Sew Bookish Blog

December Book & Cookie Club "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"

12/19/2019

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.

At my new library, I take turns facilitating Book and Cookie Club with two of my colleagues. Instead of facilitating Book and Cookie monthly, I facilitate it four times a year.

The way that I lead Book and Cookie has changed as well due to the participants that come to the program. Most of the participants that come to Book and Cookie are older (4th and 5th grade) and I have more caregiver engagement. As a result, we have more of a discussion format.

The book: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

This is the second time that I have selected Where the Mountain Meets the Moon for Book and Cookie Club. Grace Lin is one of my favorite authors. Grace has such a way for weaving together a story that is compelling, exciting, and wonderous. I also find it fascinating how the children perceive Minli's running away from home versus how the adult caregivers feel about it. The themes of family, fortune, gratitude, friendship, and kindness all lend themselves to a really great discussion.

Icebreaker: Minli's Bag

Materials Needed:

paper treat bags
paper list
pencils

Activity Description:
Before Minli leaves home she places these eleven items in her bag:

chopsticks
fishnet
needle
uncooked rice
copper coin
gourd
pot
water
dried bamboo
knife
rabbit rice bowl

If you were to leave home to change your family's fotune, what items would you take with you? On your paper, write down the eleven items you would take with you and place your list inside of your bag.

When I say "fortune" get into (pairs or a group) to compare your lists.

Discussion

I used the discussion questions from The Educator's Guide by LB School & Library

Activity: Painting Watercolor Dragons

Materials:

Activity Description:
Participants will use the provided materials to create a watercolor dragon

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October Book & Cookie Club: A Properly Unhaunted Place

10/17/2019

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The Book: A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander

To quote Anne of Green Gables "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." This is my favorite month and time of the year. I am a BIG fan of Halloween.

That said, I wanted to choose a book that was a little spooky and eerie for Book and Cookie this month. I love that A Properly Unhaunted Place has librarians that work as "ghost appeasement specialists." It isn't too scary for those kids that aren't into thrillers or ghost stories, but it has the right amount of spookiness for this time of year.

Ice Breaker: Halloween Mad Lib

For our icebreaker, I downloaded this Mad Lib from Teachers Pay Teachers and had everyone give me their suggestions for each field. Then I did a dramatic reading of our Mad Lib.

Discussion Questions

Does the title, “A Properly Unhaunted Place” have any significance to the plot of the story? Would you keep the title or change it to something else? What would be your new title if you changed it?

What do you think of the cover of “A Properly Unhaunted Place”? How did you feel when you first saw the cover? What did you think the story would be about? Does the cover reflect the story well? Why or why not?

How original and unique is “A Properly Unhaunted Place”? Are there any books that you have read that are similar to this one? Which ones?

Would you want to work as an appeasement specialist and live in a library? Why or why not? What part of the job would you enjoy the most? The least?

What scene resonated most with you personally in either a positive or negative way? Why?

What surprised you the most about the book?

Which characters in the book did you like the best? Why? Which characters did you like the least?

In the town of Ingot, their town history was a half-truth (in regards to Baron being a hero). How did that impact the town? Is it right to alter the facts of history?

Did you find the ending satisfying? If not, what would you change or add to the ending of the story?

Mrs. Jillynip, the head librarian in Ingot, was fairly strict about the library. How have libraries and librarians changed over the years?

There is a sequel to a “Properly Unhaunted Place” - do you plan on reading it?

In some chapter books, the primary adults are removed from the storyline. Why do you think authors do this? How would the book have been different if Rosa had both of her parents around to help her?

Tell a friend - 1 thing that you liked about this book and 1 thing that you wished was different about the book.

What time in history would you most like to travel to?

This book has some artwork throughout (pp. 8, 28, 60, 108, 156, 171). Which illustrations did you spend the most time looking at? Why? Did the illustrations reflect what was happening in the story? What other scenes from the book could have used an illustration?

Rosa believes that spirits live in books. When you read a book from the library do you think about the life that the book has had? How so?

What genre does “A Properly Unhaunted Place” fall under? Is this a genre you chose to read often? Why or why not?

What was one big lesson that you learned from reading this book?

Which places in “A Properly Unhaunted Place” would you most like to visit?

Does this book have Hollywood potential? Can it be turned into a movie or TV show?

If you could speak with William Alexander, the author, what would you ask him?

This book was selected for last year’s Battle of the Books. What made this book Battle worthy?

Rate this book.
- 5 - worst book ever
- 4 - disappointed
- 3 - meh
- 2 - enjoyable
- 1 - best book ever

Thumbs up or thumbs down if you would recommend this book to a friend.

Sources for discussion questions:
Multnomah County Library "Talk It Up! Book Groups for Kids"

Scholastic "5 NEW Questions to Ask Kids About Books"

Book Riot "40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book"

Book Bundlz "General Discussion Questions for ANY book"

Activity: Build a Haunted Library

I love everything that Krista creates and this activity is no different. I had the participants build a "haunted library" and they really got into the activity (caregivers too).

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March Book & Cookie Club: "The Case of the Time Capsule Bandit"

3/18/2019

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Scavenger Hunt

I divided our participants into two groups. They had to answer questions about the book and answer the question correctly in order to be lead to the next question. The questions were hidden in different places within the Children's Department. The last question lead them to the children's reference desk where they were given a cryptogram puzzle to solve. Once they solved the puzzle they could choose a "Top Secret" note pad or pencil as their prize.

Fingerprint Lab

I purchased a Spy Day activity kit from Teachers Pay Teachers that had the idea and printable for this station.

Masters of Disguise

Part of being an excellent detective/spy is being able to come up with amazing disguises. I set-up a mini photo booth, my personal puppet stash, photo booth props from Target, and an iPad for The Crew to snap photos. These are pictures that the kids took.

Laser Obstacle Course

I used crepe paper to create the obstacle course. The kids had a lot of fun trying to squeeze, bend, and wiggle their way through this "laser" obstacle course.

Secret Message Decoder

I used the bookmark Ellison to cut out rectangles of red cellophane paper. I also created the template for the decoder to fit that Ellison die.

The kids made their decoder then used them to read the spy jokes.

Morse Code Keychain

We made Morse Code keychains using our initials! The kids loved getting to make something they can display on their backpacks.

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February Book & Cookie Club: Hidden Figures (Student Adaptation)

2/25/2019

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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 “Hidden Figures (Student Adaptation)” by Margot Lee Shetterly. I have wanted to incorporate some nonfiction titles into our Book and Cookie Club reading for a while. I want to challenge The Crew and try to get them to read some genres that they do not always read on their own. I know that nonfiction can be a bit dry for some readers, so I thought that using a book that was turned into a movie would stir some interest.

Discussion Activity - Padlet

We used a Padlet to talk about two questions: What is it like when you are the first to do something? and Why is it important to have a support system?

Space STEAM Challenges

I found the coolest downloadable resource called "Space STEM Challenges" from Kim Carroll on Teachers Pay Teachers. It had lots of great activities that I just had to print off. It was a huge time saver and I am so glad that I will be able to use some of the activities again in our Makerspace.

I also bought some badges from Amazon and made NASA badges for the kids to wear.

NASA Badges

I created the badges on PicMonkey with graphics from Pixabay and Clipart Library.

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January Book & Cookie Club: Phoebe and Her Unicorn

1/28/2019

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I think there needs to be a new weather rule - no inclement weather on the days that children's librarians have programs! The joys of programming during the winter months, amirite? All kidding aside, I would rather my program participants play it safe - especially when it comes to snow and slippery roads!

We had a small Crew today, but there was still fun to be had and cookies to be consumed (Keebler Chips Deluxe #YUM).

The Book
Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle by Dana Simpson

Icebreaker: What's Your Unicorn Name?

I *might* have actually paid shipping on Amazon so that I could have unicorn nametags for tonight. I designed a "What's Your Unicorn Name?" chart on PicMonkey with a unicorn illustration that I found on Pixabay.

Discussion Game: UNICORN!

Since we had a late start (thanks to the snowprise), we did not get to do the discussion game. I planned to break everyone into 4 groups. Each group would recieve a question card. They would answer the question and bring the card to me. If the answer was correct, I would give them a part of a unicorn and their next question. I found a neat unicorn puppet printable from Arty Crafty Kids (you have to sign up to get the free unicorn puppet).

Candy Dragon Candy Bowl

My favorite character in the Heavenly Nostrils series is Todd, the candy dragon. I brainstormed several ways to make Todd - at one point I considered a Todd piñata. I eventually figured out this version of Todd and feel pretty pleased with how he turned out.

I purchased mini paper ice cream bowls from Amazon and found a dragon body printable from BakerRoss.

Unicorn Ring Toss

This game is as much fun as it sounds. There was a great deal of giggling, ducking, and fun. The rings are made out of foam, so there isn't any worry of injury from the rings. It's the horn you have to worry about. As they say "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!" No unicorns or humans were injured or harmed during the process of playing this game tonight.

Dakota's New 'Do

Marigold zapped off Dakota's hair which means The Crew has an opportunity to design a new look for Dakota! I tried my best to free-hand Dakota and copied her likeness onto cardstock. The Crew members gave Dakota a Pom Pom hair-do, a Rapunzel inspired hair-do, and a polka dot hair-do.

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