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Peggy's Pages Blog 

Read Across America, March 1st and March 2nd!

"Grab your Hat and Read with the Cat" is the 2013 theme of the National Education Association’s (NEA) Read Across America celebration. The program, which is in its 16th year, focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources.

Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program which coincides with the birthday of children’s author, Dr. Seuss, March 2nd. Since the date falls on a Saturday this year many schools are celebrating on Friday, March 1st.

So what will you be reading this week-end? Some schools, libraries and communities hold special events in honor of this day of reading. Will you celebrate with your child’s school or at your local library? Are there any book fairs or author readings in your area? Or are you ‘snowed in’ this week-end? Maybe you’ll make it a family event.

You can find lots of ideas for planning your own reading celebration at the NEA website. Here are some of my favorites from the list, along with some of my own ideas.

--Bake a Dr. Seuss birthday cake. Or make some cookies shaped like a hat that you can decorate to look like ‘the Cat’s’ hat.

--Have a pajama party where reading books is the main focus. It can be at night or even during the day. Have everyone wear their favorite hat.

--Act out the books that you read and let the others guess what your book is by clues that you give. If you do it charade style, there’s no ‘talking’ allowed when you give your clues!

--Tape the name of an author on everyone’s back, but don’t tell anyone whose name they have. The idea is to guess which author you are by the clues others give you. For example, if you are Dr. Seuss, someone might ask you “Do you really like green eggs and ham?” Or if you are Doreen Cronin, someone might say to you “Did your cows ever get that air conditioning in their barn?”

--Vote for your favorite Dr. Seuss book.

--Make up some crazy ‘Seuss-like’ words and have the others guess their meaning.

--Cook up a Dr. Seuss meal. There are some great ideas on the NEA website under the link for ‘Seuss-inspired recipes.’

Whatever you do, have fun reading! I definitely will!
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