5th Grade Class Visit, 9/30

I have procrastinated all day on posting about my tenth and last library program of  the week. This was my biweekly visit from the 5th grade class at the Catholic school next door to the library. I'm planning to do more activities with them as the year wears on, but until I have some prep time, I've just been reading to them. And they love it.

Today, I started off with Chicken Cheeks by Michael Ian Black and Kevin Hawkes (2009), but it was not nearly as big a hit as I expected. The teacher thought it was hilarious and laughed with me, but the class - 9 boys and 2 girls - wrinkled their noses and told me I was gross. And let me tell you, there is a certain amount of shame that comes with fifth grade boys thinking my butt jokes are disgusting!

But we moved right on to the second book I picked out, Spot the Plot by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger (2009), and they absolutely loved it! The book is a series of clues, written as poems, that suggest different well-known children's books. I made sure to have a copy of each of the books mentioned on hand, so that when they guessed right, I could hold up that title, and when they were stumped - as they were by Tacky the Penguin and Ferdinand  - they could see the books they didn't know. All of the kids were involved and engaged and the teacher loved the concept!

Next time, I'm hoping to introduce the group to some reader's theater. I've got a couple of scripts in mind, I just have to make sure they'll work for 11 kids. And I've got two weeks to work on that.