Get ready to celebrate with this Read Across America paper crown craft! This simple and fun, low-prep activity is the perfect way to kick off the NEA’s Read Across America Day.

March 2nd is a BIG day in education – it’s Read Across America! On this day, we celebrate books, reading, and those little READERS in your own classroom, library, or home. One way to do so is with fun activities like this one. And if you’d like to read about more crafts and activities for celebrating the holiday in the classroom, check out my post with amazing Read Across America activity ideas.

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Read Across America Paper Crowns Craft

There are many ways to celebrate Read Across America Day in your classroom. In fact, many schools dedicate this entire day to reading! How awesome is that?! These super simple paper crowns are a fun way to start the day, and I promise your little readers will be thrilled to wear them around school and show them off at home.

8 Different Paper Crown Templates

There are eight different paper crown templates to choose from. Students can customize their paper crown to their liking with their name, favorite book, and more! Each crown has a different theme:

• Reading Queen and King
• Reading Royalty
• My Favorite Book
• I Love to Read!
• Book Showcase (title, author, summary)
• _______ Loves to Read!
• Ask Me About My Favorite Book

Materials Needed

This is a low-prep activity. Besides printing the included templates and providing your students with the necessary materials, there is little else to do! Keep in mind, your students may need some help sizing and securing the paper crowns to their heads, but other than that it’s an independent activity – something every teacher loves!

Here are the materials you’ll need for this project:

• Printer
• Plain or colored cardstock
• Markers
• Self-adhesive jewel stickers (optional)

How to Set Up

I recommend allowing one whole class time for this low-prep activity. 

To prepare, you simply need to print the crowns and gather the supplies. Cardstock works best for this craft. You can print them on white cardstock and let your students draw and color in the designs, or you can print on colored cardstock (yellow is a popular color). Students can still color in the designs, or just use the self-adhesive gem stickers to decorate their crowns.

Ways to Extend the Learning

You can enhance the celebration, extend the learning, and motivate students to take pride in literacy with these additional ideas:

• Allow your students to wear the crowns all day long (with administrator approval, of course). 
• Make the crowns conversation starters and give your students time to ask each other questions about their favorite books. 
• Have your students bring in copies of their favorite books on this day and ask them to give a brief presentation (while wearing their completed crowns) about their book of choice. Be sure to have a few extra books in class that the students can choose from in case they don’t have access to books at home.
• Organize a book swap and allow students to bring in and swap books for one week.
• End your class time with a trip to your school library (wearing the crowns) and give your students time to check out a new (to them) book.

Other Literacy Crafts to Celebrate Read Across America

Good news! There are plenty of other fun ways to enjoy this special holiday, too! For example, you may enjoy these Dr. Seuss character-inspired crafts from Simple Everyday Mom.

And you can get more ideas from my post on free reading activities to use with picture books. Here are some snapshots of the printable activities available in my products:

And I think you will love these creative, colorful, and amazing Read Across America activity ideas:

I hope you’ve found some new ways to celebrate Read Across America with your students. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter using the form below and grab the reading freebie, too!