Reading empowers students to improve their vocabulary, develop critical thinking skills, and learn how to empathize with others. While your school should encourage students to read year-round, Read Across America presents the perfect opportunity to celebrate the powerful role reading plays in your community and beyond.
Every March, schools across the country participate in this annual event. It’s a chance to host activities that inspire students to become active readers while also bringing your whole community closer together.
In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of the Read Across America program and explore popular ideas to create engaging experiences your students will remember for years.
Read Across America: FAQs
Before we jump into all the ways your school can celebrate Read Across America, let’s walk through a few frequently asked questions you might have:
What is Read Across America?
The National Education Association (NEA) created Read Across America to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, using it as a springboard to celebrate the joys of reading. Since the first Read Across America Day in 1998, the program has expanded to become a week-long event. Starting March 2nd, participating schools are invited to provide various challenges and activities that encourage students to read.
Thanks to this event, March is also National Reading Month. This means your school can host Read Across America activities all month long to foster a love of reading among young students.
Why is Read Across America important?
With an estimated 45 million participants across the country, Read Across America provides a host of benefits for everyone involved by:
- Encouraging a love of reading. Reading is an invaluable skill for success in school and life. By promoting and encouraging a love of reading, Read Across America helps instill this core competency in children at a young age.
- Improving literacy rates. By promoting reading and encouraging children to read more, Read Across America helps combat declining literacy rates.
- Promoting cultural awareness. Dr. Seuss's books are known for their fun, imaginative stories that often feature themes of diversity and cultural awareness. By reading these and other books through Read Across America activities, children can learn about different cultures and broaden their understanding of the world.
- Building community. Read Across America events often take place in schools, libraries, and other community spaces, bringing people together to celebrate reading and literacy.
To harness these benefits, your school should prepare activities that appeal to all of your students, regardless of their relationship with reading.
How do you celebrate Read Across America?
Every school celebrates Read Across America in its own way. Some might designate a few minutes of class time for reading, while others plan an exciting week of class vs. class reading challenges, live book readings, and school fundraising campaigns.
Of course, not every school has the resources to go all out during Read Across America. However, any institution—from small preschool programs to bustling middle schools—can level up its Read Across America plans with Read-A-Thon's simple, easy-to-use, and incredibly lucrative fundraising platform.
Where can I find Read Across America resources?
The NEA’s official website is full of resources for launching Read Across America activities, including:
- More information about Read Across America
- Book recommendations for all ages
- Access to free books
- Tips for engaging student readers
- Ideas to support reading all year long
Additionally, to help students track their reading or even turn your school’s Read Across America week into a fundraiser, look for fundraising software like Read-A-Thon.
What Read Across America activities can my school host?
The more creative and engaging your Read Across America activities are, the more you’ll encourage students to start reading! To inspire your students, we’ve put together a list of activity ideas, starting with one that can help your school fundraise at the same time: Read-A-Thons.
Read-A-Thons: The Most Popular Read Across America Activity
Since Read Across America Week already focuses on reading, a Read-A-Thon is the perfect fundraising idea to incorporate. During the event, students will log as many minutes of reading as they can, while their friends and family make donations to cheer them on.
Don’t worry about the potential stress of hosting a fundraiser on top of Read Across America week. Read-A-Thons are low-cost and don’t require a lot of support, enabling you to focus on educating your students on the joys of reading.
To streamline your Read-A-Thon further, our Read-A-Thon software solution comes with all the tools you need to track participation and spread the word about your fundraiser, including:
- Customizable donation pages for students
- Free digital and pre-printed flyers
- Real-time fundraising progress reports
To incentivize student participation, either create your own prize model or access Read-A-Thon’s online prize store, making hosting your fundraiser even easier for your school.
How to Start a Read Across America Read-A-Thon
Planning engaging Read Across America ideas will likely consume most of your team’s time. Fortunately, hosting a Read-A-Thon is simple and only takes a few steps to get started:
- Sign up for a free Read-A-Thon account.
- Use Read-A-Thon’s free marketing tools and materials to promote your fundraiser.
- Monitor minutes read and donations earned on the Read-A-Thon dashboard.
Throughout your Read-A-Thon, share updates to encourage students to continue reading and fundraising. Whether you’re an elementary school, a PTO group, or a library, Read-A-Thons are designed to be as easy as possible to get up and running.
Additional Read Across America Ideas for Fundraising
While Read-A-Thons are the leading choice for Read Across America fundraising, there are several other fundraisers your school can also run:
- Book fundraiser. For increased accessibility, these can take place online and include a variety of books and activities.
- Donations. Directly ask your community for donations to support your Read Across America activities, either through online fundraising platforms, mail-in donations, or in-person solicitations.
- Merchandise sales. Sell merchandise related to Read Across America or reading in general, such as t-shirts, backpacks, book lights, tote bags, and e-reader accessories.
- Book drives. Collect donations of new or gently used books for your school or library to sell secondhand during its Read Across America events.
- Sponsorships. Collaborate with local businesses or community organizations to fund your school’s Read Across America activities. In return for financial support, give sponsors naming rights for events and advertising opportunities in your promotional materials.
Regardless of which Read Across America fundraiser you choose, your activities should inspire families and community members to get involved. When planning your event, never lose sight of your ultimate goal this March: to develop a lifelong love of reading and learning among your young students.
10+ Read Across America Ideas to Boost Participation
Read Across America is a time to think outside the box and engage students in reading. To level up your school’s efforts, consider these ideas:
Class vs. class competitions
Start a friendly reading competition among your classes. Award top-performing classes with a pizza party, special trophy, or other prize.
Social media reading challenges
Social media is a powerful marketing channel for Read Across America. Create reading challenge days throughout March featuring special hashtags students can use, such as a #FairytaleFriday for reading fantasy storybooks.
Guest readers
Make reading more exciting by inviting guest speakers such as local athletes, authors, or television personalities to read to your classes. If your school doesn’t have any local celebrity connections, high school drama students who can put on a good performance will do in a pinch.
Book scavenger hunt
Challenge students to find books from home or the local library that meet certain criteria. For instance, you might have a "Tales from Another World" day where students present stories about different cultures, countries, planets, or even worlds to their class and discuss what they learned.
Costume party
Help students feel more immersed in the stories they read by having them dress up as their favorite book characters. They can take turns presenting their character and the story they’re from to the class.
Buddy reading
Pair an older student with someone from a younger grade for a buddy reading session. Doing so can help the older student gain confidence reading aloud, while younger students can find a reading role model to look up to.
Bookmarks
Having an eye-catching, handmade bookmark can be an added incentive for students to pick up a book and keep reading. Hold a craft session in class with lots of cardstock, markers, ribbons, and stickers for decorating.
Creative reading challenges
Are your students not sure what to start reading? Inspire them by issuing a reading challenge that includes a list of specific books to choose from. For example, you might challenge them to read a book set in every state, books with titles A-Z, or books from authors in different countries.
For suggestions, check out Read Across America’s 2025-2026 reading calendar!
Assign book reviews
Encourage students to talk about books in a fun and casual way by asking them to review the books they read. These shouldn’t be stressful book reports, but easy, informal assessments like you might find on an online review site like Goodreads. Encourage kids to give their frank opinions, give books a star rating, and let them know there are no wrong answers for this assignment!
Book swap
Help students build their at-home libraries by hosting a book swap. Participating students will bring a book to exchange, so everyone can take home a brand-new book. You might put all the books out on a table for students to browse and choose from, or hide them in gift baskets and wrapping paper to add a touch of mystery.
Host a reading raffle.
Encourage students to read as many books as possible by awarding them prize tickets for reading a certain number of books or pages based on their grade level. For instance, first graders might earn a ticket for reading 5 pages, while fourth graders are challenged to read 20 pages. Students can then put their tickets into a drawing to earn a prize.
Get as creative as you can to keep students interested throughout the week. Make note of which ideas are especially popular, to help plan your Read Across America activities for next year.
Wrapping Up: The Impact of Read Across America
Read Across America is not just a time to embrace reading and storytelling, but a chance to invest in the success of your school’s students. By hosting a Read-A-Thon and other activities that bring your whole community together to celebrate the life-changing impact of reading, you can boost academic performance and raise funds for your school.
To learn about more fundraising ideas that capture the spirit of learning for your students, check out these additional resources:
- 55+ Smart School Fundraising Ideas for Any Occasion. Find the perfect fundraising ideas for your school, no matter your size or the time of year, by exploring this comprehensive list.
- Online Fundraising For Schools: 11 Ideas + Tools For Success. Learn how your school can boost engagement and raise more funds by launching online fundraisers.
- 10+ PTA Fundraising Ideas Your School Community Will Love. Keep your PTA fundraising ideas fresh by reading through this guide.
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