How to Run a Book Discussion for Kids: Ocean Edition – We used this amazing book: Can You Survive Being Lost at Sea? by Allison Lassieur. Explore ocean survival skills with elementary students using this You Choose book. Provide kids with kits, activities, and snacks for a successful book club!
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Check out the details on our monthly book club for elementary students here and get the printable resources here.
Ocean Book Kit
This month’s book kit was easy. All I did was buy these plush fish and use a rubber band to strap the information sheet to it. That’s it! Plus, the kids checked out Can You Survive Being Lost at Sea? by Allison Lassieur when they picked up their book kit.
Ocean Snack
For our snack, I put Swedish Fish in plastic cups for the kids. It’s a simple snack, but it got the point across, and the kids LOVE candy! (Because, really, who doesn’t love candy?!) I started asking a few discussion questions while they ate. As usual, I started with “Thumbs up for loving the book, thumbs in the middle for thinking the book was okay, or thumbs down for not liking the book.” And then we went on to talk about the questions on the information sheet.
Ocean Meeting
Once we got our snack out of the way, it was time to get to the best part: MAKING SLIME!
I called it ocean slime because it was blue or turquoise with blue and silver glitter in it. It was so easy to make:
- Mix 1/4 c water with 1/4 c liquid glue;
- then add food coloring or liquid watercolors and mix in;
- finally, add 1/4 c liquid starch and mix. That’s it!
The kids are obsessed with making slime. I gave them plastic baggies to take the slime home without making a mess in their cars.
While they made the slime, I asked a few more discussion questions.
When their slime was complete, they just wanted to sit there and play with it, which was fine. So, while they played, I put up this survival quiz on our overhead projector. We went through it together, and the kids loved it!
For the last five minutes, I explained our next book in Bookworm Circle and showed them the book kits. I also handed out prizes to the kids who had been there either three times (get a free book) or six times (get another free book). I initialed everybody’s membership cards, and by that time, the 45 minutes was up and it was time to send the kids and their slime home!
