Book Club for Kids Ideas for Books and Activities

5th Grade Book Club: The Uglies

Posted on March 29, 2011February 24, 2021 by Pragmatic Mom

A Mom Friend hosted my daughter’s 5th Grade book club. The book was The Uglies by Scott Westerfield and the activity was discussing what is beauty exactly using magazines and tabloids. The coup de grace was in looking at before and after pictures of Heidi Montag. We Moms were gratified that our kids thought Heidi looked best in the “before” pictures. In the day and age of media bombardment of unrealistic female body images, we were grateful that our girls accept both themselves and a broad range of images that they consider to be beautiful!

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90 Second Newbery Film Festival

Posted on February 16, 2011February 24, 2021 by Pragmatic Mom

Here’s how to enter 90 Second Newbery Film Festival (deadline 9/15/11):
1. Your video should be 90 seconds or less. (Okay, okay: if it’s three minutes long but absolute genius, we’ll bend the rules for you. But let’s try to keep them short.)

2. Your video has to be about a Newbery award-winning (or Newbery honor-winning) book.

Sharon Creech Author Study

Posted on February 13, 2011February 24, 2021 by Pragmatic Mom

My 5th grader is doing a Sharon Creech author study in class and she’s been reading and loving Ruby Holler, Heartbeat, and trying to get the group that gets to read Chasing Redbird. We tend to agree on books that we like but it’s strange that we haven’t when it comes to Sharon Creech. Don’t get me wrong; we both LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sharon Creech, but we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE different books.

The Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

Posted on February 8, 2011February 24, 2021 by Pragmatic Mom

In eerily similar circumstances, young Navajo Americans were forced to relocate to attend boarding school where great attempts were made by the school to purge them of their ethnic identity, particularly their language. Both children’s books that are featured talk about harsh punishments for speaking in their native tongue. This forced relocation is not unlike the Japanese Americans during WWII. Is this really America, the home of the free?! This is the ugly underbelly that doesn’t get much press coverage. Am I the only one who didn’t learn about the Navajo Code Breakers at school in U.S. History? I am glad for these books to teach a new generation, and our nation, that the differences that make us unique make our country more powerful. Imagine if that boarding school were successful in wiping out the Navajo language? It’s really not inconceivable if the timing of the war were different!

No Cream Puffs, Karen L Day, http://PragmaticMom.com, Pragmatic Mom, girls book club girls bookclub

5th Grade Book Club with Karen Day, author of No Cream Puffs

Posted on October 1, 2010February 24, 2021 by Pragmatic Mom

A Big THANK YOU to Karen Day for her visit! And just a shout out that SHE’S AN AMAZING SPEAKER. SHE IS OPEN TO VISITING SCHOOLS. Our elementary school brings authors into the classroom as part of our literacy program that is funded by the PTO. Here’s her contact info.