Summer Book Clubs

Summer Book Clubs at WMS!

This week, students, parents, and teachers flooded our quiet school hallways to chat about my favorite topic: books! It was thrilling to see SO many middle school students leaving the beaches and their swimming pools to join us for an hour or two in July!! We are always looking for new ideas to have fun with reading, so I was so excited when our principal wanted to bring summer book clubs to our school.  Thankfully, we had teachers from ALL subject areas volunteering their time to allow a wide-range of book club choices for our students!

Getting Started...

May: Participating teachers selected one or two books to share over the summer. This task was not an easy one for me.  I have so many books that I love to share with students.  Only choosing two?? Impossible!

June: Students were given the option to use our traditional method of discussing their books online in our forum OR they could try something new and join one of the book clubs.  Two sessions were created (one in July and one in August) to allow for more choices and flexibility.  They could attend both or just one!

Ready, Set, READ....

July: Our first session was held!  Each book was assigned a classroom for the students and teachers to discuss their reading and participate in activities.  In both July and August, I created a bonus session to allow more options for the students AND to allow me the chance to do two books on each date.

July Bonus Session: Students came in early to discuss Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. (Also check out Dennard's first trilogy Something Strange and Deadly.  Newly released covers are now available here!)

Step One: 

As students entered the room, they found their favorite Truthwitch quote to add to our quote banner.

Step Two:

We sat and discussed our reading. Some students had even already read the sequel Windwitch!

Step Three:

Not much time left! We quickly designed cookies to match one of the elements found in the Witchlands.  

  

Step Four:

On the way to their next session, students grabbed some bookworms and Truthwitch coloring page to create their own covers.  Visit Life Writings of a Reader Blog page to find a copy of the coloring page and for more Truthwitch and Windwitch reviews.  Thanks, Adriyanna!

Click here to buy Truthwitch and Windwitch.  Look for her upcoming Bloodwitch!  You can also find a short fractured Sherlock Holmes tale by Susan (and more authors and booktubers!) in the newly released Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy.  

July Regular Session: We followed a similar session as above with the newly released Dark Breaks the Dawn by Sara B. Larson.  (Also check out her first trilogy Defy!)

Step One: 

Added our favorite quotes!

Step Two:

Lots of chatting and discussing Dark Breaks the Dawn (and Swan Lake!)

Step Three:

Checking out the goodie table!

With Light vs Dark Draiolon Cookies...

Dark Breaks the Dawn brownie cake... 

(I haven't designed in a while, so I was pretty proud of myself!!)

AND of course... Bookworms!!

Click here to buy your copy of Dark Breaks the Dawn.  Look for the sequel Bright Burns the Night coming next year! Also available is her first trilogy Defy!

Coming Up...

I can't wait until our next book club date!! On August 17th I'll get to meet up with more students to discuss The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (to prepare ourselves for the incredible upcoming movie release) AND When We Were the Greatest by Jason Reynolds (to get ready to meet the award-winning author via Skype in October)!