Our school recently held a reading night with attendance and participation of approx 250 parents and children. The PTO called the event "Books Come Alive.. Robots and Reading". As children and parents walked into the school they were greeted by a puppet robot, that moved, turned and spoke by a computer generated program. There were three stations along with 3 "Celebrity Readers from the Community". One station located in the library consisted of 2 readers, a power point presentation on Robots installed on 20 computers which allowed the children to point, click and read along with their parents, 20 other computers had Robot Math installed to interact with the children and parents. The second station was located in the mini auditorium consisted of 1 reader, a Book Swap "Bring a Book receive a Book", Bingo Math, Tribot display and 2 Robot Crafts, and the Third Station was located in the cafeteria consisting a 2 Robot displays from a nearby Community College, Robot exercises that involved the children (along with parents), and Robot Snacks. The key to success is to create excitement and interaction with children along with parent involvement. Words of advice stay away from call the event a reading night.
We did a family reading night in early December and the theme was Cozy Winter Reading.The night featured Jan Brett books.We had 4 different areas for this kids to have a Jan brett book read to them. The kids got a stamp card when they arrived and after listening to each story they they got their card stamped. If they listened to all 4 stories, they could put their name on the card and be entered to win a Jan Brett Christams Treasury book. We also had 2 activity areas: one to decorate gingerbread men (tie into the gingerbread baby book) and the other was a table with a bunch activities from her website: janbrett.com. We kept the refreshments simple: hot chocolate and cookies. The night was a huge success. Kids were very into it and parents had a great time!
