August Book and Cookie Club: Extra Credit

Book and Cookie Club is a monthly book discussion group for students in third through sixth grade and an adult caregiver.  I have been facilitating Book and Cookie Club at my library since December of 2015. This is one of my favorite school-age programs to plan and lead.

Our book for this month was "Extra Credit" by Andrew Clements.

Icebreaker: Book Besties Matching Game

I like to open every meeting with an ice breaker.  I think it is a fun way to get everyone acquainted.  I broke the group up into two separate teams.  Each team received a deck of Book Besties cards. The team that correctly matched the Book Besties the fastest was declared the winner.

Making the World More Awesome

​Participants answered the three prompts featured in the photo.  Our book this month discussed kindness and tolerance, so I thought that this would be a good whole group activity.  I loved seeing the responses that The Crew came up with.  I think that this next generation is going to change the world!

Fort Making 

Abby, one of the main characters in "Extra Credit", builds a fort in a forest area near her home.  I brought in this Tote-A-Fort kit that I had purchased on Amazon and the campfire that I created for (Not So) Happily Atfer Hours in July.

Magnetic Poetry

The main characters - Sadeed and Abby, write poems in their letters.  The Crew had the option to try an acrostic, diamante, or free verse poem.  The explanation sheet for the diamante poem came from Read, Write, Think.

I purchased a kid's set of magnetic poetry from Amazon and the magnetic dry erase boards are from my teaching days.

Design a Stamp

Sadeed and Abby talk about the designs on the postage stamps.  Some of the stamp designs varied from the classic Forever stamp to smiley faces and unicorns. 

Knot Tying

Abby's favorite pastime is rock climbing.  Abby talks about how she has to tie special knots when she goes rock climbing.  I put out books from our nonfiction section that show how to tie different types of knots along with some rope.

Spread Kindness

The Crew was provided with materials to create their own cards that they could send or give to a friend or family member.