How It Works
Learning With Lucky® Program
Our program is designed to motivate young students to enjoy reading. While we designed this program for first graders, our program can be used in any classroom. By combining a reading companion along with goals and achievements, students associate reading with something fun. Their progress is tracked and rewarded, giving them a sense of accomplishment, which ultimately nurtures and fuels a joy for reading.
APPLY
Add any requirements, information, etc.
APPLY
While our program was designed for first graders, it can work well in any classroom, for any language and all levels of reading proficiency. Your first step to bringing Learning With Lucky into your school is to fill out our application form. This will give you an idea for how much money to raise.
Don't let the cost stop you from signing up! Our goal is for this program to be FREE to you by helping you find sponsors to cover our cost. We know of several foundations to assist with funding and will be happy to get you in touch with them. In addition, many schools have great success reaching out to their local communities:
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Parent-Teacher Organization/Associations
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Retired teachers
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Sororities / Fraternities
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Local businesses (e.g. banks, car dealerships, insurance companies, etc.)
MEET YOUR PUP!
Always a fun day! Plan to surprise your students with their new pup (and plan to hear lots of excited squeals). Invite your Principal, counselor, librarian, nurse, etc. to join this special day!
Successful readers read frequently, and now your students have a reading buddy! Plan to set aside time for your students to read to their pups several times a week.
One of the keys to our program is to make reading time special. Reading to their new pup gives kids that special something to look forward to. Towards that end, pups should stay at school. Throughout the year, there may be special occasions and rewards (of your choice) that allow students to interact with their pup outside of reading time.
REWARD
Our goal is to make reading fun and successful! A reward system gives students not only goals (and rewards) to look forward to but a sense of pride and accomplishment when they look back at what they've achieved.
MATERIALS
Your Learning With Lucky package comes with everything you need to keep your students engaged and reading throughout the year!
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30 Stuffed Pups
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30 Pup Collars
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30 Book Logs
- 3000 Book Log Stickers
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30 Window Stickers
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30 Parent/Volunteer Letters
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Program Book
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Program Poster
A central component of our program is the Book Log. Each student should be given a Book Log to track their reading progress. Achievements are tracked with the provided stickers (or stamps if you run out) in the Book Log.
EARNING STICKERS
You can customize the reward program to your individual classroom. To suit the wide range of readers you may have in your class, you can choose when and how students earn stickers for their Book Log. This may look different for your readers. Stickers can be earned through a variety of reading activities - completing a book, sharing a book with the classroom or volunteers (e.g. local community members), completing a chapter book, reading a book at home just for fun, etc.
REWARDS
Set up up reading goals and matching rewards to provide that little bit of extra incentive to encourage your young readers to continue achieving. Again, this can be completely customized for your classroom, but below is an example:
3 books - Name your pup!
3 more books - Earn a collar for your pup!
3 more books - Earn a pup blanket! (polar fleece is great)
4 more books - Earn a pup tag or charm for your pup's collar!
5 more books - Earn a check-up for your pup with the school nurse!
5 more books - Earn a pup sleep over. Take your pup home for the night!
The ideas are endless and completely up to you! You can include your Principal, fire department, police department, nurse, sponsors, etc!
We encourage teachers to share with us what you've tried -- what works, what doesn't work. We want to improve our program and support all our teachers.
CELEBRATE!
Celebrations can take place in your school throughout the year. Earning rewards through reading achievements is fun, but there can be random (or planned) celebrations as well. Some ideas include:
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Pups and Pillows in the Hall. Take your pup, bring a pillow and read in the hall. Invite your whole school to join you.
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Take Your Pup to Lunch Day
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Pups on the Desk Day
Of course, the most exciting day of all is the last day of school for so many reasons. Now you can include taking home your pup as a celebration!
