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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Family Storytime: Winter & Snow

12/17/2019

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Graphic created on PicMonkey with clipart from Krista Wallden of Creative Clips

Today's storytime was a little different from my usual family storytimes because I was joined by a guest reader from our community. This was my first storytime co-presenting with a community member.

Here are a few suggestions for facilitating a storytime with a guest:

Choose several books for them to read - if you have a document camera make sure that you have duplicates of your book choices so that they can hold the book and read it while you project the pages up on the screen
Send the book choices and storytime plan to your guest before the "big day" so that your guest has time to look over what you will be doing
Have your guest come a couple of minutes before storytime starting so that you can go over the plan

The Plan

Slideshow

Clipart by Krista Wallden of Creative Clips

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Outreach Storytime

12/16/2019

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Today's Storytime was for a local Catholic school's preschool classes.

The teachers specifically asked for a Christmas themed storytime.

The Plan:

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Family Storytime: Underwear

12/9/2019

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I have always wanted to do a Family Storytime that was underwear themed and this week was my chance! We had an UNbelievable time! The crowd favorites today were Froggy Gets Dressed, "The Laundry Pokey" from Librarian is on the Loose, and the flannel board story Alien Gets Dressed.

The Plan...

Slides

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