Book Club Babes II: Thank You Bear

The inaugural meeting of our kindergarten book club far exceeded my expectations.  Allotting two hours so that the kiddos would have time to eat, discuss, craft, and play, I was thrilled when our eating and discussion over Greg Foley's Thank You Bear lasted fifty minutes.  A book lover's dream . . .

Upon arrival, bookies were given a plain box to decorate to her liking.  The box represents the one given to Mouse from Bear.  Members may then take the box home and use it for whatever they would like. . . perhaps, a found mouse.

After decorations were complete, we had dinner as a group complete with Teddy Grahams for dessert.

While we were eating, we went over the two simple rules for book club.
1.  Listen to others.
If someone is talking, we need to listen to what she is saying.  We will all have a chance to talk.
 
2.  Respect others.
We discussed how we are going to read a lot of books.  I stressed that it was all right not to like all the books we read, but instead of saying, "I don't like the book you picked," to another member, a member is to brainstorm what she would change about the book if she could.  Only kind words will be said to one another.

 
Discussion of Thank You Bear ensued with the assistance of my second-grade facilitator.  

Members brought their books (one on a Kindle- cool!) and could read along if they wished.  

Then a lively back and forth occurred before distribution of the journals.  

Since it was our first meeting, we went over how to use the journals: 1) draw a picture of a favorite scene, character, etc. from the book, and 2) write what they liked about the book or any questions they may have.

After an hour of play, budding readers were sent home with the fixings to make a bear thank you card as well as a bag full of gummy bears.

Next book:  Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are