101 Book Activities Kids Love!

When I was in elementary school, my teachers always gave us the same kinds of book reports to do. They were VERY boring and that's when I decided that when I became a teacher I'd NEVER give those kinds of book reports. 

Typical assignment:  Write a report about the book. Remember to include the main characters and setting as you write the plot. 

WHAT?? UH?? 

I wanted to write a short skit about the book, or a poem, or write lyrics for a song. I did NOT want to write a boring old report without pictures or something creative. 

So, when I was in fifth grade, the first book report was....yes you guessed it! The same boring assignment to explain what the story was about and where it took place. 

What did I do? I drew an original cover for the book. I spent hours cutting pictures from magazines that would tie in with the plot. I laid it all out, and pasted everything on colorful construction paper. To me the bright colors livened up the plot, and was visually appealing.  On the last page, I wrote my opinion of the book and recommended that everyone should read it. 

As my teacher walked around, collecting the book reports, I handed it to her with a huge smile on my face. She took it from me, flipped through it quickly and said

YOU DIDN'T FOLLOW MY DIRECTIONS!!

I remember it like it was yesterday. I cringed, slumped down in my seat and mumbled something and thought to myself, I did follow the directions, I just presented it differently. 

Did my teacher understand that there are kids who like to express themselves using art or music? No.

Did my teacher understand that creating a report with hand drawn pictures and presenting it in a colorful way is a lot of work and demonstrates that I'm artistic? No. 

Would she see that I followed her directions? Probably not. 

When I first started teaching, I decided to give my students book report choices. Over the many years I've been teaching I've been collecting ideas and creating new ones. It was a year or so ago I decided to compile them and offer them for free on TeachersPayTeachers. 

Why? Because I want teachers to have this list at their fingertips, so they can offer their students many different ways to report about books. 

Give them a list of two or three to choose from and you'll feel their excitement as they talk about which ones they really, really, really want to do!

Have fun!

Ruth

Design-A-Game Book Report

I created this book report when I was my state's representative on the Weekly Reader National Teacher Advisory Board.  A few years later, I presented it at the NELMS (New England League of Middle Schools) convention for four years, along with other activities and resources I created. Over six thousand educators attend the NELMS convention, so it was really exciting to be asked to be a presenter. 

The feedback from teachers, parents and students about this book report has been phenomenal! 

Surprise your students by handing them the certificate that says they've been chosen to design a board game for a game company before you introduce the project and watch the fun begin! 

The main objective is to reinforce comprehension strategies. As class friends play the games that have 16 events in sequential order, they'll be introduced to a book they might want to read. What better way to learn about new books!


Kids have to design the board game at home so there is a sheet of instructions and a rubric for parents. This 19 page packet includes everything you need for this book report including my detailed instructions. Kids have told me over the years that it's one of the best reports they've ever done. 

Have a "Game Day" and invite other classes to come play your students' games with them. 

You'll be amazed when you see how creative the games are. 

Find out more by clicking on the cover of my packet!

I LOVE sharing this book report with other educators. 

An Early December TeachersPayTeachers SALE!!

An early December sale! 

Need resources for after the holidays? 

Everything in my store is discounted! 

This is a site wide sale! TeachersPayTeachers wants you to have the best resources at very low prices. 

December 1st and December 2nd!

 

Be sure to use promo code TPTCYBER when you check out, to receive even more discounts! 

I just modified my Nonfiction Bingo packet! If you've already purchased it, you may download it  again free of charge. The packet is now 45 pages, 20 are student Bingo cards. Also included is a student nonfiction text feature guide with terms and definitions. 

Happy Holidays to All!!! 

Ruth

101 Book Activities Kids Love

As I look back on the teachers I had in elementary school, I wonder if their jobs were as difficult as ours are, today. Why was I thinking about this? I guess it's because this time of year, teachers are scrambling to find the best of the best for our students. We stay awake nights wondering if the lessons are creative, exciting and encourage a true love of learning. We remind each other of the great sales where we can find free or inexpensive supplies for our classrooms. It's also the time of year when we're looking for new clothing for the new school year.

Tonight, I was thinking about book reports in particular. When I was in school, we were told to read a book and do a report about it. I blogged about this on an earlier post so as you can see, this topic really intrigues me.

We had a school librarian who was a volunteer, not a paid employee. She was a kind, sweet woman who worked her tail off to make sure the books were always in the correct Dewey Decimal section and displayed at kids' eye levels. 

That kind woman was my mother who was set up the entire library when I was in kindergarten. The school was new and had no library, so mom devoted her entire summer to setting it up for us. 

A vivid recollection was the metal stamp she used to stamp the date the book was due, on the card in the front cover. It made sort of a CLICK/THUMP sound and I always noticed she had ink stains all over her fingers from stamping hundreds of books kids were taking out of her library. 

Years later when I began teaching, we had "ditto" machines, that had purplish, permanent ink Get it on your hands, and the stains wouldn't come off for days. Get it on a shirt and it wouldn't wash away.  Don't take a swipe at your nose if you have an itch or you'll have a bloomin' purple nose the rest of the week. 

I'll never forget the time I stopped at a toll booth driving home from school one day, and there was a cute guy collecting toll money. I handed him my money and he said "So you're a teacher uh?" I looked at his big grin and said, "How do you know that?" 

 I'll never forget his next words..... "Because you have DITTO MACHINE INK on your HAND"  Talk about being embarrassed.. I must have scrubbed my hands for two hours when I got home. Did the stain disappear? NO.. :)

Getting back on topic.. When I became a teacher I swore I'd give my students choices of what kinds of book reports they'd do. This is the list I came up with and honestly, I'm still jotting down ideas.

Download this FREE packet of 101 book report ideas to the book report folder on your computer for easy access and just be glad it wasn't created on a ditto machine or your hands might have turned purple. :)

Good grief! My blog buttons are everywhere! Hmmm... Don't worry. I'll fix it :)


I've been posting on my blog for a couple of days now and decided that, today, I'd share some of my TpT lessons with you. 

Here's a sampling of what I offer on TeachersPayTeachers. 

This packet of geometric shapes includes posters for the basic geometric colored shapes of a triangle, square, rectangle and circle. Print on heavier stock paper. laminate, and they can be used year to year as a display while teaching the basic shapes.

Geometric Basic Shapes - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Print out these FREE homework passes and have them handy!  Use them for good citizenship, good work and behavior! These are a great "pat on the back" reward at the beginning of school!

HOMEWORK PASSES FREE - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Kids love choices. At the beginning of the year, give them these 210 journal response cards that they can cut out and paste in their journals.

Journal Prompts FREE - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Back to school is a time that you want to get to know your students and also assess how well they write. The pages of this fun questionnaire enables you to learn about your students' study habits, subjects they like, their feelings about certain topics and issues, their opinions, the place they're most comfortable doing homework, if they do their homework, if they like to read, their favorites and much more. They're also asked to assess how well they completed the questionnaire. Teacher tips are included.

STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE FUN - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Back to School Night is often stressful! Even seasoned teachers are anxious when they have to meet new parents for the first time.This packet of handouts and teacher tips makes less work for you and the preparation for Back to School Night less stressful. Some of the pages included are: refrigerator reminders, tips about when to communicate with the teacher, homework tips, movie waiver forms to send parents, late homework assignments and more.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT HANDOUTS AND TIPS - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Teachers often think that ABC books are only for primary grades. I've successfully used ABC templates with middle school students for many different projects including science, social studies, geography, creative writing, poetry, math word problems, book reports and more.
Included are templates for each letter of the alphabet, an alphabet grid that's a great brainstorming tool and a cover page template. Templates are in black and white due to cut backs in schools, however, student artwork adds the color needed.

ABC Book Templates for All Ages - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Use this grammar assessment as a diagnostic or end of the year assessment, as a teaching tool or practice for mandatory state tests. Included are: Nouns, verbs and verb tenses, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, synonyms, antonyms, plural and singular nouns, alphabetical order, pronouns, prefixes, contractions, syllables, types of sentences (exclamatory, declarative, interrogative, imperative), punctuation, subjects, predicates, context clues, prepositions, direct objects, complete or incomplete sentences, capitalization, editing and revising sentences.
There are 35 questions with some having multiple examples to answer. Answers are included.

Grammar Assessment - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Your students will love this states and capitals activity. I've modified this to be a more fun type of activity that kids become totally engrossed in. They color the states according to the directions on the sheets that are included in this packet. For example, all states that begin with the letter N, might be colored with purple polka dots. Those states that begin with the letter O, might be be colored with green stripes. One map is for coloring the states, another is for coloring the state capitals. This activity helps students to learn the states, capitals, and become familiar with their shapes. Display these colorful maps around your classroom. 

COLOR THE STATES - Ruth S. - TeachersPayTeachers.com

WISE OWL FACTORY!

If you'd like to see some adorable. extremely well planned lessons, check out the Wise Owl Factory. Carolyn has created wonderful lessons in all kinds of formats.  Her inspiration and dedication to teaching is admirable.  If it wasn't for her tremendous assistance, my blog wouldn't be up and running. 

$1 and Low Priced Lessons | BookaDay

Free online lessons | BookaDay

Carolyn is an avid nature lover and observer. Take a look at this video of a moose that she has on her site that can be used with the book "Agate, What Good is a Moose?" by Dey and Johnson. What a perfect video for kids to get an up close view of a young moose eating river plants! I really don't know if I could hold my breath that long! 


I could barely stop oooo'ing and awwww'ing when I saw the baby polar baby video. I just wanted to hug him to pieces. The book is a true story called Knut, How One Little Polar Bear Captured the World by Hatkoff, Gerald R. Uhlich, Craig Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff.

Book 105: Knut How One Little Polar Bear Captured the World | BookaDay

This brings back fond memories of when I saw Klondike and Snow, the baby polar bears who were abandoned by their mother, at the Denver Zoo. They were taken to Sea World in FL when they were about a year old.  I had my picture taken with them as the nudged the glass where I was sitting!  I bought the Denver Zoo's book called "Klondike and Snow" published by the Denver Zoological Foundation in 1995 and read it to the kids every year since then. I'd show the following video to them too! 
Klondike & Snow - 2 Baby Polar Bears - YouTube

Take a look at Carolyn's TeachersPayTeachers site too!!

Store: Wise Owl Factory - TeachersPayTeachers.com




FONTS FONTS FONTS!!!!!


YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO FIND...


Ever end up somewhere on the Web, and not know how you got there???
It happens to me all the time.
I found these font sites as I was looking for something or another...


Check these out...


A word of caution! You might be on these sites for hours!!

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/ 

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

http://www.fontgarden.com/archive/index.html

http://openfontlibrary.org/