Squared Away on a Sunday: Book Raffle Freebie!

Happy Sunday my friends! I wanted to let you know what I've  Squared Away on a Sunday, as we head into a short two day week.  Today it's about sharing a way I've motived my students to increase their AR reading.

Accelerated Reader is new to me this year.  The first ten weeks I didn't do a very good job of keeping up with AR in my classroom.  I didn't know enough about it, and I didn't do a good job of keeping on my kids about reading and taking the AR tests.  This quarter, I'm doing a much better job of keeping track of things.  One way that is motivating my students is doing a Book Raffle.
Basically, I used my extra bonus points from my Scholastic Book order and ordered books that my students were interested in, and talking about.  I created raffle tickets for my students, and throughout the week I give them tickets for having all of their homework, or keeping organized.  Then, at the end of the week (or two, or a few)  I hold a Book Raffle.  This worked PERFECTLY for me at the beginning of the month when the latest Wimpy Kid book came out.  I put two in the raffle because they wanted it SOOO badly!

I do a book talk about each of the books that are in the Raffle, and then I give my students an opportunity to be the first student  to read the book.  They love this!  They are eager to get extra tickets, and are blowing quickly through the books they win.  What I love best is they are TALKING about the books, and they are EXCITED about the the books, and it makes other kids want to pick up the books are read them!  I try to include a new popular book and a graphic novel as well.  The latest raffle included a graphic novel of The Red Pyramid, so between that and The Long Haul, they were really interested in winning.

So far I have done two raffles, and I plan to do another in the early part of December.  Then I'll have to spend a little time over Christmas break building my stash up again.  But I'll take it!  If you are interested in doing a book raffle in your classroom, you can download these FREE BOOK RAFFLE TICKETS to print and use.  Feedback is always appreciated.

I created a colored version as well as a black and white copy if you need to save ink.  Just print them on colored paper, and they will be equally festive!
ENJOY!  and Happy Thanksgiving!!