A good book. A new friend. A lasting memory.
A long-standing literacy project that connects first graders with reading, horses, and their local rodeo, and a playbook any community can repeat.
Bring Books & Broncs to your community.
The Homestead Rodeo Association has invited South Florida first graders into the Books & Broncs Literacy Project for years and years. The project is meant to educate children in the community about a sport that is much more popular than what one initially thinks: the Homestead Rodeo happens every year right under their noses. Through reading the book and attending the literacy day at the rodeo grounds right before rodeo, kids gain insight into a whole new world, the rodeo’s events and general knowledge about horses.
The South Florida Trail Riders works closely with the Homestead Rodeo Association to make the project happen every year. It is an experience many children come away from cherishing.
Everything here is shared so schools, rodeo associations, and riding clubs in other places can run the same project. The book and lessons are free.
- Runs every year, before the January rodeo
- Free book, PowerPoint, and lesson downloads
- Works with any local horse, rodeo, or riding group
Nine steps to run the project anywhere.
- 1
Choose your schools and name a principal for the project
Decide which schools you want to invite, then pick a principal for the project, one at each school who can tell you how many first graders they can handle. Two schools together, for example, might bring 300–400 first graders. Their number sets the size of your book, bus, and sponsorship ask.
- 2
Pick your local event and your book
Start with a community event children may not know about, for us, the Homestead Rodeo, held every January. Let’s Rodeo! is a free nonfiction book about a traditional PRCA rodeo that anyone can download and use.
- 3
Build your partner team
The Homestead Rodeo Association, the South Florida Trail Riders, and the Homestead Everglades Posse drill team bring the horses, handlers, and arena. Look for the horse and rodeo groups in your own area.
- 4
Find sponsors
Sponsorship pays for books, buses, teacher curriculum, horse visits, and free rodeo tickets. In 2015 the school visit cost about $2.50 per child, plus about $4.00 per child for the bus to Kids Day.
- 5
Recruit volunteers
Teachers write first-grade lessons for the book, horse handlers bring their own horses to schools, and support volunteers run the Kids Day activity stations.
- 6
The First Encounter at school
Horses and handlers visit each participating school. First graders meet the horses and receive their own copy of Let’s Rodeo! for their first reading, a book they get to take home.
- 7
Read it again in the classroom
Read the book once purely for enjoyment, then use the free Close Listening/Close Reading lesson and the color PowerPoint to reread for deeper understanding.
- 8
Kids Day at the arena
Students ride a bus to the rodeo arena and rotate from station to station to experience horse-related activities, even reading their favorite page of the book to a horse.
- 9
Rodeo day, then repeat next year
Each child gets a free rodeo ticket and a head full of memories. The project has run for years and is designed to be repeated every season with a new class of first graders.
Free downloads for teachers.
The book first graders receive at the First Encounter. Anyone not participating in the project can download it free. ©2015, Taylor Pearce.
The first time you read Let’s Rodeo! with your students, read it purely for enjoyment from beginning to end. Then use the Close Listening/Close Reading lesson to reread for a deeper understanding. It has so many educational opportunities, it will be read again and again!
Sponsor the project so a child can participate.
Your generous sponsorship helps fund the following for one or more children in the Homestead/Miami-Dade area:
- Horses visiting a child at their OWN school for a first meeting & first reading
- A copy of Let’s Rodeo! to learn about rodeo events
- Curriculum for the teacher to use with the book
- A round-trip bus to the arena for Kids Day
- A FREE ticket to attend the rodeo
- A head FULL of memories to smile about
The more you sponsor, the more students can take part. No amount is too small.
Sponsor or volunteerVolunteers are always needed.
- Teachers to write lesson plans that support instruction with the book, so children understand what they will see when they come to the rodeo
- Horse handlers to transport their own horses to schools for the students’ first experience
- Support volunteers for the Kids Day event, when students come to the arena to visit a rotation of horse-related activities
Teachers NEEDED! We are looking for lessons targeting first grade students, aligned to the LAFS Standards, supporting the strands for Reading Literature, Foundational Skills, Listening & Speaking, Writing, and Language. Anyone interested can contact Dawn Southern Pearce at southerninstructionalsolution@gmail.com.
Visit the arena.
Homestead Rodeo Arena, 1034 NE 8th Street, Homestead, FL 33030