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Post by Skellinton on Jun 18, 2021 14:42:04 GMT
I am working in a summer camp that has a book week coming up and since I normally only work with little kids I am kind of stumped on what to do with the older group I am working with this year.
Each day we are supposed to focus on one or two authors and come up with activities (art, games, projects) for them to do around the authors.
I was going to do Harry Potter activities one day (could also encompass any other magical books/authors- suggestions welcome) and I have some fun ideas for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a Dahl day, and was going to do a Comic themed day but I am stumped for the other days.
I don’t really know what kids that age read, I think Series of Unfortunate Events are great, but passé and might not be the best theme for Summer Camp anyway! I know kids liked the Wimpy Kid books, but are they still a thing?
Any suggestions welcome! Books, ideas, etc. We have a very limited budget but have lots of art supplies and typical classroom stuff available.
TIA
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,436 
Location: So Cal
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Post by caangel on Jun 18, 2021 14:47:11 GMT
My daughter loves Wings Of Fire Series and Dog Man. The Warriors series are also popular.
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Post by scrapmaven on Jun 18, 2021 17:40:13 GMT
You're already doing Charlie and the chocolate Factory, but I wonder if you could also integrate James and the Giant Peach into that day? Chocolate and peaches will be well received by the kids.
What about Paddington? Perhaps everyone could bring in a favorite stuffed animal.
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Post by tc on Jun 18, 2021 17:49:34 GMT
Dogman. They're actually starting a "summer camp" series of activities on scholastic site next week (I think - I signed up but haven't gotten any activities yet). Dogman might fit into your comic book day since it's technically a graphic novel. Captain Underpants too.
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 18, 2021 18:47:35 GMT
Thank you all! I am just on break now, but will check out your suggestions when I get home tonight.
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Post by monklady123 on Jun 18, 2021 18:50:23 GMT
How about the Magic Treehouse books! They cover every possible subject/area of the world, so you could easily find an activity that went along with one of them. The 3rd grade at the school where I sub did some cool activities with an Egypt theme after they read that one in the series.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 23, 2024 21:22:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2021 18:51:31 GMT
Stink. My ds loves Stink books. He is Judy Moody's younger brother.
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:06:34 GMT
Dogman. They're actually starting a "summer camp" series of activities on scholastic site next week (I think - I signed up but haven't gotten any activities yet). Dogman might fit into your comic book day since it's technically a graphic novel. Captain Underpants too. I signed up, but I don’t think I will get anything until next week. They look great, thank you! |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:07:37 GMT
How about the Magic Treehouse books! They cover every possible subject/area of the world, so you could easily find an activity that went along with one of them. The 3rd grade at the school where I sub did some cool activities with an Egypt theme after they read that one in the series. We have an around the world theme later on, but that is a great idea to incorporate them that week, thank you. |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:07:57 GMT
Stink. My ds loves Stink books. He is Judy Moody's younger brother. Will have to look for those, thank you. |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:10:26 GMT
You're already doing Charlie and the chocolate Factory, but I wonder if you could also integrate James and the Giant Peach into that day? Chocolate and peaches will be well received by the kids. What about Paddington? Perhaps everyone could bring in a favorite stuffed animal. I want to include James, but for the life of me I can’t think of any ideas for that book. I will have to look around for some ideas online, that is my favorite Dahl book. |
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Jili
Pearl Clutcher
SLPea
Posts: 4,363
Jun 26, 2014 1:26:48 GMT
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Post by Jili on Jun 19, 2021 1:11:04 GMT
Can you feature picture books? I am a SLP, and I just did some Olympic-themed intervention using “Olympig” with rising 4th and 5th graders. I targeted individual goals, incorporating fun activities such as a long jump and Velcro dart throwing. I bought cheap medals from Amazon to award to the students. They loved the story and the activities.
If I had more time I’d incorporate activities involving the different sports, as well as various participating countries. There are so many possibilities.
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:12:35 GMT
My daughter loves Wings Of Fire Series and Dog Man. The Warriors series are also popular. I can’t believe Warriors are still a thing, they have been around awhile, haven’t they? Not sure how to incorporate them with activities, though. Maybe all the kids could bring their pet cats and we could watch them battle! Ha! |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 1:18:39 GMT
Can you feature picture books? I am a SLP just did some Olympic-themed intervention using “Olympig” with rising 4th and 5th graders. I targeted individual goals, incorporating fun activities such as a long jump and Velcro dart throwing. I bought cheap medals from Amazon to award to the students. They loves the story and the activities. Oh yes, I can choose what ever books I want, I just know I have some difficult kids (read: kids who don’t like anything we ever do, no matter what, even when we have popsicles they will gripe about what kind of popsicle it is) that week and want to try to engage them. I plan on using picture books since I can read them to the kids first, but I wanted to have an idea of what books they might already be familiar with so I can have activities for them as well. Will order Olympig now, that sounds perfect. The kids love those kind of activities. Thank you. |
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Jili
Pearl Clutcher
SLPea
Posts: 4,363
Jun 26, 2014 1:26:48 GMT
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Post by Jili on Jun 19, 2021 1:26:20 GMT
Can you feature picture books? I am a SLP just did some Olympic-themed intervention using “Olympig” with rising 4th and 5th graders. I targeted individual goals, incorporating fun activities such as a long jump and Velcro dart throwing. I bought cheap medals from Amazon to award to the students. They loves the story and the activities. Oh yes, I can choose what ever books I want, I just know I have some difficult kids (read: kids who don’t like anything we ever do, no matter what, even when we have popsicles they will gripe about what kind of popsicle it is) that week and want to try to engage them. I plan on using picture books since I can read them to the kids first, but I wanted to have an idea of what books they might already be familiar with so I can have activities for them as well. Will order Olympig now, that sounds perfect. The kids love those kind of activities. Thank you. You’re welcome! I’ve got students like that too. I am providing extended school year services this summer, and I’ve got a few students who just don’t want to be there, so I try to make it fun. You should check out the book on YouTube before you order so you can see if it meets your needs. Sorry about all the cringeworthy typos! I’m awful at typing and editing on my phone, obviously. |
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Post by scrapmaven on Jun 19, 2021 1:30:59 GMT
I wonder if there is a clever way to decorate peaches with some of the beings that travel in the peach w/James? This is off the top of my head.
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Post by 950nancy on Jun 19, 2021 3:04:40 GMT
How about the Magic Treehouse books! They cover every possible subject/area of the world, so you could easily find an activity that went along with one of them. The 3rd grade at the school where I sub did some cool activities with an Egypt theme after they read that one in the series. Many of these books have a nonfiction companion book that goes with them. I can imagine there are some great ideas to spring from in the companion books. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 19, 2021 4:39:01 GMT
My kid LOVES Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Maybe you could come up with something fun along those lines like have them make or decorate a journal or make a small scrapbook?
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muggins
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,861
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Post by muggins on Jun 19, 2021 7:09:06 GMT
You're already doing Charlie and the chocolate Factory, but I wonder if you could also integrate James and the Giant Peach into that day? Chocolate and peaches will be well received by the kids. What about Paddington? Perhaps everyone could bring in a favorite stuffed animal. I want to include James, but for the life of me I can’t think of any ideas for that book. I will have to look around for some ideas online, that is my favorite Dahl book. The characters in the peach are all insects. There are tons of insect related activities online. You could even go on a bug hunt:) Can I also suggest picking some funny picture books rather than just concentrating on authors that everyone knows. Chances are they will have already done activities based on these well known books in class. Since it’s summer camp, rather than school, funny books are always a hit with kids of all ages and they love to revisit them often. |
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Post by monklady123 on Jun 19, 2021 9:40:42 GMT
Since you said you can do picture books, what about "The Day the Crayons Quit" and "The Day the Crayons Came Home"? I remember subbing in a 5th grade once that had some tough kids. You know, that last-year-of-elementary-school coolness combined with just general orneriness.  The teacher had left me plans that included a read-aloud after lunch. I forget which book it was now but her instructions said "be careful of some of the mature scenes and ad-lib if you feel you need to". um...  That's a nope from me. So while the kids were at lunch I went to the library and asked the librarian what she would recommend that I could read in one sitting. She immediately pulled out the two crayon books. I thought to myself "oh great, this crowd of tough 5th graders is going to roll their eyes at this one." But I trusted this librarian (my dd's former 4th grade teacher who'd left the classroom to go back to school for library science) so I took them upstairs. After lunch the kids were quick to tell me that the teacher said they didn't have to listen to the book as long as they were doing their own reading quietly at their desk. Fine, I certainly wasn't going to argue. So they stayed at their desks and the others came up front. I started reading... And I love to read out loud to kids so I always do it was lots of drama. Well after a bit I noticed that some of the cool kids who were reading at their desks were listening to me... I could see them sneaking glances at the illustrations. haha Then a couple of them got up to come closer so they could see the pictures. Then when I moved on to the second book a few more came closer. By the time I got to the end with the two-page illustration of the house the boy built for the crayons they were all gathered around so they could see the details. lol. Later I confessed to the librarian that I'd had my doubts but decided to trust her. hahaha  Anyway, that's my Crayons story. I can think of some fun activities to go with that one. |
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Post by magellen on Jun 19, 2021 10:33:54 GMT
Hank zipzer series,design to be easy to read for those who have trouble reading. If I remember there is a book on making enchiladas
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artbabe
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,026
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Post by artbabe on Jun 19, 2021 14:54:36 GMT
Art teacher here.
I do a unit with my 7th graders on picture books. People tend to think they are just for little kids but as works of art they are amazing and some have a fairly high reading level.
The kids love doing Eric Carle, even though his books are preschool, but they absolutely love making the different papers with paint and then making a collage with them. He did a lot of animals so you can incorporate learning about animals into this. The Very Hungry Caterpillar turns into a butterfly, so you can do all kinds of things about learning about butterflies and making butterfly art.
Graeme Base's books have extraordinary, extremely detailed drawings and lots of text. Check out Animalia- it is an alphabet book but definitely not aimed at little kids. Examples: Proud Peacocks Preening Perfect Plumage, and Crafty Crimson Cats Carefully Catching Crusty Crayfish. My kids have a good time coming up with crazy sentences with every word starting with the same letter and then drawing them. They have fun and work on vocabulary at the same time.
Stellaluna and Bats at the Beach are two great picture books about bats. I happen to love bats- I can think of a lot of activities you can do that involve learning about bats and making bat stuff. There are a lots of bats flying around at night in the summer (I sit on the patio and watch them a lot of nights) so it fits in pretty well with summer camp things.
I do second all of the suggestions about Dogman, Captain Underpants, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. My nephew especially likes Dogman. I know Dogman is a graphic novel but I would do it separate from comic books. I'll have to think about activities you can do with those books. I haven't done anything with them so I'll have to think about it today. Maybe I'll ask my 11 year old nephew for ideas.
If I were going to do comic books I would focus more on the superhero aspect of it. Superheroes are so popular in movies right now. The primary color aesthetic is really fun to work with, too. When I do things with that I incorporate Pop Art, especially Roy Lichtenstein. The kids like making artworks out of speech bubbles, clouds, starbursts, etc. that have onamonapias like "Bang", "Pow", "Pop", etc. They also like making their own comics- for kids your age I would probably think a 4 panel comic would be good. I think kids your age would also like making masks. Actually, my middle school kids still like making and wearing masks. Another thing they can do is draw themselves as a superhero. They have to come up with their names, their superpowers, who their villain is, etc. Maybe even write a paragraph story about their character.
Maybe another book you can do is Charlotte's Web? You can do all kinds of farm, pig, and spider stuff.
I'll keep thinking. I love coming up with curriculum. I taught an art summer school a long time ago and I really enjoyed it.
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 15:11:32 GMT
My kid LOVES Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Maybe you could come up with something fun along those lines like have them make or decorate a journal or make a small scrapbook? I love that idea, that would be super easy to incorporate, thank you! |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 15:18:52 GMT
I want to include James, but for the life of me I can’t think of any ideas for that book. I will have to look around for some ideas online, that is my favorite Dahl book. The characters in the peach are all insects. There are tons of insect related activities online. You could even go on a bug hunt:) Can I also suggest picking some funny picture books rather than just concentrating on authors that everyone knows. Chances are they will have already done activities based on these well known books in class. Since it’s summer camp, rather than school, funny books are always a hit with kids of all ages and they love to revisit them often. The younger kids are doing the insects and bug hunt thing, I didn’t think that would particularly appeal to the kids I have, sadly. I think the picture books I chose are funny, I am doing Mo Willems because the kids love him (this I know from seeing the kids in the halls at school reading them and decimating the library of those books) but I also chose some other funny books to read aloud. I am doing Eric Carle and other more serious books so I could incorporate their artwork though. It is hard to find activities and link them to the books. I have planned out every other week so easily and had this week planned out too, but then I was given the older kids so I revamped, and then I saw who was coming and know I need to revamp even more. |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 15:24:20 GMT
Since you said you can do picture books, what about "The Day the Crayons Quit" and "The Day the Crayons Came Home"? I remember subbing in a 5th grade once that had some tough kids. You know, that last-year-of-elementary-school coolness combined with just general orneriness. The teacher had left me plans that included a read-aloud after lunch. I forget which book it was now but her instructions said "be careful of some of the mature scenes and ad-lib if you feel you need to". um... That's a nope from me. So while the kids were at lunch I went to the library and asked the librarian what she would recommend that I could read in one sitting. She immediately pulled out the two crayon books. I thought to myself "oh great, this crowd of tough 5th graders is going to roll their eyes at this one." But I trusted this librarian (my dd's former 4th grade teacher who'd left the classroom to go back to school for library science) so I took them upstairs. After lunch the kids were quick to tell me that the teacher said they didn't have to listen to the book as long as they were doing their own reading quietly at their desk. Fine, I certainly wasn't going to argue. So they stayed at their desks and the others came up front. I started reading... And I love to read out loud to kids so I always do it was lots of drama. Well after a bit I noticed that some of the cool kids who were reading at their desks were listening to me... I could see them sneaking glances at the illustrations. haha Then a couple of them got up to come closer so they could see the pictures. Then when I moved on to the second book a few more came closer. By the time I got to the end with the two-page illustration of the house the boy built for the crayons they were all gathered around so they could see the details. lol. Later I confessed to the librarian that I'd had my doubts but decided to trust her. hahaha Anyway, that's my Crayons story. I can think of some fun activities to go with that one. Great choices, I have both of those books and will definitely take them in! I should have mentioned I don’t have access to a lot of books as we are not at our school and someone else just grabbed a random bucket of books to bring to our new space. I need to plan now so I can gather the books from my own library or our local library or order them if necessary. I only have picture books at my house other then my old Lois Duncan and Series of Unfortunate Events books, so I am struggling. |
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 15:35:49 GMT
Art teacher here. I do a unit with my 7th graders on picture books. People tend to think they are just for little kids but as works of art they are amazing and some have a fairly high reading level. The kids love doing Eric Carle, even though his books are preschool, but they absolutely love making the different papers with paint and then making a collage with them. He did a lot of animals so you can incorporate learning about animals into this. The Very Hungry Caterpillar turns into a butterfly, so you can do all kinds of things about learning about butterflies and making butterfly art. Graeme Base's books have extraordinary, extremely detailed drawings and lots of text. Check out Animalia- it is an alphabet book but definitely not aimed at little kids. Examples: Proud Peacocks Preening Perfect Plumage, and Crafty Crimson Cats Carefully Catching Crusty Crayfish. My kids have a good time coming up with crazy sentences with every word starting with the same letter and then drawing them. They have fun and work on vocabulary at the same time. Stellaluna and Bats at the Beach are two great picture books about bats. I happen to love bats- I can think of a lot of activities you can do that involve learning about bats and making bat stuff. There are a lots of bats flying around at night in the summer (I sit on the patio and watch them a lot of nights) so it fits in pretty well with summer camp things. I do second all of the suggestions about Dogman, Captain Underpants, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. My nephew especially likes Dogman. I know Dogman is a graphic novel but I would do it separate from comic books. I'll have to think about activities you can do with those books. I haven't done anything with them so I'll have to think about it today. Maybe I'll ask my 11 year old nephew for ideas. If I were going to do comic books I would focus more on the superhero aspect of it. Superheroes are so popular in movies right now. The primary color aesthetic is really fun to work with, too. When I do things with that I incorporate Pop Art, especially Roy Lichtenstein. The kids like making artworks out of speech bubbles, clouds, starbursts, etc. that have onamonapias like "Bang", "Pow", "Pop", etc. They also like making their own comics- for kids your age I would probably think a 4 panel comic would be good. I think kids your age would also like making masks. Actually, my middle school kids still like making and wearing masks. Another thing they can do is draw themselves as a superhero. They have to come up with their names, their superpowers, who their villain is, etc. Maybe even write a paragraph story about their character. Maybe another book you can do is Charlotte's Web? You can do all kinds of farm, pig, and spider stuff. I'll keep thinking. I love coming up with curriculum. I taught an art summer school a long time ago and I really enjoyed it. Can I just say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart? I had planned Eric Carle because I love his art and I know even the crankiest kids will participate in the making of the paper. It is always my favorite part of the pre-K year, so I wasn’t going to give it up just because I have big kids. I printed up some “how to draw” dog man sheets, I was going to keep it separate from the comic book day because I don’t consider graphic novels/comics interchangeable. I need to look at the books myself to see if I can get some more ideas from them though. I love the idea of making Pow! Bam! Etc art, that will be really fun. We have those tempra paint sticks that are super vibrant, so those will look great. Will definitely have them create themselves as a super hero too. I forgot about Animalia, love how you incorporated that, definitely doing that as well. I was going to have them make masks for Where the Wild Things Are, I have these cool flat paper bags from scrapbooking that make cool masks and I have fake fur, fabric, faux leather, feathers and stuff for them to use too. That way they can create their own terrible creatures. Superhero masks would be good too and different enough I will add that in. Thank you again, I feel better already, but will definitely take anymore suggestions you have!!! |
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Post by 950nancy on Jun 19, 2021 16:25:13 GMT
Years ago we used to read Indian in the Cupboard. I am sure that now it is more questionable due to its age and use of the Cowboy's choice of words. One year we got a bunch of boxes from the liquor store (hahah also might not be the best source), and the kids each created their own cupboard. We had them in the classroom and as we read different books, kids would make their own little keepsakes for each of the books we read. They took them home at the end of the year. This would be a great activity for kids that could carry on for the summer. Maybe you could create wardrobes (Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) and do a similar activity.
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 19, 2021 16:28:03 GMT
Years ago we used to read Indian in the Cupboard. I am sure that now it is more questionable due to its age and use of the Cowboy's choice of words. One year we got a bunch of boxes from the liquor store (hahah also might not be the best source), and the kids each created their own cupboard. We had them in the classroom and as we read different books, kids would make their own little keepsakes for each of the books we read. They took them home at the end of the year. This would be a great activity for kids that could carry on for the summer. Maybe you could create wardrobes (Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) and do a similar activity. Love this! Thankfully we have access to Amazon boxes rather then liquor boxes.  |
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Post by tuva42 on Jun 19, 2021 16:33:18 GMT
I know he writes for younger kids, but those kids will remember Eric Carle. His art is amazing and can be translated into art project that any age would enjoy. Do abstract art with watercolors, then cut the paper up to make collages.
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Post by 950nancy on Jun 19, 2021 16:45:19 GMT
Years ago we used to read Indian in the Cupboard. I am sure that now it is more questionable due to its age and use of the Cowboy's choice of words. One year we got a bunch of boxes from the liquor store (hahah also might not be the best source), and the kids each created their own cupboard. We had them in the classroom and as we read different books, kids would make their own little keepsakes for each of the books we read. They took them home at the end of the year. This would be a great activity for kids that could carry on for the summer. Maybe you could create wardrobes (Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) and do a similar activity. Love this! Thankfully we have access to Amazon boxes rather then liquor boxes. It was the early 90's. I do go back and kind of laugh at some of the projects we did back then. They'd have to be changed a bit for today's curriculum. One year at a reading conference, one of the speakers said that as a reader he didn't read a book and think, "Hey, I'd like to make a diorama about this book." (of course not, he was 40+), but it got me to thinking. My master's degree was in curriculum and instruction (best 5K I'd ever spent). It really focused on 7 intelligences (big in the 90's) and instead of offering one activity to create, I'd offer up to seven, so kids could pick what spoke to them. Then the late 90's hit and national testing changed many of those options. One of the activities we did so that we were hitting state standards was to create a game board. Each kid or sets of kids created one. The kids could work on it while I read to them and then they would get or create sets of questions that they had to answer correctly to move along the game pieces. The kids often decided to add squares where fate cards they created made the game more interesting. I have lots of my old students as my FB friends and they sometimes talk about the different games we created to practice skills or standards. |
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The teacher had left me plans that included a read-aloud after lunch. I forget which book it was now but her instructions said "be careful of some of the mature scenes and ad-lib if you feel you need to". um... 
That's a nope from me. So while the kids were at lunch I went to the library and asked the librarian what she would recommend that I could read in one sitting. She immediately pulled out the two crayon books. I thought to myself "oh great, this crowd of tough 5th graders is going to roll their eyes at this one." But I trusted this librarian (my dd's former 4th grade teacher who'd left the classroom to go back to school for library science) so I took them upstairs.
