Very Hungry for Early Literacy

The early childhood eduventure Jumpstart has teamed up with the Pearson Foundation to try and break the world record for adults reading the same book to children on the same day, October 8.  You may not be named in the Guinness Book if you participate, but you’ll contribute to Jumpstart’s effort to donate 250,000 books, raise $2.5 million to support early literacy, and lift awareness about the significant long-term payoff for kids of early reading.  Plus, you’ll learn what an ice-cream cone, a pickle, and a slice of salami have in common. Learn more here.

–Guestbloggers Bryan and Emily Hassel

10 Replies to “Very Hungry for Early Literacy”

  1. I think that Early Literacy is very important and what why to jumpstart a special event such as reading one of the most admired and loved books “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, to children all over at the same time. At the school where I teach, we have decorated the entire center with a hungry caterpillar. It is such a colorful, eye-catching, mood setting background. We invited all parents, especially fathers to come out and read to their child.

    I really like this!! Let’s empower the children through reading!!
    Erica Hines

  2. I am so glad I found this article. My school is participating on Thursday. I signed my class up for a guest reader, but did not have a strong sense of what this day entailed! Now that I have found out more from you blog and link, I am very excited to be taking part of this program. I believe having other people come into your classroom, especially in elementary school is essential to teaching them how to love books! I am also excited because we will be broadcasting the book on the tv, which is airing on PBS. I think this is a great way to connect schools, teachers, and communities around the US!

  3. I was very excited to see this blog! I signed my class up for a guest reader, but I did not have a strong sense as to what I was signing up for! After reading your blog, I am even more excited about our day on Thursday! I believe having guest readers in your classroom is a great tool to teach children to love reading and that it is a life-long skill that they will use! It’s also a great chance to connect schools, teachers, and communities around the US with it’s simultaneous reading. We will also be showing the broadcast from PBS on our tvs! What a great experience the children will have! Thanks!

    Rebecca Phillips

  4. I too am very excited about this program as my class will also be participating in this program tomorrow. The neat thing is that the readers that are scheduled to come will actually be coming into my students’ PE class. I love that they will have a connection not only to the community through this activity, but they will also get a sense of how reading happens everywhere and not just in our classroom. I also love the book choice. I often talk with my students (kindergartners) about appropriate food choices and “picking a better snack.” This book will tie in nicely with those discussions.

  5. Thanks to our very active and devout librarian my school is joining the cause tomorrow. This read aloud came at perfect time for my class because we just let go two monarch butterflies. The students were able to watch the caterpillars devour tons of milkweed, spin a beautiful chrysalis, and hatch into gorgeous butterflies. My librarian passed along some websites with activities to do after the read aloud so I’ll pass them along to you.
    http://www.teachingheart.net/veryhungrycaterpillar.html
    http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/HungryCaterpillarPrintables.htm
    http://www.thevirtualvine.com/theveryhungrycaterpillar.html
    ~Mike Baum

  6. I am very excited about this program as my entire school district will also be participating in this program tomorrow . I was so happy to find this blog, it gave me a few more ideas to incorporate into our day. Our guest reader will also come during our PE class and Art class, thanks for the wonderful teaching point about the broadcasting on PBS this is an excellent technology connnection and apprriopiate food choices and “picking ” better snacks. This will connect will with our health lesson, which we are now mandated to teach everyday.

  7. I think that this is a great program for children because literacy is very important at the early age. i would like to suggest the book titled,”Brown Bear-Brown Bear What do you see?” as book that is known and loved across the board. I teaches, colors, animals, and repitition to the children. I will also get a guest reader in my classroom to read to the children. I would like for a father figure to come out to read to the children. I think that would be exciting. most importantly, we must read to children and teach them reading skills early on so that they would have problems with comprehension and fluency.

  8. I teach at the high school level, but every year I have my students create a reading profile. They reflect on their earliest reading experiences and we discuss the impact of that early story time on their reading ability as they developed into proficient readers. This year I was approached by two student who want to start a book drive for students who live in a nearby city. I will have to check out Jumpstart!

  9. I am very glad that I have been introduced to Jumpstart through this blog. I thought that the idea of having the same book read on the same day was a great idea. I know thta everyone at any level can have a connection to this book, and many other children’s books. I would love to have have my school participate. I think that literacy is very important. In order to succeed in any subject, students must first know how to read. I know that it is also very important for parents or gaurdians to take part in the literacy of their student. I would hope that parents could come to the classes of some of the younger students to volunteer to read to them. Jumpstart sounds like an awesome way to boost early literacy.

  10. Thank you for the post and thank you all for reading with us last Thursday! If you haven’t already, please log on to readfortherecord.org/count to make sure that all the children you read to are counted for the record.

    Thanks again and happy reading!
    Best,
    Jodi at Jumpstart

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