Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in working with struggling readers who require additional help in reading fundamentals and comprehension skills development.

Summer Reading

Summer Reading

Keep the reading, writing, and engaged learning going all summer long. Our summer reading section has great ideas for building literacy activities into your everyday schedule and summertime travels. Browse our resources for parents, teachers, and librarians.


Pack Your Bag for Summer Learning Adventures

The school bell may stop ringing, but summer is a great time for all kinds of learning opportunities. Reading Rockets has packed a "virtual beach bag" of activities for teachers to help families get ready for summer and to launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences. Teachers will find materials to download and distribute as well as ideas and resources to offer parents and kids.

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New! Summer Reading Roundtable

Research reveals that children lose one to three months of learning during the summer, and that the loss can be compounded every year. Join Ron Fairchild, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning and Dr. Loriene Roy, president of the American Library Association as they discuss how to turn summer loss into summer gain — in our latest professional development webcast.

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Summer Reading Strategies for Children with Dyslexia

Discover a dozen strategies to help your child bloom in the summer months, and hold on to the academic skills they worked so hard to acquire during the school year. Here's one tip: Provide reading material that is motivating (graphic novels, mysteries, directions for a building project) — and some of it should be easy. Learn more in this thoughtful article.

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Books & Authors

Burritos, Pizza, and Chopsticks: Our Video Interview with Author Janet Wong

Janet Wong

Janet Wong grew up in Los Angeles where she observed the rich community life that comes from many cultures blending together. She writes stories and poems about what's deep-down important to children: families, traditions, community, and knowing that being unique is something to celebrate. For inspiration on how to share poetry with kids, listen in as Wong talks about building a "poetry suitcase."

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From Our Bookshelf: Teacher Tales

Teacher Tales

Teachers are kind of like superheroes: smart, brave, intuitive, able to react at a moment's notice, possibly magical…Get to know Miss Frizzle, Miss Nelson, and the other wonderful and very human teachers in this new collection of books for kids ages 3-9 years.

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Books to Honor Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

APA Heritage Month

A book can open new windows to the world. Look in as a young Korean girl puts on, one-by-one, the layers of traditional clothing to celebrate the Lunar New Year; take a guest seat at an amazing Chinese wedding; or listen to the rhythms of a Thai lullaby. Discover these books and others on our sister site Colorín Colorado.

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Warning! Reading Rocket in Orbit

Reading Rockets Door Hanger

Give kids a quiet place to curl up with a good book. Encourage the reading habit with this colorful new door hanger from Reading Rockets. Just download and print. (In English and Spanish)

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Features

Kindergarten Ready?

Being ready for kindergarten means having well-developed preschool skills, and being academically, socially, and physically ready for the transition. Here are some developmental signs to look for.

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Preparing Your Child for Testing

Standardized testing is the norm in many schools this month. How can you help your child to feel ready and relaxed? Look here for commonsense tips.

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Student Grade Retention

In this position statement about student grade retention and social promotion, the National Association of School Psychologists identifies characteristics of students more likely to be retained, the impact of retention at the secondary school level and beyond, and alternatives to retention and social promotion.

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Community

Say Thanks to Your Child's Teacher with an E-Card

Show your appreciation for a great teacher by sending a personalized e-card during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4-10. The animated card features Denise Brunkus' cover illustration from the new picture book written by Laura and Jenna Bush, Read All About It!

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Helping People Communicate

Better Hearing and Speech Month

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month —
an opportunity to raise awareness about communication disorders and effective treatment options. Visit the American Speech Language Hearing Association website to find event resources, a place to share your own stories, and the "Listen to Your Buds" site — which teaches children about safe use of portable audio players (turn down the volume!).

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What's Hot (or Not)?

The International Reading Association (IRA) recently published results of its annual survey on the hottest topics in literacy instruction. Twenty-five literacy leaders — including many university researchers — were asked to review the prior year's survey results and rate each topic as "hot" or "not hot," and then note whether each topic "should be hot" or "should not be hot."

We're curious to know what our readers think is hot, or not. Please take a moment to complete our survey, and feel free to pass it along to a friend or colleague. We'll share the results with you in June.

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Tips & News from Reading Rockets

  • Reading Tips for Parents (Preschool to Grade 3). These one-page parent tip sheets are now available in 11 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Korean, Navajo, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

  • Extra! Extra! — Ed Extras, our free monthly service, offers preschools, elementary schools, and PTOs pre-formatted articles in both English and Spanish to include in parent newsletters. Sign up to receive the May article on the role of fathers in their child's literacy development.

  • Reading Rockets News. Take a look at the current issue of our popular monthly e-newsletter on reading.