Hobbit Book Projects

It has been forever since my last post.  Between teaching new subjects this year and all the after school responsibilities I have taken on, I just don't seem to have the time.  But my kids turned in some great projects last week and I have never included a post about them before, I thought I would try to squeeze in a quick post.

Whenever I get a chance to read The Hobbit, we always do projects.  Once, about halfway through the book and again at the end.  Each set of projects is written as a learning menu where the kids have some choices about what projects they would like to complete.  If you are interested in the learning menus or the entire book unit, you can check them out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

The final projects always come out cool.  Here are some examples of The Hobbit Newspapers, ABC Books and Book Guides.

I know this post is short, but hopefully also sweet.  The kids love projects like this and I hope it inspires you to come up with some of your own.

Book Jacket Redesign

As I was going through my stacks of stuff, getting my classroom ready, I found some laminating to be cut.  I realized that it was something that I had intended to blog about, but had completely forgot.

In my classroom library, I have rings that hold book jackets that were created by sixth graders.  They choose the book that they most enjoyed reading throughout the year and redesign its book jacket.  I do this at the end of the year, so I choose my favorites.  I have quite a collection as I have done this a few times and on average, I have about 100 sixth graders each year.

We start by analyzing current book jackets.  I put a pile of books out for each table group and they brainstorm a list of things that they have in common.  I ask them to note what they look like and important elements that they all have.  Then, we make a master list to use as a rubric.  Usually it includes things like

• a bold title 
• author name
• quotes and reviews by authors or publications
• great use of graphics and colors (no white space)

My sixth graders this last year were awesome.  I could brag about them for paragraphs.  Each and every one of them was and is wonderful. I have so many awesome book jackets this year, I didn't know how to only share a few, but here they are:

I punch a hole in the corner and put them on rings.  Then I hang them up in the classroom library (pictures soon to come).  So when kids have free time they can take a set of jackets on a ring to their desk and see if there are any books that they are interested in reading.  Many of the reviews on the jacket are quotes from other sixth graders that also read the book.  This year, my new sixth graders will get to read jackets from the last two years of sixth graders; they are often kids they have looked up to at school.

A great way to get kids interested in literature because it isn't coming from you, but from their peers.