Who Said It: Book Quotes Bulletin Board

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I like to make my library displays dynamic and interactive, so for my bulletin board last month I incorporated my “Wise Readers” library theme and created the Who Said It contest.  I pulled a stack of new books I wanted to introduce to the upper elementary students, and I typed up the first sentence or two from each in a speech bubble.  Then I printed some plain “clip art” books and numbered them.  I wanted to let the books do the talking and the kids do the listening, so I only chose books that had intriguing opening paragraphs and I made sure to include a variety of genres.  I stapled the blank books and the excerpts to the bulletin board with the heading “Whooo Said It?” at the top.

Students had about two weeks to figure out which books were being quoted and turn in an entry form with the title or the name of the character doing the speaking in each excerpt.  All students who got at least one correct answer received a treat, and the student with the most correct answers won a $5.00 gift certificate to our upcoming book fair.  After the entries had been turned in, I replaced the numbered books with the actual book covers, including the call numbers where the books could be found in the library (added after I took the photo below).

The books I used are as follows.  Click the title for a “Look Inside” preview.

I plan to use this idea again to highlight more great books from our library collection.  Do you have any recommendations for middle grade chapter books with compelling opening paragraphs?  Please share in the comments!

 

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3rd Grade Novel Unit: The Homework Machine

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  And the winner is….The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman!


In my last post I mentioned that I’m providing some ELA enrichment for a small group of third graders, and I was trying to decide which of the novel sets that our school has purchased I should use with the group. My reasons for choosing The Homework Machine include:

  • The story is told from multiple viewpoints. The reader gets to hear not only from the four protagonists but also from their parents, their teacher, the police chief, and some of their classmates.
  • The story is told in the first person. As students are working on character analysis, they can use the individual’s own words as well as what the other characters say about him or her.
  • While the overall tone of the book is humorous, it explores some pretty serious issues, such as military deployment, not fitting in with peers at school, parental pressure to make good grades, and the viral nature of the internet.
  • It’s a great opportunity to discuss the Science Fiction genre with students. In my experience, not many students choose Science Fiction as a favorite type of book, but this is a perfect example of how it’s not just aliens and space travel. We can also discuss the elements of Realistic Fiction in the book vs the elements of Science Fiction.

  And as I mentioned before, Dan Gutman is a prolific author, as well as a diverse one. Not only is there a sequel to this book (The Return of the Homework Machine) but he’s written the My Weird School series, the Baseball Card Adventures series, the Genius Files series, and the Flashback Four series, among others. Once kids connect with one of his books, there are dozens of others to enjoy.

Have you used The Homework Machine as a read aloud or in a book club? Please leave a comment and share your experience!

**The photo of Dan Gutman is from his Amazon author page.
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