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Enjoy Resources and Read Alouds from National Education Agency (NEA)

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Enjoy Resources and Read Alouds from National Education Agency (NEA)

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Read Across America partner KidLit TV is a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Children can experience authors and illustrators reading their works through KidLit TV's Read Out Loud program, which includes an array of titles featuring diverse people and cultures. Find more read-alouds, plus podcasts, activity ideas, book trailers, and more at their award-winning website.

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Read Across America partner KidLit TV is a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

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Create a Book Poster and submit for SESD's Student Art Gallery!

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Create a Book Poster and submit for SESD's Student Art Gallery!

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Submit a Google Slide or Picture to your teacher of your art masterpiece by Friday, March 5! Theme: Reading Creates Adventures!

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Enjoy a Read aloud about SESD!  Click on the square to expand for full screen.

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Enjoy a Read aloud about SESD!  Click on the square to expand for full screen.

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Are you on track with your Reading Goals?  DIBELS K-4

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Are you on track with your Reading Goals?  DIBELS K-4

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Encourage reading and give fun rewards with these diy bookmarks. Your kids will love them!

With school starting, kids are going to have more and more reading assignments in the coming months. Make that time more fun with these 25 DIY Bookmarks For Kids. From characters to monsters to pictures of themselves, these bookmarks are a fun way to come back to the page...whether they already love to read or not yet. Help your kids get into the swing of things with these awesome bookmarks and make this a great reading year! Happy crafting!

25 DIY Bookmarks For Kids

Your kids will never feel alone when they have these animal bookmarks hanging around. Perfect reading buddies, and cute as can be!

Your superhero child deserves a superhero bookmark to keep their place when they set the books down.

Want a little class with your text? Check out this adorable bow bookmark.

Little readers will have a blast making these fun, brightly colored button bookmarks.

Crazy cat kids are going to be amewsed by this purfectly precious kitty bookmark.

Duct tape fixes everything...including lost spots in books! Plus, with so many patterns to choose from, your kids will never be bored.

Want more duct tape fun? Check out these smaller tag markers. They're perfect to keep in pencil holders or purses so you can always mark books on the go.

This sweet flower bookmark is easy to make and will make finding your place easy, too!

This crazy bird bookmark is truly giggle-worthy and will make any reader happy to open the pages.

Are your kids hanging on to every word you read to them? Now they can hang around inside the books, too!

Show your kids you love them with this thumbprint heart bookmark. Who loves reading? We do!

More book love with these paint chip heart bookmarks. So easy to make, they'll be a great gift for any classroom.

Minions love to follow, and they love to read. It's true. But be careful...they might move around if you're gone too long.

If your little monster wants a bookmark that is scary fun, they'll love these monster corner bookmarks!

Time to whip out the stamp pad! These stamped bookmarks are amazingly adorable and each one can be truly unique.

These DIY pom-pom bookmarks are super cute and your kids will love showing them off.

Popsicle bookmarks are a great way to remind your kids that reading is cool.

Find those pages with ease with these easy to make ribbon bookmarks! They're great for travel, too!

Is your little crafter learning to sew? Let them sew a design into their bookmark for added fun and color!

This shark corner bookmark is dangerously cute and will help your child take a bite out of their reading list.

Or use these shark fin bookmarks to keep those marked pages from drifting away.

These nosy creatures are super excited to see what's going on in your kiddo's books.

Sharpies give this gorgeous bookmark a tie dye feel and make for groovy reading.

Or for salty fun, check out these salt bookmarks. Your kids will have a blast making these!

These ribbon bookmarks are a classic. Easy to make, easy to use, and easy to store for reading on the go.

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Encourage reading and give fun rewards with these diy bookmarks. Your kids will love them! With school starting, kids are going to have more and more reading assignments in the coming months. Make that time more fun with these 25 DIY Bookmarks For Kids.

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The benefits of reading  for 20 minutes a day!

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The benefits of reading  for 20 minutes a day!

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Are children and teens really reading less than they used to? It appears so. Studies show that less than 20% of teens in the United States read for pleasure.

Yet they spend more and more time on social media or gaming, with the average eighth-grader spending four hours a day gaming, texting, and online browsing.

Of course, it's hard to get your child or teen to curl up with a good book for hours - there's just so many other fun things to do. But you might be pleased to hear that the benefits of reading just 20 minutes a day have been proven by research.

And that's something we can all commit to, right?

The importance of reading 20 minutes a day

There are several powerful benefits of reading 20 minutes a day:

Early reading skills can affect children's academic success

Reading 20 minutes a day exposes kids to a vast quantity of words (1.8 million in each school year, actually!). And this exposure makes children more likely to score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests.

If you compare this to children who read just 5 minutes per day - and are therefore more likely to score in the 50th percentile - it's easy to see how reading time translates to academic success.

Meanwhile, a separate study involving almost 10 million students showed only those reading at least 15 minutes a day achieved accelerated reading gains. And those reading less were at risk of falling behind their peers.

If you've been unsure of the benefits of reading 20 minutes a day, these statistics should help clear any confusion up!

Reading often helps to improve writing skills

Following on from our previous point, if there's vocabulary benefits associated with reading 20 minutes a day, then writing benefits are there for the taking, too.

Essentially, the more words your kid reads, the wider their vocabulary is likely to be. And a wide vocabulary makes a kid's writing more interesting and impressive.

They'll discover new ways to convey meaning, articulate their thoughts, persuade people, use figurative language, and engage readers' emotions. This can help them become stronger writers, whether working on a short story age 10, an essay age 13, or a college application letter age 17.

Children who rarely read are less likely to expand their linguistic know-how in the same way. And that could hold their writing back significantly.

Reading stimulates and enhances children's imaginations

Recent research shows that the imagination may be more powerful than believed previously - scientists now believe that creative imaging can 'rewrite' certain memories to be less traumatic, and can even enhance certain physical connections within the body.

For example, imagining playing a piano could " boost neuronal connections in regions related to the fingers ". So developing a strong imagination could help people to exercise greater control over their thoughts, memories, and more.

What's this got to do with your kid, you ask?

Well, reading daily can help to strengthen a child's imagination, introducing them to concepts, cultures, and possibilities beyond their own life experience. They can learn about the world, stimulate their curiosity, and give them a better understanding of other people's lives.

And with the imagination being such a powerful force, there's a lot to gain from that!

Fiction stimulates creativity in children

So from imagination to creativity - two related, but still quite different strengths for kids who read 20 minutes a day.

Getting lost in a fictional world helps kids to expand their own creativity, as they'll experience situations, worlds, characters, thoughts, and feeling that they may not have come across in their own lives just yet.

What's more, by reading they'll realize that people can make a living from writing books, magazines, and newspapers. This may inspire them to explore their own creativity and inform their career choices in the future.

A good book encourages children to relax at bedtime

Kids, no matter their age, have a lot going on. They're constantly learning, and changes like the transition from middle school to high school can be stressful for some.

The good news is, either reading with your child - or allowing them to read independently at bedtime - can help them to relax and wind down from their day.

Research by the UK National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that 90% of children feel "happiest" when reading and writing, as opposed to playing games or watching favorite cartoons. That might sound a little unbelievable if your kid is more often glued to their screen, than with their nose in a book, but maybe a little nudge in the right direction is all they need!

Regularly reading helps kids develop empathy

Studies show that reading can help children to develop empathy, by challenging them to consider how other people (the characters) may think or feel.

You can give them a casual boost at school or home, too. Parents and teachers can help support this empathy development by asking:

"Why do you think Harry Potter did what he did on this page?"

"What could you say to make the BFG feel better about himself?"

"How would you feel if you were far from home, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?"

Learning to approach situations and consider the feelings of others could help children of all ages to be more compassionate in life.

So why read for 20 minutes a day? Now you know

Young children, pre-teens, and teens can all reap a number of benefits from reading 20 minutes a day - whether that's helping them learn about the world around them, increasing their academic performance, discovering their own untapped creative potential, or just hanging out and enjoying a great book!

So what are you waiting for? Why not head down to the library or bookstore together, pick out a few new titles, and get to work on setting a new, family habit - together.

Chances are, you've got a lot to gain from reading a little more too!

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Why Children Should Read 20 Minutes a Day and How This Impacts Your Kids' Development - At Any Age

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Why should kids read for 20 minutes a day? There's lots of reasons! Even just a small chunk of reading time can bring big benefits to kids.

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Family Reading Time! Snuggle up to a good book together!

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Family Reading Time! Snuggle up to a good book together!

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