A fun book discussion about “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party.” Make recipes, play games, discuss the book, etc. So Much Fun!
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Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Hales: Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale is a non-fiction graphic novel about the Donner Party on the Oregon Trail. I love to introduce kids to this great way to learn about history because they love it! This book discussion was action-packed and a ton of fun! Here’s what we did:
Book Kits:
At our last book club meeting (Can You Survive Being Lost at Sea?), the kids got our next book kit, along with the book. And what a fun book kit! I used these cute horse bags and then filled them with mini bags of gummy bears, a bacon keychain, and the information sheet.
Snacks:
So, this meeting, our snack and activity go hand in hand. I had the kids make their own bread and strawberry jam. It was fun for the kids to see what people used to have to do to make their own food from scratch — these kids’ parents can just run to the store for a loaf of bread and jar of jelly whenever they want.
First, we made the bread, so it could bake in our toaster ovens while we made the jam. I let the kids measure everything and really make it themselves. They were third graders or older, so it was fun for them to really dive into baking on their own. They had a lot of fun mixing the dough and were excited to taste it when it was finished baking.
The jam was also fun to make! It was great that we could immediately spread it on our bread and enjoy our treats when the bread was finished baking.
And that was our snack! While the kids ate, we talked about the book – did we like it, would we read more from the series, did the tragedies (*spoiler*) surprise us? Etc.
Bread in a Bag Recipe
Strawberry Jam Recipe
Activities:
Making and eating our snack took the whole 45 minutes. I had brought one of my husband and I’s favorite games to play if we had extra time, but we didn’t. But, if you’re looking to make an afternoon of these Donner Dinner Party activities, give it a try – The Oregon Trail Card Game. We love it because it involves no skill whatsoever. Essentially, you just lay cards down and hope you don’t get bit by a rattlesnake, catch cholera, drink bad water, or drown forging a river. You know, typical Oregon Trail stuff.