B.F. Day Summer Of Reading Library Open July 14 & Aug. 11 & Other Resources
Summary : Library Open and Story Time: Mon, July 14 & Mon, August 11. Hope to see you there.
B.F. Day Summer Reading Information
Greetings B.F. Day Families! I am excited to kick off the B.F. Day’s 2025 Summer of Reading! While we think of summer as a “break” from school, I’m hoping our B.F. Day community will commit to continuing to read! We must think of reading skills as a muscle to be exercised… and we all know what happens when we stop exercising!
Kids who spend time reading over the summer arrive at school in September ready to begin content in the next grade, rather than spending multiple weeks of review. Plus, what better than spending lazy summer afternoons with a good book under the shade of a tree or by flashlight in a tent!
What follows are a variety of resources to help you in this endeavor. Parents of emergent readers will need to support students in continuing to pay with sounds, learn power words and build confidence. Parents of more advanced readers will need to help keep the books flowing! Visit our B.F. Day Library webpage too during the school year for updates and information for families!
5 Ways to Head off The Summer Slide
- Keep then engaged and learning while they’re out of school.
- Encourage kids to read at least 20 minutes everyday.
- Read to your kids!
- Transform car rides into reading time.
- Visit your local library with your kids.
- Let them pick out books on their favorite topics and they’ll read more often!
B.F. Day Summer Story Time Dates
- Monday, July 14 from 3 – 5 p.m.
- Story Time at 4 p.m.
- Monday, August 11 from 3 – 5 p.m.
- Story Time at 4 p.m.
Story Time at 4 p.m. All welcome! Book checkout available. Enter through the back stairs!
Summer Reading Resources List
Visit our new! Summer Reading Resources page on our B.F. Day Library page on the School Website.
Summer Reading ResourcesB.F. Day Summer Reading Incentives
#1 Summer Reading Bingo
Complete five squares in a row and turn in for a prize. Younger readers can also do this with a grownup/read aloud. Forms from Imagination Soup were sent home and also available to pick up on one of the Library open days!
#2 Summer Reading Challenge
- Grades K-2: The 24-Hour Summer Reading Challenge
- Fill in a square for every time you read 20 minutes until you reach 24 hours!
- Turn in upon your return to school (or earlier in the library) to receive an invitation to Mrs. P’s Summer Reading Pancake Breakfast! Tentative Date September 12. Forms were sent home and also available to pick up on one of the Library open days.
- Grades 3-5: The 48-Hour Summer Reading Challenge
- Fill in a square for every time you read 20 minutes until you reach 48 hours!
- Turn in upon your return to school (or earlier in the library) to receive an invitation to Mrs. P’s Summer Reading Pancake Breakfast! Tentative Date September 12. Forms were sent home and also available to pick up on one of the Library open days.
Other Summer Reading Incentives
How Do I Help My Child Pick Out Books for Independent Reading?
One of the quickest tools to use is called the “Five Finger Test.” Here’s how it works…
“You have 5 fingers. Wiggle those. Open the book to the middle – any page. Start reading. When you come to a word you don’t know, that’s okay. Hold up one finger for that word.
If you come to any other words you don’t know, hold up one finger for each word. Stop
at the end of the page.” Now, you can explain that they will know if it’s a just right book because of how many fingers they’re holding up.
0-1 = fingers an easy book.
2-4 = fingers a just-right book.
More than 5 fingers = a challenge book to save for later.
Easy Books
- 0-1 Fingers
- If your child reads the page and has zero or one finger held up, the book is considered “easy.” Don’t worry if your child wants to read easy books. Kids need to read books that are comfortable and easy. Remind him or her to mix in just-right books, too.
Just Right Books
- 2-4 Fingers
- If when your child does the 5 Finger Test, they hold up between two and four fingers, the book is considered a “just-right” book. This is a term coined by literacy specialists meaning that the book is a good fit for your child, that it’s at an instructional level for your child. These are the best books to choose most of the time.
Challenge Books
- 5+ Fingers
- If your child ends up with more than five fingers held when doing the 5 finger test, it’s not a good book choice for them. More than five fingers mean that the book is too hard. I like to tell kids to save for later and help them choose a just-right book.
Remember…reading isn’t just reading the words, it’s also understanding what we read. Talking about books, thinking about characters, making predictions, and exploring connections are also important comprehension skills to work on!
Resources to Help Guide Choices
These links offer a few resources to guide your choices and find pathways to similar titles. Emergent readers will do well with “decodable texts.” These are books specially designed to meet the current phonetic knowledge of the reader. For example, if your child knows all their short vowel sounds, you would look for texts which help them practice those skills.
Online decodable texts
K-2 Summer Reading Recommendations
3-5 Summer Reading Recommendations
