Elementary Book Club ideas

[Connie Anderson]

I've been running a kids book club for kids in grades 3-5 for 5 years now and overall it has been a positive program.  Over the years, the kids have chosen books from a variety of genres and completed some sort of project to share with the group. Sometimes we've done the projects during meeting time and other times it has been a homework project. They earn a badge according to the different genres they read and we share some fun book talks. But after 5 years, this is growing stale, and I am running out of ideas. I'd love to hear from others who run book clubs for young people...ideas, ideas, ideas welcome.
Thanks, Connie

[cara delia]

This is awesome! i wanted to do something along those lines. What about an interactive skit for the 3-5 kids. Or I was thinking about a "lock in" movie realting to the book of course and then a follow up discussion of how the movie/book differ. What about having a dinner where they can dress up like the characters in the book and possibly serve a meal that would relate to the book? All of these are still reading response activities, but they are also incentives.

[Beth Kiger]

Connie, lets share ideas. I need ideas that will have the students fighting to get in. My last attemp[t failed miserably and was so boring. I have a few ideas from my principal that I'd like to incorporate and would like to use this as a vehicle to incorporate technology. On thing I considered was adding magazine articles to the mix. I toyed with using the flip camera to film a commercial for the book. If you want to exchange ideas I'd be interested.

[Connie Anderson]

Definitely Beth, I am game to share ideas. I like some of the things added to this post already and am pretty sure I'll add more reading time to the club and also the adopt a shelf idea. I can see some of the kids loving to do that especially if they get recognized.

[Paula Daubert]

I have a book "club" but it is during the school day and not voluntary (students are hand picked by the AP). I say "club" because it is cover time for classroom teachers' common planning time. This past year I had 5th graders and I let them pick the book. I gave suggestions and they picked "Among the Hidden" by Haddix. We had a great time with this book and the kids really enjoyed reading it. We didn't do any writing or anything else but reading and discussion. We had too many interruptions. As it was, we didn't get to read the whole thing together, but had to stop about 2/3 of the way through. I let the kids take the book and finish it themselves. I got ALL the copies back!

[Angela Rosheim]

I run a morning book club called Page Turners for any 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader in my elementary school (2nd graders may join us in January). I have found that kids just simply want time to read. No reports, comprehension questions, or projects...they just want to read. If they wish, students may also respond to our Lewis and Clark Reads blog, review books, booktalk to other club members, or adopt library shelves to care for. Now that I have flipcameras, my readers will also have the option of creating video booktalks.

This will be my 4th year for the club and I have yet to hear any complaints, kids just simply want to read!

[cara delia]

love the idea that the children "adopt a bookshelf" def. gonna steal this one. I know that the kids really enjoy spending special time in the library helping out, but adopting a shelf is a great way to allow them ownership, and I think it will create a bigger sense of responsibility. Can you elaborate on what exactly their responsibilities are? Kinda of a dumb question I know...but this is my first year as a librarian and I'd like to have a great outline to explain to students.

[Angela Rosheim]

This is how it works...
The kids can each adopt 1 shelf...which is actually a bank of 3 or 4 shelves high. I have a laminated sign that they put on the shelf that says, "______________proudly cares for this shelf". The kids fill in their name and place it on the shelf they want to care for. 2nd graders were not allowed to pick a nonfiction shelf. After they picked their shelf, I had a powerpoint screen outlining their job responsibilities.

Keep the books straight on the shelf.
Make sure the books are in the correct order.
Make sure the spines are out and the call numbers are down.
Make sure the correct books are on your shelf.
Group the same book titles together.
Pull the books to the front of the shelf.
Dust your shelf once a week (the kids know where the clorox wipes are)

Kids can check their shelf during our bookclub morning or after they have checked out books during their checkout time.

In past years they put a sign on each shelf they adopted but kids kept pulling the sticky off and they were all over the floor. So this year, I am trying just one sign per kid. (document attached)

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[cara delia]

This is a WONDERFUL Idea! Thanks so much for sharing, I think I'm only going to allow the 5th graders this honor of adopting a shelf. There are about 600 elementary school students, 4 5th grade classes. I think this would be a great "legacy" type of project. Great ideas! I'm so glad I have such great people to "borrow" from!

[Connie Anderson]

thanks so much. I love this idea and think I will try it. I also like the idea of kids just reading in book club. That may be another thing to consider. Thanks for so many thoughts. I'll update things here after we get back to school in August and let you know what happens.

[Alexis Cuff]

Love this too! I will be trying it this school year. Thank you for sharing!

[Becky Maher]

I have had several book club meetings during lunch time with 2nd grades. This was an optional event, and they brought their lunches to the library to meet and discuss the books. The boys and girls met separately last year. The books that we read were Alvin Ho, Home Run, and Just Grace. I also did a meeting around Valentines Day that was a "Books We Love." They each brought a book that they looooovvved and told a little about it. It was really fun to see the books that they chose to bring and talk about. I ended up having two meetings for each of the clubs because we had 100% participation. I bought paperback copies of all of the books that we used so that there were plenty available for checkout. I'll definitely do it again this year. I'm thinking of doing a Mother/Daughter supper club using Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in January when the 2nd grade studies Ancient China.
I love the "Adopt a Shelf" idea!

[Trina Jones]

Last year was my first year in an elementary school with a pop of 850.  We did book club on Fridays with each grade level.  I didn't have a clue plus we didn't have books for them to read altogether.  I ended up trying to use technology on old computers and it was okay.  I did wordle with 2nd grade, animoto with 4th (horrible, they didn't know how to use computers) and puppets at the end of school with 1st grade.  I wanted to use podcast with 3rd grade but everything is blocked in our district.  I hope this year will better.

I like the videotapping booktalks and book club lunches.