book club

Book Club, Girls’ Edition: “Tuesdays at the Castle”

January 16, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

We read an exciting fantasy book this month called Tuesdays at the Castle. It’s about a castle with feelings that grows and shifts on its own and the potential takeover of the kingdom from other lands when the king and queen go missing. Heirs Rolf, Lilah, and Celie work to find their parents, learn about the castle, and stop the takeover before life as they know it is ruined.

Every Tuesday Castle Glower takes on a life of its own-magically inventing, moving, and even completely getting rid of some of its rooms. Good thing Princess Celie takes the time to map out these never-ending changes. Because when the castle is ambushed and Celie’s parents and oldest brother go missing, it’s up to Celie to protect their home and save their kingdom. A great new series that readers will devour!

We started our time by summarizing and discussing the story. The girls seemed most interested in what kind of castle they would have, or what kind of rooms they would want a castle to make for them, if they had a magical castle like Castle Glower.

We moved from there to talk about the Glower coat of arms and the flag.

After we looked at pictures of real, medieval heraldic symbols, I asked the girls to design their own flag – not necessarily using the strict 14th-century code, but a combination of symbols and colors that were representative of their family. I love how my Big Helper thought her flag needed a bee!

Next, we moved on to designing castles. Since Castle Glower adds and subtracts rooms at will, as well as making life decisions and interacting with the royal family, I asked the girls to think about what special features they might want in their own living castle. They worked together in pairs to come up with a design …

and then they began to build. Because icing can take so long to dry – and because I don’t know how to make the real, official kind of gingerbread icing – we used a combination of hot glue and icing to construct our castles. Each girl brought supplies, and we had enough for each team to have a full box of graham crackers and their own tub of icing.

This was a bigger-than-usual project, and it required a lot of time, so we didn’t cook or bake anything. Instead, because there were graham crackers everywhere, I made a simple chocolate ganache and poured some into dipping cups for each girl. They dipped and licked and snacked (and then washed their hands, because it is flu season, after all) while they were working.

After construction was finished, the girls decorated with an assortment of candy.

In the end, each team designed a completely unique graham-cracker castle. They were interesting sizes, shapes, and made use of different candies. I loved seeing what they came up with!

There was a lot of learning happening here, too – think creative candy uses, structural engineering, and more – so you’ll see another post soon about some of these objectives and how this team carried them out.

I asked the girls to dress like Princess Celie, because Celie is an especially fun princess, and so I had to get a group shot of the royalty.

So that’s how we partied with Tuesdays at the Castle. What are your kids reading this month?

Looking for more? Check out these resources:

Girls’ Book Club: “The Last Holiday Concert”

December 13, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

The girls’ book club met this week, and it was all about Christmas as we talked about Andrew Clements’ The Last Holiday Concert.
It’s a great story about a boy who ends up in charge of his middle school’s holiday concert just as the music teacher is laid off. We had a great discussion about the teacher’s reaction to the news, the way that the teacher motivates his students and is ultimately inspired by them, and then about ways to bring hope and joy to others, since that ended up being the message chosen by the students for their program.

The girls each made brainstormed ideas for things to spread those particular messages around town, and then we chose a few common themes to put into action right away.

We started off with a foam kit for making snowmen. We decided to turn them into Christmas cards, and the girls wrote messages of hope on them. Some were handwritten on the back, while others had foam-sticker messages right on the snowmen’s tummies.

My Big Helper and My Little Man are passing out these cards to people as we’re out and about this month. Grocery store clerks, restaurant wait staff, fellow shoppers – anybody might get a ‘Merry Christmas!” and be handed a snowman. Most people seem pleasantly surprised, and some quite happy, to be handed a card.

The girls also rolled out some gingerbread I had made ahead. They took turns cutting out cookies and ornaments both.

Then they wrapped the bottoms of a few pizza boxes with Christmas paper, a project that turned out to be much harder than expected.

After baking the cookies, they painted them with happy messages in a white icing and filled the trays. We delivered one tray to our local fire department and the other to the library we visit. Both were met with happy smiles.

The gingerbread ornaments were decorated with simple white paint and red ribbons. These, like the snowmen ornaments, we’re passing out to people we meet.

While time didn’t allow for putting together their own concert or Christmas performance, the girls did a great job of choosing activities that would spread hope to the people we meet this season. I wish that we could have passed out their creations together, but time didn’t allow for that, either. Instead, I heard lots of giggles as they learned to roll out the gingerbread, attempted to paint icing only where they wanted it, and tried to get snowman arms to stick only to snowman bodies.

They are many activities that you could do with Andrew Clements’ The Last Holiday Concert, and these are only a few. If you’re a fan of Clements’ and his creative takes on school activities, you’ll love The Last Holiday Concert.

Cast Your Vote for A Kid President!

December 9, 2016 by Amy 5 Comments

This month’s the boy’s book club read Dan Gutman’s The Kid Who Ran for President. It’s a hilarious take on what might happen if a kid ran for president. Throughout the story, the main character, Judson Moon, learns the ins and outs of being a part of a national election. His campaign manager, a fellow student, handles his publicity and teaches Moon about propaganda.

That’s the angle we decided to take for this month’s book choice. After the usual book discussion, we talked about a few advertisement propaganda techniques commonly used by the media. We talked about how things like bandwagon, testimonials, and glittering generalities affect the choices we make each day.

And then things got real. The kids split into groups and nominated candidates. They chose names, so as to remain anonymous online, and began using the propaganda techniques we’d learned to create campaign posters. They also designed their own platforms and a short commercial.

They want to hold their own election – and that’s where you come in. I’m sharing their campaign poster pictures and videos below. We’d be honored if you’d check out their work and comment on the person you’d vote for below. Please consider the names that they chose, their platform, and their enthusiasm when you make your choice.

These are kids, though, so if you comment beyond the name of your choice, please keep it kind.

Choice A: Victor

This is Victor with his campaign manager. You can watch his campaign video here.

Choice B: Ray Price

This is Ray Price with one of his opponents. You can watch his campaign video here.

Choice C: Justin Jay

This is Justin Jay. You can watch his campaign video here.

So who has your vote? Remember to comment with the name of your favorite candidate below by December 15th. Thanks for helping to teach our kids about the election process!

Book Clubbing in the Wild West: Climbing Mountains

November 15, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

I love being able to make hands-on plans for book club. I love that we’re not only about books and discussion but about really getting into the books with all of our senses. That’s why I was so excited for the kids to read Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach this month, and just like Henry and his friends, we climbed a mountain.

On a warm Saturday morning, we met at Hanging Rock State Park in Danbury, North Carolina for a mountain adventure. After quickly discussing the role of the dangerous Superstition Mountain to Henry, we set off.

Although our group set a brisk pace at the beginning, it wasn’t long before we slowed down considerably. While the park service ranks the main Hanging Rock trail as a moderate one, the first half is very steep, and the second half requires climbing up rough, rustic rock steps.

We paused for a picture before heading up those steps. Where were we going, exactly?

We were going to the top of this!

We stopped along the way to play in some neat rock formations. The kids loved climbing into fissures, small craggy areas, and mini caves, then posing for pictures everywhere they went. It was fun to see them enjoying it so much.

After lots more climbing, we made it to the top! We stopped for a picture before scattering to the far corners of the large rock on top of the mountain.

So where were we, really? My husband and My Big Helper ventured out onto Hanging Rock itself, but it was so crowded that they didn’t stay long. They said that it felt too much as if a random elbow-bump could knock one off. Given that, they didn’t hang around. There were other places that were just as pretty ….

Like these huge boulders just around the corner from Hanging Rock itself. Even though we were far away from the edge, this made My Little Man nervous, and he went back to the mountain as soon as we were done. We all enjoyed snacking on the rock and enjoying the views, though.

Though the cliff side of the rocks were not his favorite thing, My Little Man loved the underside of the upper rocks. How strong would one have to be to hold this one up?

Climbing the mountain was a major adventure. It was difficult and exhausting, with a few banged knees and racing pulses. We were tempted to quit and worried about the danger from the uneven ground, 2500-foot drop, and the crowds at the top. We realized, though, like Henry, that blazing a new trail was fun. It made us feel strong. That conquering the mountain made us more observant of the nature around us and the strength within our muscles.

If you’ve never pitted yourself against a mountain, give it a try. You might be surprised at what you’ll learn.

For more mountain-climbing resources, check out these:

Book Clubbing on the Orphan Train: “A Family Apart”

October 18, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

This month’s girls’ book club selection was one I’ve had for years: about twenty years, in fact. We read A Family Apart by Joan Lowry Nixon, the first in the Orphan Train Adventure series.

The story opens in New York City with an Irish family whose father has died. Ma is trying hard to keep everyone fed and clothed, but when one of the boys makes a poor choice, she gives them all to Reverend Brace-Loring, who sends them west on the Orphan Train for new homes and better lives. A Family Apart is about the adventures of Frances, the oldest sister in the family, as she struggles to adjust to life on a Midwestern farm.

Frances encounters an abundance of food not found in her New York tenement, and so we baked one of those dishes: an apple pie. We used Grandma’s recipe and made it just as she taught me – which is how her grandma taught her. Counting back all those years, that puts this recipe originating at about the same time as when Frances enjoyed it!

None of the girls had ever peeled an apple before, so that was our first adventure. It took some practice to get it right, but they soon conquered the piles of apples we needed.

After mixing up the crust, they took turns rolling it out and assembling the pies.

Doesn’t it look yummy?

Next we went outside to write letters to Frances’ Ma. Throughout the book, Frances is angry with her mother for ending her west, and the theme of sacrifice is discussed from many angles. The girls pretended to be Frances at the end of the story, when she has gained some understanding of this difficult concept, and wrote to Ma to explain.

Frances had a lot going on in the story, though, and missing her mother didn’t top the list. She had to learn how to live on the frontier, and for a city girl, that was difficult. One of her new chores was to milk the family cow.

The girls practiced on these gloves. They raced to see who could milk their ‘gloves’ fastest.

Then, since one of the early chores was to then carry the milk, the girls grabbed the handles of their ‘pails’ and ran it around the yard, trying not to spill any of their milk.

We also talked about the Pony Express and how it worked. To simulate that, the girls donned messenger bags, straddled bamboo poles, and formed teams to compete in a relay race, Pony Express style.

By the time they had done all of that, the pies were out of the oven and ready to eat.

It didn’t last long, though – the girls devoured that pie!

We had lots of fun celebrating A Family Apart. There are many more threads to tug if you choose to read this book. I’d love to hear what you choose to do!

Book Clubbing and STEMing with Mr. Lemoncello

September 19, 2016 by Amy 1 Comment

Our book club year has started off with a bang – with Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics! We combined the boys’ and girls’ clubs to interact with this fun Chris Grabenstein bestseller.

We started out by summarizing the book and then discussing the choices made by the characters. After that, we split up into teams of four like in the book. Each team worked together to choose a name and logo, which we then pinned to the back of each teammate’s shirt like the tag on a marathon runner.

Next, the teams worked together to solve the first STEM challenge. I asked them to build something to solve a problem similar to what Mr. Lemoncello tasks the teams with in the book.

The teams were really creative with this project.

The challenges continued after that. We played several games, including the First Lines game, just like in the story. The worked together in teams to complete more STEM challenges and a few other literary ones, too.

The final set of challenges involve water balloons, and the kids loved these!

The challenges don’t have to be done with water balloons, but with temperatures soaring into the ’90s and 12 bouncy kids, we all enjoyed the opportunity to learn with cool water.

These five challenges are based on literary skill and STEM challenges, and you can challenge your students in these same ways.

Share these challenges with your own students!

These challenges are for sale in one packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for only $6. The packet includes printable medals for the winners, a sample schedule, directions for each challenge, and the materials for the First Lines game.

Want to try this? Pin this image to share!

Who will be your Library Lover winner?

Do you still need a copy of the book? Get yours here!

Book Club, Girls’ Edition: “Love, Ruby Lavender”

May 18, 2016 by Amy 3 Comments

When I first read Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles, I knew it would make a great book club pick.

About a young girl dealing with the loss of her father, a busy mother, and her best-friend Grandma who’s away for the summer, it’s full of chickens, zucchini, and adventures with the new girl next door. It’s the most realistic modern story we’ve read in a while, but recreating some of Ruby Lavender’s adventures guaranteed to be fun.

Whenever Ruby Lavender started really missing her grandmother, she’d visit her house and slip into one of her bright pink Hawaiian muu-muus. I decided that we couldn’t really celebrate this story without attempting to make our own.

We started with plain white twin bedsheets cut in half. The girls each ironed theirs and then pinned it in half again to make a basic sheath. We folded raw edges under and sewed them and cut out necklines and stitched those.

While I helped the girls iron, pin, and stitch in turn, the other girls decorated notebooks to use with someone special. In the story, Ruby Lavender hid letters to her grandmother in a knot in a special tree just outside of town, and her grandmother would find the notes and reply. We decided to do the same thing in a special notebook, so the girls collaged, glued, and stickered away to make something unique.

A few of the girls had never used a sewing machine before, and for others it had been a long time. My Big Helper and one other young seamstress did a great job about answering questions and helping their friends get ready to sew while I was busy elsewhere.

After finishing their notebooks, the girls who were waiting for help with their muu-muus moved on to a cooking project. Ruby Lavender’s mother works as a home economist and was challenged with creating new zucchini recipes, so I gave the same project to the girls. One girl decided to chop hers and scramble it with some eggs.

These girls paired up to marinate and grill their zucchini. They made a great team!

My Big Helper decided to saute hers and make her own sauce. She really enjoyed experimenting with ingredients and flavor combinations.

After the muu-muus were completely stitched, the girls painted flower outlines on them with Elmer’s glue. We hung them on a makeshift clothesline in the sun to dry, and then dipped the whole thing into fuschia fabric dye.

The glue acted as a batik and repelled the dye, creating beautiful white flowers on the muu-muus sewn out of t-shirt fabric. The other, slipperier fabric didn’t hold the glue as well, and their muu-muus are more solid in color, but still a pretty pink.

There was a lot happening in this book club event, and it lasted all day! Still, the girls did a great job sewing their muu-muus and creating new recipes. They were careful and responsible, and I heard them discussing the story while they worked.

I love that – when a book makes such an impression that it pulls your attention away from the art project or craft at hand.

Win.

What are your kids reading this week?

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NEW! “Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics” Linked Novel Study

May 4, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

You might remember that we love Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. We loved it so much that we made it a book club pick for both the boys and the girls and we’ve read it over and over.

That’s why we were over the moon excited to find out that Grabenstein wrote a sequel – Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics!

This book is just as exciting as the first one. Grabenstein again layered in history and science among library science and codes and painted the whole thing fun.

There are so many threads to pull, in fact, that I wrote curriculum and extension activities to go with it! You’ll find everything from the typical vocabulary and essay assignments to more creative science, history, and art projects. Also included are printables, cooking projects, and a recipe for Mr. Lemoncello’s favorite drink, Lemonberry Fizz.

The activities in this packet are great for upper elementary and middle school kids, as well as homeschoolers and book clubbers. With nearly 80 pages of projects and a wide range of responses, you’ll find something to suit every learning style here.

You can find out more and download your own copy in my TpT store here. I’d love to know what you think!

What are your kids reading?

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Book Club, Survival Edition: “The Secret Island”

April 28, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

I first heard about The Secret Island by Enid Blyton while eavesdropping in the library.

Awful, right?

I didn’t mean to – but some kids were super excited about a book that they’d read and were happily discussing it with the librarian. They all seemed so in love with it that I knew we had to check it out.

We loved it as much as those other kids did, and so we chose it for April’s book club pick.

The Secret Island was written long ago and is about a group of children who were living with extended family and were all being mistreated. They band together and run away to a small island in the middle of a lake, where the live for six months, building a shelter, earning money, and finding food. While the beginning is sad and the children rather rebellious, there are many opportunities for discussion, and the survival lessons within the book are wonderful.

That’s why we went for survival training for this club meeting. One student’s older brother is a Trail Life-er and volunteered to teach. He did an amazing job! Since someone else was teaching, we had a joint boys-and-girls meeting for this book, and while that definitely upped the ‘crazy’ factor for all of us, the kids had a great time.

After we discussed the book, our young teacher got us started with paracord. He based our meeting on ‘what if we were stranded in the wilderness with only a knife, some paracord, and a survival blanket?’

After learning about the benefits of this cording, we headed out into the woods to simulate being lost. The kids loved this activity. They quickly banded together into groups and looked for materials with which to build shelters.

Some went for a teepee-style structure, which looked pretty easy to build – but where would all these kids sleep?

Others tried to build a more traditional house, with sides and a roof, using the blanket as the roof. (Still another group went lean-to style, but I never was able to get a picture of theirs.)

Upon returning to our house, we returned our attention to paracord. Our leader taught the kids how to make paracord bracelets that they could wear to be prepared in an emergency. It took a little while for the kids to figure out how to make them, but as each one caught on, s/he taught another, well demonstrating the ‘each one teach one’ philosophy. Soon everyone was sporting a camo paracord bracelet!

While we had been doing all of this, a peach cobbler prepared by our teacher had been cooking away in a Dutch oven in the driveway. With only a small amount of time left, he broke out the ice cream and cobbler and we celebrated our new survival skills in a very delicious way.

Our young teacher had other activities planned, as well, that would have taught amazing other skills, but the kids were so enthralled with shelter building and bracelet making that time didn’t allow for any more.

Although a young teenager, our leader did a great job of planning and sharing his skills with our group of kids. Their enthusiasm always keeps me on my toes, and despite the fact that he’s not much older than some of the book clubbers themselves, he was quite professional and was able to answer all of their questions. I love when I see one of our younger ones showing responsibility and dependability, and this young man has it in spades.

Although it’s been several days since the book club event, my kids have been peppering me with questions about what they learned from their survival guide. They’re interested in heading to REI to look at survival equipment and in trying out their new skills.

The Secret Island would be a story great for arcing into an overnight campout, a camping unit, or a mission project to help kids – like the ones in the book – whose at-home conditions are less than ideal.

What sort of survival skills do your kids have?

Check out these survival products to host your own Secret Island-style event:

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How to Host Your Own ‘Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library’ Party

March 15, 2016 by Amy 5 Comments

My Big Helper has been talking about this month’s Chris Grabenstein book club event for weeks. She’s been counting down the days, then the hours, all while bouncing off the walls and carrying her invitation around with her endlessly.

We love Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. There are so many things you can learn from it – but even better are the wacky adventures and myriads of mysteries scattered throughout the pages.

She immediately began planning how we could turn our house into the Alexandriaville Public Library and begged to have an escape game similar the one that Mr. Lemoncello hosted.

So we got to work. I designed labels for Lemonberry Fizz and created a recipe for the drink that Mr. Lemoncello loves to guzzle. I also built the Wonder Dome, decorated the house, and filled in many other book details.

I printed out an anagram game that we could use for a Super Dooper Challenge and planted clues around the house. One of these bonus clues became the prize for the challenge.

Of course, we had to eat, too. Since the main characters attended a fancy gala to celebrate the library’s opening at the beginning of the book, I opted to serve a ‘fancy’ dinner. I made two kinds of fondue and served it with sautéed chicken, steamed veggies, and bread cubes on a color-coordinated table. The girls drank their icy water out of glass goblets and giggled every time they stuck out their pinky fingers.

Dessert had to be fondue, too, since it’s such a fun way to eat – although there are several dessert options in the book. My Big Helper loved the fruit platters and chocolate fondue; judging from the amount of chocolate on the other faces I saw, they liked it, too.

Throughout the course of the event, we played as many Lemoncello games as I could create. I made Indoor-Outdoor Scavenger Hunt cards, and the kids raced around the neighborhood to collect their items first. I created a label for Mr. Lemoncello’s Anagrams (get these labels FREE here!), and the girls raced to see who could make the most words with alphabet cookies. They also played our version of Hurry to the Top of the Heap with Lemoncello trivia.

Eventually, late that night, one team pieced together enough clues to escape the house – and they did so with lots of whooping and hollering and running around in the dark.

Their prize was to choose their parts in the next-day’s commercial. I gave them the task of creating a commercial to ‘sell’ Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library to other kids.

Click here to view a rough copy of their commercial.

I’ve had myriads of technical difficulties in trying to share this. Their commercial plays well on my computer – I had to video that in order to show it to you. I apologize for the issues that remain.

Of course, we ended the party with a birthday cake, and since My Big Helper’s big day is close, we sang to her.

I spent hours designing the games, creating labels, and putting the details of the party together – so I’m happy to share them with you.