The Drop Everything And Read challenge template is perfect for teachers. Ready-to-go activity badges prompts students to engage with their free-choice reading. The activities work best for older elementary students, but can easily be adapted for older or younger students.
Find all the assets for this challenge, including activity details, below.
Challenge Description:
Challenge yourself to D.E.A.R., which stands for Drop Everything and Read. Use your imagination and creativity to show off your reading skills. Discover new books, log your reading, and engage in fun activities to earn badges!
Activity Badge #1: Illustrations
Time to show off your art skills!
- Book Cover: Design a new cover for the book you read. Make sure to include themes, the setting, characters, or important plot points (exposition, falling action, rising action, etc.) in your illustrations. Don’t forget to include the book title, author, and illustrator (if applicable). Turn in your completed book cover to your teacher.
- Comic Strip: Design a comic strip based on one major scene/event from the story. Your comic strip should include at least 3 frames, with dialogue and images. Turn in your completed comic strip to your teacher.
Activity Badge #2: Fiction
Choose a fiction book to read. A fiction book is a story that is made up from the author’s imagination.
- Text-to-Text Connection: Describe the setting(s) in the story. Compare and contrast the setting(s) of this book to a book you've recently read. Explain the similarities and/or differences.
- Interview the Author: Use an online resource to research information about the author of the book you read. With the information you learned about the author and your knowledge from reading one of their novels, write three questions you would ask the author if you got the opportunity to interview them.
Activity Badge #3: Nonfiction
Choose a nonfiction book to read. Nonfiction texts are based on real events, information, and/or people.
- Vocabulary: Choose two important, interesting, or unfamiliar words from the text. What do you think are the meanings of the two words? What context clues helped you figure out the meaning? Look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary or online resource. Write your own sentence using the word.
- Interesting Information: What are three interesting things you learned from the book? Would you read another book about the same topic? Why or why not?
Activity Badge #4: Serious or Silly
Complete two activities with serious answers or silly ones; you choose!
- You’re Hired!: Choose a character from the book and pretend they are applying for a job. You can choose something realistic (Spiderman - scientist) or silly (Spiderman - ice cream scooper). Write a letter from the character’s perspective explaining why they would be good at the job and what special skills they possess that would make them perfect for the role.
- Dramatic Monologue: The character somehow got out of the book! Write a monologue, or long speech, from the point of view of one character from your book. Where do they go? Why? What are they thinking?
Activity Badge #5: Get Creative
Use words and your creativity to express what you’ve learned.
- Theme Song: Create a theme song with lyrics for the book you read. Feel free to focus on a specific character, setting, plot point, or the book as a whole. Use some of your favorite songs for inspiration!
- Inventor: A character from the book you read has decided to become an inventor. They just invented a new food. Why did they invent this new food? What is it called? What does it look like? What does it taste like? Is it simply food, or does the creation of the food item serve a larger purpose?