I had tried doing book clubs for elementary students throughout my years. I tried breakfast book clubs for kids before school so I could include my bus riders, but the time was just too short. I tried after school, but then I excluded a lot of kids because of rides home. I even tried to do them in Google Classroom during the pandemic, but the students quickly tired of the online space.
This year I tried Lunch Time book clubs for elementary students and it has been a huge success!
Here are 5 steps to setting up successful Book Clubs for Elementary Students.
- Have students pick a book they can all have a copy of and help them come up with a reading plan. I had students meet one day a week for 4 weeks so I had them divide the book pages by 4. Each week they would discuss up to that page.
- Create a schedule and make it visible so they know the day of their clubs. I had over 25 clubs sign up so I had them meeting every day. If you are a classroom teacher, you could just pick one day for the entire class to do book clubs.
- Print out guiding questions to help them direct their book clubs. You can search for guides specifically for their book. Many publishers will have these on their websites. You can also use these reading response cards to guide them. These worked really well with my groups and they enjoyed the large variety of questions. You could also use a Reading Response Journal.
- Pop in and out of clubs. I usually walked around with a broom to clean up a little and would listen or answer a question and then move on. I was amazed at how focused these groups were and the joy and excitement they had from talking about the book.
These book clubs for kids had no quizzes, no grades. They were just for the pure joy of reading and the passion they had for this was overwhelming. I had thought maybe the success of the first book club was just it being something new, but each book club after that I had more and more clubs.
A few kids wanted to read a series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. With these series, I allowed students to read different books, but they were able to compare and contrast the books. Many of these kids had read several of these books already and this would spark memories of other books or even encourage them to read the book again.
When I first started I did a new club each month. I found that this was just too much. It was too much for me to organize and too much for the kids to jump from one book to the next. I found that having a mid-month to mid-month club gave me time to prepare and them time to read. So rather than having an October club and a November club. I did a mid-September to Mid-October club. Then I did a Mid November to Mid-December club. This gave them time to wrap up the first one and then have time to start reading their next book.
I set out with a goal to have 30% of 3rd-5th grade participate in one of the Book Clubs. I had over 50% of 5th grade participate in the first month!
These Lunch Time Book Clubs for elementary students have been one of my biggest successes. I have new books being read, a new excitement for reading, and more kids talking about books. I am seeing the standards we teach at work. I am just a facilitator and they are guiding and teaching.
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