Inspire Daily Reading in Kindergarten

As teachers, we know how important it is that our students read every day. When they are in our classrooms, we have control over their reading. We teach small groups, level texts, and more. But, the school day is not solely devoted to reading instruction. There are many more subjects to teach each day! So, we rely heavily on families to create daily reading routines at home that will keep our students growing.

Today, I want to share two different ways that I have built a home-school connection with my families, and created reading routines that stick!

Why Daily Reading is Important

For those families who are resistant to committing to a daily routine for reading, having some information at the ready is helpful! A parent email or letter is a great way to establish the ‘why’ behind a nightly reading routine. Some of the biggest benefits of daily reading are:

1.) Increased vocabulary. As students read more, they are exposed to more words. Being exposed to more words builds their background knowledge and vocabulary bank. This makes it easier for students to comprehend texts on similar topics in the future. The more schema our students have, the more texts they can access!

2.) Deepen fluency, phonics, and comprehension. We spend so much time as teachers building on reading skills that students are lacking, but we don’t have as much time as we need to let students practice simply reading! Reading skills are like muscles: the more we use them, the stronger they become. The only way to become a more fluent reader is to read more. The only way to build decoding skills is to read more.

3.) Recognize text structure and elements. The more students are reading, the easier it will be for them to identify things like character, setting, and plot. They will also begin to recognize that the structure of a story was built around teaching about one topic, or was centered around one character’s problem. These foundational skills will help our students when they are in older grades, and need to identify the main idea, or problem and solution in a text!

Books of the Day

One of my favorite at-home reading routines to create with my families is ‘books of the day’. The concept is simple, but engaging! Families designate one box or basket in their homes to be the book area, and label it ‘Books of the Day’. Different family members can put books inside. These can be all picture books that different family members plan to read with the child. Or, parents can set their own example of reading by placing the books their own books in the basket along with books the child plans to read!

Creating a special spot to keep the books that everyone wants to read is a simple, but powerful reminder that reading time will happen that day. From there, families can establish when they will pull out the basket and read their books. There can be multiple reading times, or one block where everyone stops to read.

Book Bingo

Books of the Day can stand on its own, if all you need is an engaging way to remind families to read a little more. But, if you’re looking for something to be turned in each month to show how much reading students did, Book Bingo is a great incentive program for daily reading! You can send pre-made bingo boards home with students at the beginning of every month. Each board has 25 boxes (one of them is a free space!), which comes to be less than one reading task a day throughout the month. As students complete different reading and writing tasks on the board, they color in the boxes.

At the end of the month, students bring their boards back to class. Completed boards can be entered for a prize drawing. Or, everyone can earn a small prize or certificate for participating. Do whatever is best for your classroom!

You can try the bingo boards, and grab a ‘books of the day’ label for FREE by joining my email list. Click HERE.

If you want to grab a full year’s worth of bingo boards, check out the listing HERE.