Book Club!

We've got a fun new learning adventure! We've joined up with two families to form two book clubs which meet two times each month. We take turns meeting at each other's homes. I lead the older group of five boys. My friend Jen leads the younger group of three girls. And my friend Becky watches the three toddlers during our meetings. We are all enjoying it a bunch!

We began a few weeks ago. Our first task was decorating book bags.

 

 

At our first book club meeting the boys learned about idioms and we read the book, The Last Straw by Frederick H. Thury.

 

We played a fun game.... trying to pile packages on a "camel's" back.

We illustrated and discussed the meaning of various idioms.

The best part of this meeting for me was at the end. I had brought several books of idioms from the library. Even after our meeting time was officially over, the boys sat together enjoying those books.

I just loved seeing them enjoy reading together.

 Here are the idioms that Ray and Adam illustrated:

 We had our second book club meeting this Tuesday.

At the beginning of each meeting, the boys need to share a book that they've read. (Mary -- You'll be happy to know that both of our boys brought your homemade books to share. They were a big hit!)

Before the meeting all of the boys had read Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. They had drawn their favorite scenes and written three sentences about them. We shared those assignments and discussed our opinions of the book. Then we made a story map.

Next, we played a Stone Fox Trivia Game (which I had purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers website). The boys LOVED this... and I can't believe how many details they remembered from the story.

 

Finally, we worked on a craft. In the book, a little boy competes in a dog sled race. So we drew dog sled courses (based on the one described in the book). We used magnets above and below the courses to control the dogsleds and run the race.

For our next meeting, we're reading The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling. This should be a FUN meeting... on Fat Tuesday, two days before Valentine's Day! We'll definitely be eating chocolate!

 

 

While the boys were working on their craft project, I did manage to sneak into the other room and snap one quick shot of the girls. They read Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. They were making snowflake crystals!

 

Our book club meets at 11:00.... so we can get basic school done beforehand and so we can pack our lunches and enjoy eating together. (The little girls keep talking about how they want to go to "real" school so they can pack a lunch and eat with their friends!) Then we have some play time. This week was awesome... the weather was so warm. The kids played soccer in the back yard.

I'm looking forward to our book club adventures through the spring. The main goal: to help our children love reading.