• Accountability
• Achievement Gaps
• Distance Learning
• Diverse Learners
• ESEA/NCLB
• IDEA
• IEP Tool
• Kansas Education Resource Center
• KEYS
• MTSS
• Priority Schools
• QPA Regulations
• Quality Public School Standards
• Safe Schools
• School, Family and Community Partnerships
• School Funding
• State Board News
• Special Education
• Student Assessment
• Test Preparation

Read Across America

Reading will take you through time and space!

Kansas NEA's literacy campaign Read Across America  celebrates Dr. Suess' birthday every year. 

"KNEA encourages principals, teachers and all adults to read with a child and to model a love of reading and a love of learning," said KNEA President Christy Levings. "Providing children motivation to read is an important factor in student achievement. Dr. Seuss epitomizes a love of learning and his books are effective in teaching young children basic reading skills. His wry sense of humor keeps even teenagers and adults actively involved in reading," she said.

From Elk Hart to Atchison and St. Francis to Baxter Springs, readers all over Kansas rev up every year for the largest reading event ever. Thousands of kids and adults participate each year in everything from poetry slams and reader theaters to reading parades and community leader "read-ins". NEA and KNEA provide many user-friendly resources to plan Read Across America.

Some History of KNEA's Read Across America

Who: Past Honorary Read Across America Chairpersons are Nobel Prize winner Jack Kilby, Olympic Gold medal winner Tara Nott, K-State Football Coach Bill Snyder, KU Basketball Coach Roy Williams, KNEA Reading Wrangles (Kansas high school rodeo champions), Kansas City Royals Baseball great George Brett and Kansas Governor Bill Graves.

What: NEA's Read Across America, the celebration that annually salutes reading and Dr. Seuss's birthday. KNEA's version is Read Across Kansas.

When: March 2 or 3 (the good doctor's birthday - March 2. The the years March 2 falls on a Sunday the official celebration is on Monday, March 3.)

Where: All schools and towns across Kansas plus all 50 states plus countries overseas … to find out what's going on in locally and to get NEA resources (the toolkit), contact your KNEA local association leader or log on to www.nea.org/readacross.

Here's just a sampling of what happens around Kansas. Check out past activities in the news archives .

• All KNEA members get an official Read Across America poster in the KNEA Issues.
• Local parades sometimes include Book-Cart Drill Teams that entertain crowds while admonishing everyone to "check out" their local library.
• University students visited visit local elementary schools and reading to students and promoting literacy.
• School Parent Teacher Organizations sponsor events such as a "Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night" featuring guest readers, games, story telling and crafts for all to enjoy.
• Many events involve singing "Happy Birthday" to Dr. Seuss and eating some concoction of Green Eggs and Ham - cookies, sandwiches etc.
• The whole community gets involved in the celebration and businesses donates prizes for drawings at the end of the evening.
• Several schools hold a Read-a-Thon!
• Elementary schools put a "foot punch-out" down on the floor for each book a student reads during the week.
• Students recite the Reader's Oath after the Pledge of Allegiance. In some communities, local and district judges hold a "swearing in" of children who promised to be life-long learners.
• Many schools hold a Dr. Seuss book scavenger hunt throughout a school or community.
• Local dignitaries and parents come to schools and read books to children in literally every school in Kansas.
• Schools hold all-school assemblies and some featured a Surprise Someone wearing a "Cat in the Hat" hat read a famous Dr. Seuss story.
• Students do buddy-reading with different grade levels.
• Many schools organize Dr. Seuss "centers" that include trivia contests, making hats, bookmarks and much, much more.
• Some schools start in January reading books from the 50 states list.
• To show students how reading is important in all academic areas,  K-6 school students write poems using the letters in Dr. Seuss's name.
• Physical education classes perform  Dr. Seuss rhymes while doing jump-rope tricks.
• Music teachers teach a Dr. Seuss song and elementary students complete PowerPoint presentations based on a Dr. Seuss book.
• Different grades are involved in different ways: junior high students read to first and second graders. Upper level students made books for the first and second graders to take home.
• Many schools created a Cat and the Hat "Wall of Fame" for students who read a Dr. Seuss book wearing the traditional red and white-stripped hat. "Wall of Fame" certificates were often presented at a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast.