Cam Jansen and the Pizza Shop Mystery

Today - I completely forgot about book club!
(The day after the 4th of July- not a good idea to plan a book club the day after.)
Luckily I had told them to come for lunch- so we were awake.

But this was a good experience for me- and just goes to prove- book clubs don't need to require a lot of prep time!

While boys came- I quickly looked up a simple pizza dough recipe on line.

I let them play with lego's until everyone arrived.
I grabbed a memory/match game from our game closet and only picked 12 matching pairs. (To keep the game short and sweet.)

Once boys were all here. We talked about the book. Who is the main character? (Cam)
What was the setting of the book? (the pizza shop or mall.)
What was special about Cam? (She has a photographic memory.)
What was the conflict of the story? (she lost her jacket/ someone stole her jacket)
How was it resolved? (She used her photographic memory to solve the problem.)

I was really impressed- I tossed those literary words out (setting, conflict, resolution) expecting to have to define those words- but they already knew! These first graders are smart!

We played the memory match game.
After one game, I asked if we should play again- my son said, "NO I want to do the book club games!"  (uh... hate to tell you son... these are the book club games!)

So- we cut that game short and ....

I had boys WASH HANDS as I gathered the ingredients for the pizza!

I doubled the recipe for 6 boys to have their own personal pan- we had plenty!

So I think if I were to use again. I would follow these measurements.
Set oven temperature to 425 degrees

1 pkg yeast
1cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 T olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt. (I omitted.)

The boys helped measure- pour-stir all the ingredients.

I put a dot of oil in each of their hands and let them work and shape their own pizza dough. (I rolled each dough ball in flour first- so it wasn't too sticky.)

Cook for 15-20 min.

Which is perfect to play another memory game!

I grabbed a plate and gathered a few items from our kitchen junk drawer. (I knew that would come in handy one day!)

I had the boys study the plate of random items.

Then I asked one boy to leave the room. Then I had 3 boys pick an item each off the tray.
The boy comes back to our circle and guesses the three missing items.
(I was surprised at how hard this was for them! We gave them clues and hints to help.)
After each boy had a turn- it was time to eat pizza!

While we ate pizza and soda (left over from our 4th of July celebrations) I brought out our next book club books.

I have found it is so important to pass out the books instead of relying on parents to find the books at the library or book store. Especially for reluctant readers- getting the book right away, keeps their momentum going.
(This is my second time hosting this book club- so I already had the copies of books to pass out. If you have multiple children, you might consider doing the same. It really cuts the cost down! I bought the books once, but have used it twice!)

Short- Simple- and fun!
This book club wasn't as physical- their was no "get your wiggles out" activity- but I think varied activities- keeps the book club fun.