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Coastin’ into Family Literacy Night: Amusement Park Theme Family Night!

Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
Are you planning your first family literacy night and you’re feeling overwhelmed?Or maybe you’re planning your fifteenth family literacy night and you’re tired of doing the same thing, year after year!
Either way, this post is for you. I’ve got some fresh, fun ideas that will help you spice up your event and help your faculty, students, and their families have a special night full of literacy memories!
The theme of my latest Family Literacy Night? An amusement park!
Amusement parks (or theme parks) have it all: excitement, suspense, terror, and lots of family bonding…just like a good book!
You can grab the free planning guide t the bottom of this post!

Planning a Family Night Event
 

When I plan a family event, I start with a theme and I try to build in these types of activities all around that theme:
  • parents and kids reading trade books
  • reading a partner play
  • making a food craft by following directions (sometimes with a writing response)
  • creative writing
  • something fun to build or craft
  • listen to a read aloud and write a response
  • build a word work game to play and take home
  • play a hands-on word work game

Sometimes this varies, but that’s the general structure!

To get organized, I use a four-square planner: Need to Do, Need to Buy, Need to Copy, Need to Email. This helps me sort out the tons of tasks that have to be done and keeps me from going nuts… for the most part.
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
I send out the flyers to parents about two weeks before the event, have it announced over the loudspeaker and on the marquis, and then I often send out a half-sheet reminder the day before.
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
To encourage kids to visit several stations before they leave, I create a punch card. They get a hole punch at each station, and after they’ve completed four stations, they can turn in the punch card to get a free dress pass! Free homework passes work, too. (I mean, I’d go to a family night to get a free homework pass, and I’m a grown woman.)
Students and parents also complete a reading pledge. These are displayed in the hallway to remind students of their promise! For this family night, I decided to do a fun flag bunting for the reading pledges!

Family Literacy Night Activities

Here are the eight fun stations for this family night that help kids and parents share reading and writing experiences! Each station has a large table with a cheerful tablecloth and the directions for that station. A pair of teachers is stationed there with the materials families need to do the activity!

Family Literacy Night Activity #1. Read Around the Carousel

Students read books from different genres by moving from carousel horse to carousel horse. You can choose to have them record the titles they read or not!

Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #2. Bumper Cars

I can guarantee that this is one of the most memorable stations. Kids use candy to build a tiny bumper car by following printed directions.Everything is edible, so when they’re done, they can eat their tiny candy creation (which is really all they’re concerned about). Then they brainstorm onomatopoeia to fill out a response sheet!Families always have fun doing this sort of an activity; it brings out the best ideas from the parents!

Family Literacy Night Activity #3: Balloon Pop!

Students build a fun compound words game to play with their parents. They can take it home, too, and play it again!
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #4. All Around the Park

Kids write a short story about visiting an amusement park. They write each event on a different strip and use it to build a sequential chain of events!
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #5. Snapshots Roller Coaster

In this station, students listen to Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee and create three snapshots of them riding a roller coaster: in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. Then they write about the way they felt at each point.

Get the book here: Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee

Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #6. The Concession Stand

For this activity, students draw a card from a bag full of concession stand snacks. They use that snack to create a graphic organizer full of related words.
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #7. Up and Over the Coaster

Possibly my favorite station: kids and parents read a fun partner play together about riding a roller coaster! I find it best to provide two different levels of difficulty for different levels of readers.
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities

Family Literacy Night Activity #8. Duck Pond!

Ok, maybe this is my favorite station. It’s so much fun to watch kids play hands-on word games! There are two different versions for different levels of difficulty.
In the primary version, kids match rhyming words.
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
In the upper elementary version, they match synonyms!
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
Get Help Planning Your EventAre you planning a family literacy night?
Looking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivities
 
Want to get the complete, ready-made resource? You can find my entire Coastin’ into Family Literacy Night resource on TpT!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Amusement-Park-FamaLooking for ideas for a family literacy night? Check out these eight amusement park themed stations complete with the materials you need for hands-on activities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking! There’s even a make-and-take word game activity, a partner play, writing activities, a fun food craft, and even more fun ways for parents and kids to interact around literacy. An editable flyer to invite parents to the event plus other editable materials are included! #familyliteracynight #familyliteracyactivitiesily-Literacy-Night-editable-4317019
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