The books we're starting with are from the TX blue bonnet list for 2008; that's a list that all 3rd graders are invited to read and vote on their favorite. They are from the read aloud part of the list because reading out loud can make a book more accessible to different ages (even older--my 10 year old will listen to a book he might not take the time to read). I haven't preread them.
Here's where I'm at with the book club. I think we should choose a book every month, an activity that the kids can prepare and present, and an activity to celebrate.
Last month each boy made a visual aid; then we made the solar system out of cakes and candies.
This month each boy (OK, I DO realize that some women have girls, too... (: ) will choose between acting out a scene and writing an alternate ending. Our celebration activity is going to be puppets. For most months I think it may be best to post the book and activity ideas here and let everyone do them on their own; then post pictures. But for this month, comment with either your address or email and the number of children you have, and I'll send you some basic puppet supplies.
I have another month planned after this. I really love this kind of thing, but I know it's fun for others to choose books and activities, too. So I'll post one plan a month. If you have ideas you'd like to use, let Jess or I know so we can work them into the plan too! And if you have pics of what you've done, email them to Jess or I, and we'll add them in the second post (so 2 posts a month-one to announce plans and one to show how it went).
When the movie (which we did NOT love) came out, we spent all morning making our own Camp Half Blood shirts and creating beads that would mark special things about us or our lives just like the camp necklaces do. Each one picked the part of Greek mythology they most related to in decorating their shirt. Great fun.
Another time we created and decorated swords and then attacked a box-drawn version of Medusa.
Here is our version of Aegis, Thalia's shield (an exact replica of Zeuss' shield, of course).
And here's Thalia's Pine Tree in cake form--complete with dragon and Golden Fleece.
We decided to learn about "how to"s today, so we talked about the important parts of a how to guide, including having all the steps, telling what materials are required, and having the steps in the right order.
Then we used 2 different how to guides for making play dough and talked about which was better and why. Finally, we used the dough to create dragons to take home.
And here is my big helper. I love having one all the time as these boys get older!
We absolutely love our book club. We started 2 weeks ago with "Down, Down, Down," a book from the Texas Blue Bonnet Award list. We read the book together at our meeting and learned tons about the ocean, especially about the zones. Then we made our very own oceans using what we learned: blue-food-colored honey representing the midnight zone, water for the twilight zone, and oil for the sunlight zone. Each child prepped their favorite creatures from each zone to tape on their ocean. Some of the boys completed their projects by adding lego submarines. Note: the kids love shaking the bottles and watching the ingredients settle out, but this doesn't work as well with the honey and water--they eventually combine and don't separate again.
