Reading Challenge in a Box

Are you tired of reading the same bedtime story night after night after night? While all kids definitely do have their favourite stories, why not make something a bit different to encourage a wider scope of reading? This Reading Challenge in a box is relatively easy to make and you do not need a lot of materials!

What you need:

• A flat box (I used a cookie box)
• Paint
• 12 Empty match boxes
• Coloured paper
• Small toys, Scrapbooking embellishments, Stickers or basic craft items
• Glue

What to do:

Glue a piece of cardboard in the colour of choice on the outside of the lid. Open your box and mark the placements of the windows on the inside of the lid. I measured mine to fit 12 windows. Depending on the size of the box you can make as many windows as you like but make sure your matchboxes will fit.

Cut the windows using a craft knife but take care to not cut through the one side of the window. I made my windows to open in different directions but when I was at the finishing stages of the project, I realized that the project would have looked better overall if the windows opened in one direction only.

Paint the inside of the box and paint the match boxes. Once the paint is dry, close the box, open the windows and mark where you are going to place your objects. Before choosing objects, it might be a good idea to go through your child’s books and get a few ideas from the book titles or covers.

Glue your objects in place or use Prestik if you want to use the same box later on for another reading challenge.

Decorate the outside of your box and tidy edges.

Glue the match boxes to the inside of the windows and write the challenges on a piece of paper. Place the challenges inside the matchboxes.

Here are the challenges I choose:

1. A book about a monster or a book with Red in the title.
2. A book with a girl as the main character.
3. A Book about the Ocean or a fish.
4. A book with a number in the title.
5. A book about Aliens.
6. A book about food or with food in the title.
7. A book about land birds or penguins.
8. A book with a good fairy.
9. A book about bears, bear in the title, a bear as the main character.
10. A book about dinosaurs.
11. A book about African animals or a lion/ giraffe as a character.
12. A book with a boy as the main character.

You can change the challenges and objects as often as you like and have fun adding to titles to your Reading List. You can print a list of all the finished books and have your child place a star rating next to it! At the end of the year, a few new books are excellent rewards for a budding bookworm.

What a fun way to enlarge reading genres with this reading challenge in a box!