We ordered book bins from Really Good Stuff and put them on book carts. This made the books easy to retrieve and also to move around the cafeteria if needed. We collected book donations from teachers and parents and sorted them by (approximate) grade level. Labels on the book bins let kids know which bins were most appropriate for their grade. One helper in each class was designated to pick up a book bin, put it at the end of the cafeteria table, and return it at the end of lunch each day.
On any day in our school cafeteria, kids are reading and talking about books. Here are some pictures I recently took of a few of my first grade friends reading and eating Doritos at lunch.
I love this idea! A very smart way to promote reading...kudos!
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent way to keep kids reading! Mrs. Lewis knocks it out of the park once again! I look forward to exploring this option for the next school year because you're right... they really only need 5-10 minutes to eat!
ReplyDeleteDo you have books for K-5, or did you mainly focus on picture books?
Thank you Matthew!
ReplyDeleteWe collected mainly picture books and nonfiction. We included a few chapter books as well. At first we thought the kids wouldn't want chapter books since they don't have long to read them. But then we decided that if a kid got wrapped up in a chapter book and took it after lunch, well that would be just fine!
The books held up surprisingly well. We had to toss a few but will be able to use most of the books again next year.