March 20, 2017

For National Reading Month, Meemic Agent and former early education teacher Danyelle Hatter talks about ways to include reading in the arts.

As a teacher, I knew exactly what my focus was every March and what we were going to do at the beginning of the month. We would celebrate reading month by planning activities around Dr. Seuss’s birthday. We would do a snack such as green eggs and ham – and always had guest readers all month long.

Educators know that while Reading Month is the month of March, we do things to promote reading skills all year long. While many of these activities can be quite expansive and take several days to complete, some are very simple and can happen within seconds. I love incorporating reading across the arts.

Singing is one of my favorite things, not that I can sing. However it is fun and can be done while standing in line, during the morning greeting, on the bus, anywhere really. It develops memory, sound discrimination and vocabulary.

Another great tool is drawing and painting. This can allow a child to increase the comprehension for what they have just read or had read to them. This may facilitate the ideas for them to write or tell their own stories.

Another favorite is acting it out. I love having my kids be engaged with each other while they act out a book we are reading. Puppets, both hand and craft puppets the children make with popsicle sticks can also help engage them in the story. I leave these tools out for children to interact with on their own at a later time as well.

This list could go on and on and we each have our own ways of incorporating reading skills each day not just during National Reading Month. I hope that you get to share what a joy reading can be with students every day.


Danyelle Hatter is a former early education director and teacher, and was Meemic’s first member in Illinois. She’s been a Meemic agent since 2015. www.DanyelleHatter.com