Book Munchers Book Club: A Color of His Own

The Book Munchers book club discussed Leo Lionni's book A Color of His Own, and then we did some activities. Because the picture book has some misinformation about chameleons, I supplemented our discussion with a nonfiction book about chameleons and we discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

1. Catch a Bug: I gave the kids sticky hands to play with and let them try to "catch" the cards I had set out on the table. Each card had a different item on it, and the kids got to collect the cards that were things chameleons eat (mostly insects) and put back cards that showed things a chameleon would not eat (I generally used large mammals for these, to make it easy to tell apart).

Lesson Learned: Kids like to throw sticky hands at the ceiling. I wasn't bothered by this, but it did take longer to tear down this program at the end as we peeled the hands off the ceiling.

2. Color a Chameleon. The chameleon in the story changes color based on what he's sitting on, so I gave the kids a coloring page with a chameleon on it, and they could color it however they wanted. Some chose to make it like the pictures in the book we read, while others made realistic-looking chameleons.

3. Pony Bead Chameleons: We already have a lot of pony beads at our library, and I was able to find the directions to make a lizard online, so the kids made chameleons out of the beads. The added fun part was that I had UV-reactant beads for them to use, and these beads change color in the sun, so the chameleons they created could change color just like real ones do.

Book Club: A House for Hermit Crab

My younger kids book club read A House for Hermit Crab, and after a discussion, we had two activities to do:

1. Perler Bead Art. Hermit crabs decorate their shells to provide camouflage, and I set out our Perler Beads for the kids to make their own sea creatures or creations of whatever they wanted. I controlled the iron, although I let the kids watch as I ironed their beads to melt them together. This was definitely a popular element, and the parents noted that the kids were very focused on finding the beads they wanted to use.

2. Smell Test. Hermit crabs find their food using scent, so I placed ten cups on the table. Each cup had a coffee filter (with holes punched in it) covering the top with a rubber band, and inside was a cotton ball with some sort of extract or flavoring on it. I used a wide variety of scents, including vanilla extract, lemon juice, pickle juice, ginger, garlic, etc. The kids had a paper to write their guesses on, and I let them check it against my answer key once they were done.

Book Club: Mission Mars and Titanic

Once again my younger book club (5-8 year olds) had two book options: my 4:00 group read a book about the Titanic, and my 6:00 group read Mission: Mars. The sneaky secret here is that these were leftover summer reading prize books, so this program didn't cost the library anything other than my time, and that's also why each group had a different book. I only had ten of each book, and I wanted both groups to read something nonfiction, so we went with both options.

These books were similar in that they are both nonfiction, but the activities for them were fairly different. For each book I had a coloring activity and a science activity.

Titanic: I found coloring pages of the sinking Titanic but decided those were too creepy. Instead, I gave the kids a page with an open suitcase on it and they could add what they would have packed for an ocean voyage.

For our science activity, I reprised my Titanic science club project from the summer: using the materials provided, make a boat that will float in the water and can hold as many rubber rats as possible. Since I already had the buckets and rats, I only needed to set out paper, tape, aluminum foil, and other craft supplies for kids to make their boats.

Mars: For the Mars book, I found a coloring page of the Curiosity, so that was our coloring option. I also set out a large leftover box and allowed kids to decorate that as their rocket to Mars. Kids love playing with cardboard boxes, and I was fortunate to find a leftover box already at work so I didn't have to go searching for one.

Our science project for the Mars book involved creating a small paper rocket that can be launched using a standard straw. I printed the rocket directions on several varieties of colored paper and set that out along with pencils, scissors, tape, and straws.

Neither book required any outside materials beyond what we already keep at the library, and the parents were grateful that I used a nonfiction book since the focus in school is on students understanding nonfiction texts.

Book Club: Savvy

My book club kids read Savvy, and then we met to do some activities. I found discussion questions online, but for the most part this group (9-12 year olds) do just fine discussing the book with only minimal guidance from me.

All of our activities were word related. I found a Savvy word search online and also set out Bananagrams and Upwords. All of these activities were enjoyed by the kids and their families. I've discovered that this older group generally gravitates toward one activity each meeting, usually whatever board game I've put out, while the younger book club kids enjoy having a variety of activities to choose from. The older kids use our activity time as social time, while the younger set tend to enjoy the activities themselves and occasionally find opportunity to socialize with their peers while completing the craft or playing the game.

Book Club: From the Black Lagoon

This month I did something different: each of my book club meetings had a different book. Usually, all of the 5-8 year olds read the same book, but I had enough copies of two different books to run two different clubs: Valentine's Day from the Black Lagoon and Friday the 13th from the Black Lagoon. The activities for each were fairly similar, which made it easier for me to transition between the two groups:

1. Make your own party hat. Each book features a party, so there was a station where kids could craft their own party hats out of construction paper.

2. Write to our flat visitor. I have a Flat Stanley visiting me from Nebraska, so there was a spot for kids to write letters to the student who sent him.

3. Memory Game. I had two versions, one with hearts and heart-related pictures, and one with pictures of lucky and unlucky items. I switched them out depending on the book we were discussing.

4. Penny Cleaning and Penny Toss: This one was a bit of a stretch for the theme, but the kids enjoyed doing the "clean pennies with salt and vinegar" science experiment, then I had an area where they could try doing a penny toss with their clean pennies (which I let them keep).

5. Balloons and hula hoops. I reprised this activity from a previous book club meeting. The kids choose a balloon, inflate it, and try to get it through the hoop their parent is holding. The kids played really well together with this one, coming up with different challenges to do.

And that was it. Nice and simple activities after a short discussion of each book.

Book Club: The Absent Author

My book club kids read Ron Roy's The Absent Author this month, and after discussing the story, we had a few different activities:

Write your own story. Since the book is about an author, it was easy to set out printer paper and construction paper and let the kids make their own books.

Write to the author. We have written to authors during storytime before, so this was a chance for the kids to write to an author of a chapter book instead of a picture book. I noticed that many of the kids chose to write a letter instead of drawing a picture for the author, and yes, I did mail the letters. We'll see if he writes back.

Puzzles. Mysteries are like puzzles, and there aren't many good mystery games for young kids, so I set out a small tabletop puzzle and a floor puzzle with extra-large pieces for them to put together. I watched a group of kids put the floor puzzle together, look at it for a minute, then take it apart and mix up the pieces and try again.

I Spy. This was a way to involve the parents who were at book club and also to use some of our old die cuts we had sitting around in our craft closet. I pinned the die cuts to the wall and left them up as an I Spy game. The nice part about this was that there was no instruction needed - all of the kids had played I Spy before.

Book Club: End of the Year Festivities

We are already well into the new year, but I did have an end of the year party in December for my book clubs. Both the older and younger kids' groups had parties that were very similar.  First, we each brought a book that we enjoyed from the past year. It didn't have to be a book club book. Each child said what book they brought and why they liked it, and I also shared a book I enjoyed.  Next, we voted on the book club books we had read that year. I had printouts of the covers of each book, and each child placed a star on the book they liked best. Finally, I had board games set out for them to play while they enjoyed some healthy snacks.

Each child left with a goody bag filled with a bookmark, a pencil, a glow stick, some erasers and stickers, etc. I asked the parents to fill out a survey about book club so I could make improvements for this year. This was a great, low-key way to celebrate book club and enjoy the busy holiday season without adding yet another complicated program to my to-do list.

Book Club: Anansi the Spider

My book club read and discussed Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott. After our brief discussion, it was time for activities:

1. Weave a spider web. Take a paper plate and cut notches around the edge, then weave yarn through the notches to make a spider web. The kids enjoyed this one once we got the notches cut into their plates, and I liked that the freestyle activity allowed them a lot of creativity.

2. Make a styrofoam spider. I painted some styrofoam balls black, then gave the kids pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and glue. The pipe cleaners stick directly into the styrofoam, and the kids could choose which kind and how many eyes to add to their spiders.

3. Sticky webs. Using masking tape, I made a web inside a door frame with the sticky side of the masking tape facing our auditorium.  I gave the kids small pieces of scrap paper, which they crumpled into "flies" that they threw at the web. The goal was to get your fly caught on the web, and it's a lot harder than it looks!

4. Web walking. I made another masking tape web, this one on the floor and sticky-side down. I threw six "bugs" (really some little squishy balls I found at the dollar store) on the floor, and the kids walked along the web to try and pick up the balls.

What the kids didn't know, and I certainly didn't tell them, is that all of these activities helped them to practice both gross motor and fine motor skills, things kids apparently are lacking now due to not enough free time for playing and crafting and too many pre-cut, pre-fabricated items.

I also set out a display of all the other Anansi stories we had available at the library. By the end of the night, all of the books were gone, so hopefully Anansi will have a new life in our library.

Book Club: The Snowy Day

My book club read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and after a very brief discussion we did some activities:

Animal Match Game: We matched animal names to the tracks they make. This was a good literacy activity in addition to the matching (which I saw several adults doing on their own as well).

Make a Snow Scene: I showed the kids how to cut a white paper in half to make the "snow" part of the scene, then glued it onto a light blue paper that became the "sky." Snowflake stamps and markers allowed them to dress up their snow scene however they wanted.

Fake Snow: This was by far the most popular station. I had two tubs of Insta-Snow (look for it online; it's pretty easy to find) that I set out along with some measuring cups and some large plastic alphabet letters.  The kids played in the snow like they would a sand table - pouring snow, scooping it, even hiding the letters in it for each other. The "snow" is non-toxic, so I didn't have to worry when one of the kids decided to taste the snow. (For the record, he said it did not taste good at all!)

Book Club: Make Way for Ducklings

My Book Munchers read Make Way for Ducklings this month, and we had activities to go with our discussion:

1.  Make a duck mask - These are very similar to the cat mask I used in the cat storytime, and the kids enjoyed decorating their ducks. The use of scissors and a hole punch helped them exercise their small motor control.

2. Draw a scene. I gave the kids papers and let them draw their favorite scene from the book.

3. Fishing for duckies. This was by far the most popular activity. I used string, a dowel, and a magnet to make a "fishing pole," then attached paper clips to duck cutouts and put them in a large bin to be the "pond." The kids spent more time at this activity than any other.

4. Real vs. pretend ducks. I have found that the homeschooling community is a wealth of resources for activities related to classic books, and this was no exception. I found a cut and paste handout containing pictures of real and pretend ducks, and I gave it to the kids so they could practice their scissor skills again and divide the ducks.

Book Club: A Chair For My Mother

I first read - er, listened to - A Chair for My Mother on an episode of Reading Rainbow many, many years ago, so I was glad to have the opportunity to use this book for book club. We talked about the story itself, then it was time for some activities:

1. Decorate a piggy bank. Since the main plot of the story involves saving money for a chair, I brought in old jars and containers and allowed the kids to decorate them to make piggy banks. Not only did this allow me to "upcycle" containers that would have been thrown away, but it was an easy, open-ended craft that the kids all enjoyed.

2. Digging for pennies. This activity cost me $2.00, which yielded ten pennies per book club kid. I buried the pennies in several pounds of rice in a large bowl and allowed the kids to dig. Digging for pennies is a great sensory activity and it gave the kids something to put in their newly decorated piggy banks. [Side note: The rice will be used for science club, so it did not go to waste even after all those little hands dug through it.]

3. Penny toss. This is an activity I recycled from my intern days. I bought two veggie trays from the dollar store and wrote numbers in each of the sections. The kids then tossed their pennies (which they had dug from the rice) onto the trays and added their scores. Not only was this an inexpensive and popular game, but it allowed me to sneak in some practical math practice.

All three of these activities were very popular with my young patrons, and they left book club happily clutching and rattling their penny-filled piggy banks.

Book Club: Skyping with an Author

Last month my 9-12 year old book club kids had a special treat: the author of the book they read offered to speak with them via Skype! I was very excited to give my book clubbers this opportunity. The Skype session took up most of our meeting, so instead of describing what we did, I will offer some author Skype tips:

1. Test all equipment and have a backup plan.  I made sure the computer had completed any necessary updates and knew how to contact the author via other means besides Skype in case Skype decided not to cooperate (Gmail offers a video chat option, which is good for this kind of emergency).
2. Let the kids know in advance.  Not only did this ensure that my kids all came to book club on time, but they also had the opportunity to prepare some questions to ask.  I had a list of standard questions that I was willing to let them borrow, if needed, but most of them had prepared their questions when they read the book.
3. Use a "look here" note.  Kids might be used to using technology, but they are still tempted to look at a screen instead of at a camera when video chatting. I put a sticky note next to the laptop's camera that said "Look here" so they would have a reminder to look at the camera, not at the screen.
4. Prepare a thank-you note. I had a thank-you note ready to go so the kids could sign it after the chat was over. The author was grateful to get the note, and the kids were able to practice gratitude.

Overall, our Skype session went very well. The kids asked some good questions and got some neat information from the author, and I now have a list of all the other authors they would like me to contact for future Skype sessions. This isn't something I can do for every single book club meeting, but it definitely was worth it for an occasional treat. 

Book Club: Bad Kitty

My book club read Bad Kitty this past month. This book was different from our previous books, because it only loosely held a story; most of the book was an alphabet book listing various items Bad Kitty does or does not like to eat, etc.

Nick Bruel has lots of projects and information on his Bad Kitty website, so we used the maze and the "how to draw Bad Kitty" pages from that site. In addition, I put out materials for kids to make their own alphabet books. I also placed colorful paw prints on the floor for kids to follow around. I've discovered that many of my kids enjoy having an active component to book club, so I try to make sure at least one activity involves more movement than craft.