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Book Club Activity Ideas


Shelly in VA
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Does anyone have any suggestions for book club activities? We've started a bi-weekly book club for 10-12 year olds this year, and it has been a great experience! The kids discuss the book, starting with questions that are handed out during the club time, then we do some sort of activity, have a snack, and hang out. We've made bookmarks, done origami in shapes related to the story, done simple art projects, and played some games. But some books lend themselves to activities better than others, so I'm looking for some generic ideas for those meetings. For instance, this week we are discussing an abridged version of Oliver Twist -- there isn't really a craft to go along with that!  :mellow: If anyone has suggestions, I'd sincerely appreciate it. Thank you!!!

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The first two years I lead a book club, I chose books made into movies. We would discuss the book, watch the movie, and then discuss the differences. 

 

From then on, I did activities because it was challenging to meet everyone's movie criteria. I chose books for their literary merit but those which would be good for lots of hands-on projects, experiments, etc.

 

For Oliver Twist, you might do a family tree since family is an important theme. Maybe also consider bringing in things to donate to a local shelter or charity. 

 

Here are some general ideas, but most of it was specific to the books. I always looked at teacherspayteachers.com for ideas as well as just searching online for class activities.

 

 

 

art projects

*draw/paint favorite scene in book

*have them do a diorama at home and prepare a presentation in front of the group

*make a poster by cutting out words from magazines, could have them do theme, setting, characters, etc.

 

science experiments

*anything feasible that happens in the book or known/not know why it happens (For example, we did experiments with candles and oxygen because of putting a candle down a well in Little House on the Prairie.)

 

 

 

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The first two years I lead a book club, I chose books made into movies. We would discuss the book, watch the movie, and then discuss the differences. 

 

From then on, I did activities because it was challenging to meet everyone's movie criteria. I chose books for their literary merit but those which would be good for lots of hands-on projects, experiments, etc.

 

For Oliver Twist, you might do a family tree since family is an important theme. Maybe also consider bringing in things to donate to a local shelter or charity. 

 

Here are some general ideas, but most of it was specific to the books. I always looked at teacherspayteachers.com for ideas as well as just searching online for class activities.

 

 

 

art projects

*draw/paint favorite scene in book

*have them do a diorama at home and prepare a presentation in front of the group

*make a poster by cutting out words from magazines, could have them do theme, setting, characters, etc.

 

science experiments

*anything feasible that happens in the book or known/not know why it happens (For example, we did experiments with candles and oxygen because of putting a candle down a well in Little House on the Prairie.)

 

Thank you! Those are good suggestions. I had never considered science experiment tie-ins!

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Shelly,

Here is a thread from where I was asking help planning a mystery/detective day. It was one our best book club's ever. Post #10 tells what we did for the day. Post #3 has the books we did for each age group that year. That was how we ran it then, three different groups but together for the activities (at least the ages that could do it all).

 

 

 

 

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Shelly,

Here is a thread from where I was asking help planning a mystery/detective day. It was one our best book club's ever. Post #10 tells what we did for the day. Post #3 has the books we did for each age group that year. That was how we ran it then, three different groups but together for the activities (at least the ages that could do it all).

 

Thank you! Fun ideas! I can see why that day would have been a favorite for everyone. 

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