants. 

You can also incorporate student artwork by crafting puppets of these characters. Using popsicle sticks, paint, glue, and construction paper, have your students design puppets to use in their own puppet show performance to recreate a story they’ve read or one they make up! Even the most reluctant reader will be intrigued to learn more about the characters. 

5. Act It Out

Kids, especially younger children, like to play pretend, and acting in a class play gives students motivation to make reading fun. Encourage their imaginations by writing a short play together based on a book everyone loves. Give each student a role to play — as big or as small as they’re comfortable with. 

Take it to the next level by asking families to donate clothing from home for the day to use as costumes, paint scenery together on a poster board, and create a stage on which to perform the play. Make it whatever you’d like!

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