As I prepare for my new/old room, I will be using ideas that I tried when I first got the position a few years ago. I plan to post those ideas that worked here for you. They are simple but helped me and I hope they will be a help to you as well.
One of the easiest ideas is the Book Buddy Bag. The goal of this tool is to get families to read together and to get preschoolers to value literacy and get comfortable with books and print. I have used this in many classrooms over the years. It can be as simple as you want it to be. How much you put in the bag and what you load it with is up to you (and what you think your parents and students would enjoy of course). The bag can be themed if you like.
The idea is to purchase or recycle a canvas tote bag. Now dig through your stash of books and find a few that you don't care to part with. Add these to the bag, along with a stuffed "buddy" to read with your student.
That's the bare bones version of the Book Buddy Bag. And the kids are usually eager to take turns bringing the bag home with them. I send it home with a different child every weekend with instructions to return it on the child's next day back (make sure all your items are labeled---even then you may lose a few things here and there. I like to recycle older books and buy my bookworm and tote bag at the Dollar Tree so I am not breaking the bank if an item should fail to be returned).
While this minimal approach works great and accomplishes my goal, I like to go more in-depth with it. I like to put 4-5 books of different interests and reading levels in the bag so the children have lots of choices from which to read. I also like to make themed bags with activities that tie in with the book. A good example of this is to pack in a book such as If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and then add in a pouch of cookie mix and baggie of cookie cutters/sprinkles/pouch of icing. Or an ABC puzzle to go with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Or a book bag on insects could feature insect manipulatives to explore. Craft sheets or simple craft kits are always fun in your book bag and usually match a variety of themes (make sure to include everything needed to complete the craft, even a small pair of scissors and a glue stick). The holidays lend themselves to all sorts of great themed bags. And don't forget multicultural bags and bags that tie in with your lesson plans.
One of the most important parts of the bag is the folder. The folder will contain your instructions for borrowing and using the bag, and when to return it. Mine also contains pre-cut construction paper circles that have room for a student's name and the name of the book(s) he or she read. I hang these filled-in circles on the wall to make a class book worm during the year. And the folder contains a template for a book report form for the family to fill in if they want to. I got mine FREE from the Time 4 Kindergarten store on the Teachers Notebook site (http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/Tiffani/kindergaten-book-report). Thanks to the seller who posted this! I keep the reports to go into each child's end-of-the-year portfolio.
Here are my instructions for using the bag (this is laminated and inserted into the front pocket of the folder).
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3y7orz1hTTGUlh0TW5wWjZ4bkU/edit?usp=sharing
I hope this inspires you to make your own class Book Buddy bag. I would love to see what you include in yours! All comments welcome. :)
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