Kids Book Party Planner with Children's Literature Book Crafts, Games, Snacks, Printables

Teacher Omi coming to you live from Grand Haven, Michigan, where it is raining and wet! So at least its not snow, BUT it's also too cold and wet to play outside. And you know what bored kids turn to, when they're rainy-day-bored: mischief! Did we learn nothing from the Cat in the Hat? The kids are the well-behaved ones and it was the cat who is the troublemaker! Why not stir up a little fun instead of trouble, with a cheap (mostly free) afternoon of fun, compliments of your storybook shelf. 

 

Here's a snowbound or rainy-day book party planner for kids, with children's literature crafts, snacks and storybook games. I've included free printable kids' book coloring pages to help keep youngers ones busy too. These book based activities are perfect for all ages. They're just right for Children's Book Day April 2 and Earth Month in April! 

What I do in the Omschool is to first, announce a book party. Stay-at-home parents, if at all possible, take the afternoon off and read to kids. Homeschoolers this is perfect for you! Turn off the phone, computer, music and television. Set younger kids to work creating book party decorations with these free printable book crafts links.

Next, pile the couch and floor with squishy pillows and cuddly blankets. Invite stuffed animal friends. And make a pillow pile. Make it the youngest toddler's job to collect supplies and create the atmosphere. Grandsons Emmett and Remus, I spy you for this task! Everyone gets to select his or her snuggle spot. You can even tell the kids to put  PJs on or do the book based costumes activity listed below. 

Now, choose a snowbound or rainy day book party theme--adventure, mystery, spring, fantasy, animals-- and let each child, including the baby, choose several of their favorite books on that subject. Our youngest Maximus loves his tail book from Omi and Opi so this would be a must-read. Or just keep it open-ended. Rotate reading one of each kid's chosen children's literature books. Parents, you get a pick too. 

Warning--be careful reading scary kids stories. Even books you didn't think would frighten may scare kids silly if read by a talented storyteller. I chose Sherlock Holmes "The Devil's Foot" one of my favorite scary stories) for one snowbound book party. I thought the children might be bored by Arthur Conan Doyle's Victorian English. After reading a bit, I looked up to ask if they enjoying and saw eight bulging eyes and four mouths gaped. In unison, they commanded, "READ!!" At bedtime, four tired children insisted they couldn't sleep it was that scary. They're in their 30s now and still fondly remember being scared to pieces and loving it! 

Decorate the house for the snowbound or rainy day book party and wear costumes. Put energetic kids to work making storybook based decorations and costumes of their favorite characters from kids stories. Themes might be nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fantasy (even older kids will love this). Kids who are -10, like my older babygrands Silas, Moses, Lola, Lucian, Henry, Milo and Juno will love this part. Anyone who can't participate fully due to limitations, such as my grandson Ezra who is laid up with a broken leg, is the automatic Party Commander-in-Chief. All decisions must go by him! (But do involve them as much as they possibly can.) Here are free printable spring coloring pages from Crayola to help. 

This should be completely DIY. Don't buy anything: set out the recycling bin, dress-up clothes, bedding, towels, boxes, camping furniture and craft supplies. Make bored children put their vivid imaginations to work. Our granddaughter Flora loves her trampoline, so that would make a marvelous setting for the party. 

Good children's literature kids stories to use are: "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Aesop's Fables", "Grimm's Fairy Tales", "The Hobbit", Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss or children's literature about the Bible, cars or animals. This will keep kids busy for hours, which is good if you have to do the book party on another day. Edupics has a gazillion free printable coloring pages on pretty much any subject you come up with. 

My oldest son did this with his college roommates for a going-away party. They decorated rooms in different biomes: mountains, desert, rainforest. They made treasure maps, games, and choose-your-own-adventure activities. Again, let creativity and ingenuity, not Internet or wallet dictate activities! We're going for cheap. Think leftover cardboard, recycle bin, foil scraps and things like that. Here's a Pinterest board with all kinds of free printable kids book based games and another with free printable library books scavenger hunt games. 

Make snacks. Inventive children will enjoy creating festive treats from children's literature. Again, don't buy anything special: use leftovers and let them experiment. Serve tea, coffee, cocoa and cookies like grownups do at their book clubs. Kids love pretending to be adults. One of our family favorite books parties consisted of reading Paddle-to-the-Sea and eating a gallon of pickles! Last Sunday, our son reprised this book party with our grandkiddos! 

Use your storybook selections as springboards for ideas; Make foods listed in kids stories. Some, like American Girls, have accompanying cookbooks or recipes listed in the back. We once had a vintage Winnie-the-Pooh party and made Pooh recipes of haycorn pie, succotash and honey cake. Engage kids.

Children who like writing might write a journal entry about the storybook. Preschoolers and special needs children might illustrate kids stories they hear. Let kids draw and color while they listen. This keeps fidgety ones busy. Don't make is too schoolish. Keep the focus on fun.

Free poetry month lesson plans, poem templates, activities for young poets with printables

Hello and welcome to Teacher Omi's (grama's) favorite month or one of them! April celebrates many things including National Poetry Month. And April's other hat of Earth Month  nicely matches her poetry dress! So from the Omschool, where everything's coming up crocus and daffodil, here are free poetry month lesson plans, poem templates and activities for young poets. And you know that everything Omschool comes with free pintables! And, since the Omschool originated as a homeschool (33 years ago!) these poem activities will be geared to all ages, right down to the newest of my dynamic dozen babygrands, Max and Flora (Omi loves you all so much💕)

Acrostic name poems and All about Me poems The best place to begin is with what the child knows. So make an acrostic with his or her name. Juno- Jumping joyfully UnderNeath and Over. All about Me features kids filling in blanks with words to describe themselves. Bonus added use opposites, like " I am____ but I'm also _________. I  like ______ and I don't like ______. 

Nature Wander and Write. You get the best April has to offer with a BOGO nature walk and poetry slam! The concept is simple and the materials are few. (Mothers of many and teachers of crowds, rejoice!) You basically just find a pretty spot to wander, a meadow, field, by a brook, at the beach, in the woods. Equip each student over 7, Silas, Moses, Lola, that's you, with a pencil and notepad. Or for youngers, Lucian, Henry, Milo, Ezra, Juno this means you, each gets a box with crayons and paper. The mobile newbs, Emmett, Remus and Flora, get a box to collect samples. Max, your task is to supervise and provide commentary. The idea is to note down or draw interesting things you see. Once indoors you can complete your poem or poem drawing (art is poetry just with pictures, just like poetry is art with words). 

Gestalt Poetry Ponder Gestalt is a German phrase meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Nowhere do we see this so clearly as in nature. So for this type of poetry, simply bring in one natural element. Might I suggest the humble yet regal pussywillow (called kitty toes, by son Jake) Or Omi's personal favorite, a sprig of dogwood? Arrange it in a simple vase. Or give each his own to explore VAKT (visually, auditorily, kinesthetically and tactilely). Students should note down or draw observations. They should experiment with different descriptor words. This makes a nice language arts-science connection. 

Adverbs and Adjectives Adventure After collecting your nature observations, begin your poem by creating a chart. List what you see, hear, taste, smell and touch (nouns) and words to describe those nouns (adjectives). Then list what happened or what the nouns did (verbs) with words to describe how it happened or how they did it (adverbs). Use my poem (free printable, btw) Achy-Lake-y Michigan Scent at the Grama-Grampa House  for examples. This is basically just my list of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs about a walk to the lake. 

Haiku for You The humble haiku is a perfect poem starter activity for kids. Instead of rhyming, it relies on pattern of syllables. The 5-7-5 pattern is pretty easy to master. But don't let kids get bogged down by strict adherence, either. As with rhyme poems, haiku can be flexible too. It's more important to get a rhythm that flows. And sound byte is king. If kids have a juicy word they just have to weave in, let 'em do it! 

Making noise with Edgar Allen Poe-etry Mr. Edgar Allen Poe might have had his dark side but I think he was a kid at heart because he was all about the sound poems called (delicious word!) onomatopoeia! Simply, it's words named from the sounds they make: bang, crash, boom, and such. The Bells and The Raven being two famous poems. So, how to begin? By listening. Even the silence makes sounds of a sort. Describe, in words or by drawing what you hear. What is the wind saying? Or the waves? Or your cat? Use my poem Campfire Songs and Lightning Bugs or Fireflies to explore how sound is used in poems. Look for all the onomatopoeia examples you can find. 

Assonance and alliteration in verse Not all poetry rhymes or has a certain number of syllables. Some, like onomatopoeia, relies on sound to create a rhythm or cadence. One way to achieve that is by using repetitive vowel sounds (assonance) and consonants (alliteration). In Campfire Songs and Achy-Lake-y, I used moan-groan, thunder-crumble crunch assonance and "endlessly tameless" alliteration to generate a sound pattern. Can you find other examples? Now write some letter matches of your own.  

Farad-ing Poetry Michael Faraday was an inventor who discovered the Farad (electrical unit) which was later named for him. That's what happens when a word is lacking. We make one up. I don't know if Poe invented some of those onomatopoeia,  but I do know that I have and you can if you can't find just the write word for your poem. In my Campfire Songs poem I made up (or at least I think I did) the words sklush and sklish. Others like crickle-trickle and worry-hurry I combined from others words. And Dr. Seuss, if the man gave us anything, it was permission to make up fun words! Gardinker and hakken-krakks being two of my favorites. 

Rhyme-time So of course, rhyming uses sound to creates poetry. I like writing this kind and you might too. But I prefer the other kinds best. Having to create rhymes can cramp your word choices. You end up discarding words you'd like to use to fit the rhyme. And it takes practice to write in rhyme too. Begin by generating a list of rhyming words and patterns. Use my poem For the Love of Alyssum to go by. You'll see what I mean about how I had to sacrifice certain words for ones that fit. It's good to practice on rhyme poems but the other sound kinds will likely be more satisfying. And then there's

Free verse Fun My grandkids know that I love the poem "This is Just to Say" What they don't know is why. It's just a note on a refrigerator. What's poetic about that? And I think therein lies the crux of poetry. It's a state of mind? Just like how do Jackson Pollack's pain splotches constitute art? Is it okay to just write a list of stuff and call it poetry or throw paint at a wall and call it art? I don't know. But I think with children and new poets especially, it helps establish the habit if there aren't a bunch of rules to bog you down. So for this exercise, just have kids start writing, anywhere. Put a word in the middle of the page and write words around it. That becomes a shape poem. Make a grocery list and look for sound patterns. 

"twelve yellow lemons" 

"squash to nosh"

"ruby red grapefruit"

"green beans" 

It's all about the celebration of words. Oh and for the littles, sorry, forgot to list activities for them. The best exposure is to give them brightly colored and musical toys to explore with all their senses. Not the electronic ones, please. Avoid those. Toys with real bells, shakers and noisemakers that's the kind I mean. Oh and give them cloth books to touch and feel. Mr. Max loves his fuzzy tails book from Omi and Opi. 

Ken Nesbitt Poetry4Kids has free printable poetry templates, poem patterns and poem lesson plans. Red Dragonfly on My Shoulder is a great Haiku read-aloud. We are teachers has more free printable poetry frames and templates.