Make a reading challenge for your class, library or family

How to create a reading challenge for students

1. Pick what counts. Books to a finish line (a class goal of eight books in a month), days with reading on them (twenty reading days in March), or the Book Bingo card, a different kind of book on each square.
2. Set the finish line by age. Younger readers get more, shorter books; older readers fewer, longer ones. Peabody's own challenges use about ten, six and four books for a two-week break.
3. Choose the dates and the name. Leave the dates off for a challenge with no end. The name comes from two lists (an Owl Winter Challenge, a Rocket Library Challenge), so nothing typed ever reaches a child's screen.
4. Share it. Copy the link into a class page, a newsletter or a message to families, or print the poster with its QR code for the classroom door or the library desk.
5. Count it together. Print the class wall chart with your challenge's name, or keep the count on the board with the class tally: children show their own count from their tracker's “Show my teacher” screen.

What your readers see

The link opens a page with your challenge's name, dates and finish line, read aloud on a tap, and the tracker. A child picks an animal face (never a name), taps to log each book (a Peabody story at their level, a book from a kids' list or a series, or, with a grown-up's two-second hold, a book from anywhere), and watches the picture fill. They can print their chart and log at any time and the certificate at the finish. It is the same tracker as the Winter Break challenge.

Reading challenge ideas for a classroom, school or library

• A class goal for the month: eight, six or four books by age, with the wall chart on the door.
• Twenty reading days in March: a days challenge from 1 to 31 March, twenty days to the finish.
• Book Bingo over a break: the 25-square card, any dates you like.
• A library summer: books by age from 1 June to 31 August, with the poster at the desk. Peabody's own summer challenge is ready too.
• A family challenge at home: no dates, a finish line each, and the chart on the fridge.

Want paper only? The blank class wall chart and the sign-up sheet print on their own.

What Peabody keeps

Nothing about you or your readers. The link holds the challenge's rules: what counts, the finish lines, the dates, the picture and the two words of its name. The list of challenges you have made is kept in this browser on this device. What a child logs stays on their own device; Peabody counts only that a book was logged in a made challenge, not which one, and never the book, the face or the child.