Dear Friends of Reading to Kids,
As the fifth graders at our partner schools graduate this week, our June reading clubs are this Saturday, and we may have an open volunteer spot for you!
 College Mural at Magnolia Elementary (click above image to see full size)
If you have ever read with us at any of our prior reading clubs
(face-to-face or virtual), please check our homepage at
www.readingtokids.org to see if we have any new open spots for our "Friendship & Fun" virtual reading clubs this Saturday!
(If you are signed up but can't attend after all, please
click here to cancel ASAP or before 3:00 p.m. tomorrow so someone else can take your place!)
We must continue to limit RSVPs for these virtual reading clubs only to returning
volunteers - people who have volunteered with us at least once before
at any of our previous face-to-face or virtual reading clubs. See below for how virtual clubs work.
If you check our website and find all reader spots are full today or tomorrow, please keep checking back so we'll have enough volunteers in case someone had to cancel.
STAND-BY READERS WANTED!
If all spots are full then please let us know at
info@readingtokids.org if you are willing to be a
"stand-by" reader for this Saturday. A "stand-by" reader is someone willing to fill in for any grade at any school if we have any last-second reader cancellations.
Stand-by readers must be available this Saturday morning from 8am to around 11am and willing to read via Zoom to any grade at any school. It's a valuable role!
OPERATIONS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
 Volunteers checking in for our Zoom reading clubs
For our virtual reading clubs we need experienced volunteers to
be a second or third virtual Site Coordinator
in our Zoom reading clubs for any of our schools.
Being a Site Coordinator guarantees you a (non-reading) spot at our next reading clubs, so please e-mail us at
info@readingtokids.org if you can help us create wonderful reading clubs!
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HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WORK
Because LAUSD has not yet determined when volunteer organizations can return to on-campus events, we continue to use Zoom for these virtual reading clubs.
The reading clubs will be hosted by participating teachers at each school
using their school Zoom accounts, but you will need your own Zoom account to
join the reading club. If you don’t already have a Zoom account, you can sign up
for a free, Basic account here:
https://zoom.us/pricing
IMPORTANT:
You will need to use Zoom from a desktop or laptop computer. The phone and
tablet versions of Zoom do not have the necessary features for our virtual
reading clubs.
Ideally, anyone who
volunteers for these virtual reading clubs will be comfortable using
Zoom. If you wish to test out your Zoom connectivity prior to the
reading clubs, we encourage you to email us at
info@readingtokids.org so we may do a brief test run with you before the
virtual reading clubs.
The Friday before the
reading clubs you will receive a link for a Zoom "check-in" session with your
Site Coordinators that will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. that Saturday.
Click here to review the schedule for these virtual reading clubs.
Once you and your fellow
volunteers are checked in, that same Zoom session will have a Zoom Volunteer
Orientation / Virtual Reading Club Training that will start promptly at 9:15
a.m.
At 9:30 a.m. you and your
volunteer partner will leave that Site Coordinator session and then join the
teacher's Zoom session. The teacher will host the Zoom call and make you
co-hosts. The first 30 minutes will be for troubleshooting and a prep session
for just you and your reading partner and the teacher.
The kids will join that
same reading club Zoom session at 10:00 a.m., and it will likely go until 10:30
or 11:00, at the teacher's discretion.
After the reading clubs
end you will then rejoin your Site Coordinator's Zoom call for a brief wrap-up.
To screen share the book
you will be reading with the children, you will need Adobe Acrobat or the free
Adobe Reader from
https://get.adobe.com/reader.
We will provide you a PDF
of the read-aloud book so you can prepare for the reading clubs. You can see the
read-aloud book titles for this month at
https://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksMonth.php.
We will provide at the
above link activities and simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would
prepare to lead the kids in an activity and craft, though you may not actually
do a craft, depending upon how the Zoom session goes. The kids may just want to
talk to new faces!
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HELP US FIND GRANTS!
Did you know Reading to Kids receives about
half of our funding from corporation and foundation
grants? For example, over the last five years alone
six of our volunteers helped us receive $83,000 in
grants from their employers!
Please check to see if your employer offers grants
that Reading to Kids can apply to and let us know at
info@readingtokids.org!
You may help us buy thousands of books for kids!
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