PEEPING BOOK CLUB

So, I've been sitting here, catching up on my DVR homework (I call it homework because my husband and I share a DVR...my trash shows fill it up quickly and in order to keep him happy, I must do my nightly watching while I search the internet). I have been looking at other teacher's blogs and I'm...jealous. I have no children, but I can't find the time to blog like I would like to. I learn amazing things every day, do amazing things every day, have amazing stories to tell every day...yet, nope....not time to blog. Hmmmmm. I'm really going to try and work on that.

On to what this blog is really about...

My school does a bookclub for 3rd through 5th grade families once a month. My fellow fifth grade teachers and I run the fifth grade book club.  We just finished up the book Waiting for Normal, by Leslie Connor.  AMAZING BOOK!  It's about a little girl named Addie who has, in my eyes, a terrible mother.  It goes through this little girl's trials and tribulations.  I don't really want to give much of the book away because you truly have to read it yourself.  It's definitely an adult and kid friendly book.  This book renders  a lot of discussion, but depending upon your "clientele" this may really hit home with some kids.  Sad to think that there are kids out there that go through what Addie has to go through, but in real life...some go through even worse.  This book really brought our families together.

We like to have our families do some sort of project type activity when we finish, just like we have the kids do in school.  This time, Mrs. Efird, came up with the idea to do a brown bag project.  In Waiting for Normal, the author continuously refers to Addie's brown paper bag suitcase.  We gave each family a brown paper bag and had them create a new cover for the book on the front; they were to decorate the rest with scenes from the book, characters, symbols, etc.  Then they were to look around the room and "pack" their bag with what they think Addie would take with her.  At the end, each kid presented their bag.  We had a blast.  Here are some of the bags.  

Cute, eh? Sooooo....we finished up with Waiting for Normal and we're moving on to Phantom Tollboth, by Norton Juster.  It was one of my favorite books growing up.  I'm pretty excited about reading it again.  I only hope it is as good as I remember.  Our families will have read through page 127 of the book by the next time we meet.  Kicker:  We're meeting the night before our writing Standards of Learning test.  We need things to be fun and light.  So, for our next Book Club in March we've decided to do a "SWEET" project! Have you ever seen the "Peeps Show" that the Washington Post puts on every year?  Peep! Peep! Peep!
 

We're going to create our own Peeps Show with dioramas of scenes from the book. We're going to let them get started that night and take them home to finish.   I can't wait to see what they come up with!!



Read on, Peeps.  LOL