Every February my students show their love of reading by making a bulletin board of book recommendations. I call it “Date with a Book”.
I got the idea for this activity in a book store in New York City. Books were wrapped in brown paper so you couldn’t see the title or cover. You selected a book based on previous books you have enjoyed. Of course, my teacher light bulb went off and I immediately thought of what a fun, cute activity this would be with the kids.
I call each table to the classroom library to find their favorite book in our classroom- fiction or nonfiction, picture book or chapter book. I also allow them to choose from class read-aloud’s we’ve done. After they have all selected their favorite book, students fill out a questionnaire about the book. They have to write down the genre and summary of the book. The trick is, they can’t use any specific names of people or places. For example; if a student wanted to write a summary about a Junie B. Jones book, she would have to describe the character as a first-grader. She would not be able to use Junie B. Jones at all in the summary.
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After students have finished their questionnaire, they fill out the date with a book publishing page. You can download the page I use here: Blind date with a book! We then attach a printed cover of the book we recommended. You can also have students illustrate the cover! As people walk by the bulletin board, they will read the summary and if it sounds interesting to them, they can flip up the page and see what book it is.
This activity is so fun and is a great way to tie in all the literacy skills we have learned so far. I also love that students make book recommendations to other students. We are sharing our love of reading with our school community…. doesn’t get much better than that!
“It takes time and practice to find what co-teaching models work for both teachers and students. Throughout my day, I use three different co-teaching models in my classroom.” – Chrissy Talbot https://t.co/zSGMLBmPWv #edchat #coteaching #teacherlife
— Pearson PreK12 (@PearsonPreK12) December 4, 2019
