Weird School Series by Dan Gutman

Miss Daisy is Crazy! Is the first book in this funny series. The book are short (great for reluctant readers and also "beginning to read independently" readers.)

This series is about a boy AJ who hates school. Miss Daisy is Crazy! starts at the first day of second grade. (How perfect is that!? My little guy is starting second grade in two weeks!) AJ meets his teacher (who he thinks is crazy) because she doesn't know anything, she has to have the class teach HER how to add and subtract. The kids in the class promise not to tell the principal, they don't want to get her fired- but they (day-after-day) try to teach her the lessons she is suppose to be "teaching" them. (wink-wink).




Each book in this series- highlights another wacky school character. The Principal is highlighted in Mr. Klutz is Nuts, The Lunch Lady: Ms LaGrange is Strange, etc. I had two copies of book one- so our two second-graders got to read that book. (I hope it inspires them to read more in the series.)

What better book club activity- than WALK TO SCHOOL! As we walked, we talked about the safest route to school. (Using the sidewalks and crossing only at the cross walk.)

 

I let them play on the swings and play ground. They were so excited as they broke all kinds of school play ground rules. (Like running up the slide! Such rebels!) I was just letting them goof- off. But we talked about school rules- and why they were important.

(To keep everyone safe. Ensure no one got hurt.)

 

 

They were pretty hot and sweaty- when I suggested we take a break and have a snack.

We ate "school lunch snacks" and  each boy reported to the club- what his book was about. (Which character and what was "weird" about them.)

 

The boys were sad, this was our last book club.

I wont lie- I was happy they asked if we could continue during the school year!

I told them, we would see- if everyone had time- once school starts.

 

It was a great end- to a summer book club.

 

Dragons by Lucille Penner

My seven year old son has two complaints about his book club.
First grumble, he is so bummed that I couldn't find the Dragon flyer's I have used in the past for this book. (Oriental Trading wasn't selling them anymore.)

Second complaint, and I quote "book club is never LONG enough!"

I think book club is "just right"- have fun and then out the door. It keeps them wanting to come back week after week to book club. If book club d-r-a-g-g-e-d on... no one would want to be apart of it!

Since I couldn't fall back on past book club ideas for today's book club- I looked high and low for ideas. I was so glad I found this creative idea: Dinosaur Teeth necklaces. I know our book is about Dragons and not Dinosaurs so... these are "Dragon" teeth. Dragon Teeth made out of salt dough. (Ironically- people started believing in dragons- because they found dinosaur bones.. so it actually a perfect activity for dragon OR dinosaur books.)

Salt dough is fail proof. SERIOUSLY!
1/2 cup flour + 1/2 cup salt + 1/4 cup water= perfect molding dough!

I made these 3 hours before book club- because they have to bake at 200 degrees for 3 hours before  they are ready to be worn as necklaces.

If you are wondering- "What the heck is she doing with a beater?!?" While  I have been compared to Amelia Bedilia in my home making skills...rest assured- I know the conventional way to use a hand mixer. In this picture I am emphasizing an important point- I am making the hole -where the string will go later. (don't forget to do that.)

Since we couldn't find dragon-flyer's I asked for my son a lot about what would be fun to do at book
club. (The book being the inspiration.)

The book talked about dragons protecting their eggs and treasure. ( Great son! Some kind of chase game) I took out our plastic Easter eggs and each child was given some eggs and chocolate gold coins. They made a spot with their loot.
Then I challenged them to run and try to steal other peoples eggs and treasure.  I told them the winner would have the most eggs and money at the end. After 5 minutes of solid running, I called halt, and they looked at their loot again. Ironically most had the same amount they started with!

It was a good- get your energy out- type of game. Only one boy was crying at the end, so not fail proof. (He wanted to just sit on his eggs and protect his spot.)



As my son read about the deadly breath of dragons- he wanted some kind of smoky-concoction. (dry-ice in some kind of drink- you got it kid!)

We took it outside- the dry ice was rattling around in the pan- having never used dry-ice before, I wasn't sure how it would react when I poured the root-beer on it. I thought it might splash all over my kitchen, so we took it to the yard and I made the kids stand a distance away. But there was no need to worry- it didn't do anything crazy- except make really cool smoke! (Warning: Don't touch dry ice with bare hands. It is so cold it will burn. I was happy to learn they sell dry ice chunks at our local grocery store. I told them I wanted a small chunk for this and they hooked me up.)



We came inside and ate sugar cookies and drank the dragons breath. The cookies were a flop- but what I love about boys, they are so forgiving!

"they look like dragon scales!" someone exclaimed before I could apologize for the appearance.

It is a good thing I had four boys- I can do cool- I am lucky that I don't have to make things look cute too~!

(I mean, really- in what world do those sugar cookies look appealing? only to a group of 7 year old boys!)


As we ate sugar cookies I brought out our last book for this summer's book club.

I read the first page of book one: Miss Daisy is Crazy by Dan Gutman. I love Dan Gutman. He is one of our favorite boy authors. This series starts with the first day of second grade. The main character, AJ hates school.

At first the boys were like, "NO- I am not reading ANYTHING about school!"
I read the first few pages and they were hooked. They wanted to be best friends with  AJ.
And a bonus? Half these kids are starting second grade in a few weeks too!

Before they left- I asked them to line up-- so I could take a picture of their cool dinosaur necklaces.
So much for them not wanting to read anything about school! I couldn't get them all to look up at the same time.

*it really helps reluctant readers get excited about reading when they have the book in hand! I can't say it enough... passing out the books at book club... raises the likelihood they will read the book by a millionth percent! (okay I don't know the actual percentage- but their is truth to the statement.)

I got my son to look up--- see the cool dragon tooth necklace? Everyone else was like, "don't bother me... I'm reading!" lol

Magic School Bus Lost in the Snow

 



 

 

Snow fun in the summer? No problem with Miss Frizzle and the Magic School Bus. This is a great book for beginning readers and reluctant readers. The illustrations are more like a comic book with word bubbles.

My son learned some fun facts about snow and how snow is made.

A snow ball fight to start the book club- roll up some white socks and tuck into itself- make quick and simple soft snow balls.

Then we microwaved a 1/4 of an Ivory bar of soap for 30 sec- it puffed up. I made a plate for each boy... and they made snowballs. After playing with their "snow" it becomes pretty crumbly, so I  packed up each plate of "snow" in a baggy and send it home with each boy. They can use the "flakes" the next time they have a bath-- and let it "snow" in their bath tub!

These were simple, fun and cheap activities for book club!

Magic School Bus Fights Germs

 

In this Magic School Bus book, Wanda gets sick.

Miss Frizzle has the kids take a field trip into Wanda's body to see how our body fights germs.

The kids travel into her blood stream and watch

white blood cells fight off germs.













I was hoping for a nice warm day today- and it was rainy.

So last minute I had to adapt our book club activities.



I wanted to play a chase game- and I bought a bunch of these soft balls. They are for bath time- and I found them at Walmart for 75 cents each. I thought I would give the kids a ball and one be "it". The person who is "it" chases those with the balls. If he tags someone- they have to give him their ball. (So the boy, who happens to be without the ball is always "it".



Since it was a rainy day- we played a game that is a cross between Duck-duck- goose and Hot-Potato.

I had the boys sit in a circle and I gave them a purple ball. (The Germ) I gave another boy a white ball. (it was a rolled up sock = White Blood Cell.) Then we played music as they passed the balls around the circle. When the music stopped. Whoever was holding the white ball (white blood cell) had to chase the boy who was holding the purple ball (germ). That was pretty fun.





The next activity we played in my garage. It involved half the boys wearing a white shower cap on their head, that had been squirted with shaving cream. (Again- they were WHITE BLOOD CELLS).







They took turns wearing the hats- and other people tried to throw cheese puffs on their heads.









It was fun. The kids thought the hats were funny. The Cheese balls made a great book club snack.

Alternative idea: I was thinking a great field trip for this series- would have been to go to a Children's Discovery Museum. When we lived in California there was one not very far away. Every  Magic School Bus book they seem to shrink to explore on their field trip. So going to a Discovery Museum would be a good activity.

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.

Pirate School

This is my second time hosting a book club around this great book! You can click here to see.




This is an easy reader- but full of action and adventure!

Pirate Pete goes to school on a ship. A Pirate ship! He is learning how to be a good Pirate. Lessons like "don't cry over spilled milk and finder's keepers loser's weepers".
But when on a treasure hunt- he has to choose to act like a pirate or work as a team?

I  warned parents in advance- to have kids prepared to get wet!
I held our book club outside today.

As far as prep goes:
- we filled about a 100 water balloons
-I bought chocolate candy coins and candy necklaces

-my youngest son helped by making a treasure box (out of a shoe box) and drawing a treasure map.

The boys arrived and we sat in a circle and briefly talked about the book.
Mainly: What was the lesson you learned? They all agreed: TEAMWORK!

So our first game: was a water balloon toss.
They partnered up and threw water balloons to each other. If they caught it successfully- they took a step back. If they dropped it.. they had to grab another water balloon and start again- standing close to each other.


THEN: I told them for the next game... they could earn water balloons by answering questions about the book. (I just looked through the book and made up questions along the way.)

Questions like:
Who is the main character? Pete
How did his parents make breakfast? Caught fish
How did he get to school? he rowed the "bus" which was actually a row boat.
What was his school called? PS1 "Pirate School"
Name one rule of school. (Finders Keepers loosers weepers, Don't cry over spilled milk, Last one there is a rotten egg.)

How did he learn to add? counting coins
How did he learn to subtract? having classmates walk the plank.

You get the idea. Just questions to reward the boy who read the book.
(I did help out- if they needed a clue)

 

Then we had a water balloon fight. (I pointed out first- if you throw it AT a person... they usually bounce off and then break. So it is better to throw it at the GRASS next to a person.)

When all the water balloons were depleted we pulled out the treasure map!
(My son drew the map- but I hid the treasure.)

We talked about working together as a team.
Bringing the treasure box back to the house
And THEN dividing the treasure---- "even steven" just like the book.

For the remainder of book club, they played with water guns, more water balloons.
I passed out our next book.
I encouraged the boys to pick up popped balloons- while I got the otter-pops ready.

Sweet and simple.

(I also keep it short: only an hour long! That way boys know this is a "book club" something special, not just hanging at my house. It helps that I encourage them to take the books home- right away. So that books don't get lost. I put a book mark inside each book with a reminder of the next book club (date and time) and a hint to what we will do at the next book club- to get them excited.)

Next week we are going to be out of town. So I'll post our next book club July 5th!
Happy reading!

Animal Hide-and -Seek by Penny Smith

 

 

Another Easy Reader level 1 

 

This is a great book. I've noticed my boys really like non-fiction. Since this book is about Animal Camouflage, I thought a "treasure hunt" type search game would be perfect.

(It gets the kids out, running around, following clues to find hidden animals.

Great to get those wiggles out!)

 

I've done this book club before (CLICK HERE TO SEE)- with son 3, so I copied those questions and cut and taped them on the plastic reptiles. (I got a packet of those at the dollar store.) I taped a question to each reptile with floral tape.

 (It sticks to itself and not to the animal. Perfect for this type of activity.)

 

Then I drew pictures of different hiding spots and placed a reptile at a hiding spot, with a clue to the next hiding spot.

(This can be confusing. So I hide everything in the order the kids are going to find them.)

For example: They start at my kitchen table, the clue on the table is our mailbox.

 

When the kids go to our mailbox, they find a reptile with another picture of a fire pit.

The kids run to the boys house who has a fire pit (I am lucky- we live in a neighborhood where we don't all have fence. So I hid clues at each book club boys yard.)

 

 

 

From the fire pit- they found a lizard with a drawing of another boys sand pit.

The search continued around our neighborhood.

(I made sure to have the boys zig- zag back and forth to get the most energy out!)

 

 

 

I also made sure to have enough lizards and clues for each boy to find.

(You might have to stress that in the beginning. Which boy gets to find the first, second, third clue, etc..  Or else faster boys find all the clues and slower boys get discouraged.)

The search ended, with the last picture showing my kitchen table.

 

The boys then unwrapped the questions off their lizard

 and we took turns reading and answering the questions.

The boys had a good time. They were happy to know, they could take their frog or lizard home.

I always end with a otter pop- as they walk out the door. (Simple and inexpensive treat.)

 

I hope if you are thinking about starting a book club for your child- this blog shows you

it doesn't have to be hard  or complicated.

 

If you host book clubs for your kids- I would love to hear your ideas!

You can contact me at bookclub4boys(at)yahoo.com.

 

If you have a blog where you post your ideas- I would love to highlight your

book club on my Round Up page!



(In 2010 I did this book with my third son- you can see different ideas by clicking HERE.)

Animal Hide and Seek by Penny Smith

This is a great non-fiction book about how animals hide to protect themselves. This is a level 1 easy reader with a few challenging words.

Our Energy Game:
Play hide and seek until all book club members arrive.

Our Book Review:
We sat in a circle and I turned pages and asked questions about the book. I had a small cap full of water and if the child answered right- they splashed the water in my face. If they answered wrong- they were splashed in the face. (it's just a silly game)

Types of questions below:
Why do some animals hide?
What is it called when an animal looks like it's surroundings? (camouflage)
What does the fawn look like? (pg 7)
Who do the gray fur chinchillas hide from? (pg 14)
What do the dots on the butterfly wings look like? (pg 17)
What do the crabs add to their bodies? (pg 21)
What can a chameleon do? (change colors pg 22)
What are these seeds really? (pg 25)
Can you find the hidden animals on page (30-31)


Treat: Before the kids come, hide a treat and then make clues (scavenger hunt) that the kids can run around, read clues and find their treat. (I had transformed M&M filled candy canes into reindeer- with construction paper antlers.... )

Me and My Robot #2 The Show-and-Tell Show-Off

This is a great- EASY READER level 1 book.
written by Tracey West

As I waited for all book club members to arrive, I re-read Me and My Robot #1 and #2. We talked about their favorite parts of the books.
(I love reading these aloud and using a R-O-B-O-T voice for the robot. The kids giggle too.)

Then we played a game, Feel and Tell (instead of Show-and-Tell).

I had this box already made. (I use it a lot, in lessons, book clubs, etc- it is a favorite game.) It is simply a paper box with two hand holes cut out of it. (big enough to put hands in, small enough they can't peek)

They feel the object inside and describe it.

(Being careful to not NAME the item.)

I had a toothbrush, toy car, flash light, plastic dinosaur,

sunglasses- you get the idea.  

 

 

 

 

Then we made robots.

LOVE THIS ACTIVITY!

 

You need lots small magnets and

you need to raid your husbands tool box.

(nuts, bolts, washers, hinges, etc.)

 

You also need a washed out soup can for each child.





 

 

 

 

It was a really fun morning with these little guys.

As you can tell- they had lots of fun.

Dragons!

This is a Stepping Stones book for 2.9 reading levels.




Summary: For hundreds of years, people have believed in dragons- but why?

People found the bones of large animals (dinosaurs) and storytellers told tales of dragons guarding their eggs and treasure. Knights and kings fought these beasts to protect villages.

Ironically in China- Dragons were good luck!




This book explores tales across many cultures and time periods.




It's a great read- for little guys who want to learn about dragons, imaginary and real! (Komodo).










We talked about the book while the boys decorated their Dragon flyers.


I found these adorable dragons- on Oriental Trading.

I've used them for each of my sons- using different books.





In the past- I've used paint to decorate the dragons. This time we just used markers and crayons.

That actually worked better!




The boys could really color a lot of detail on their dragons.












Once everyone was done decorating- we went outside to see how their dragons could fly!