Kids: Start a Club
Contents:
Now… pick a club theme and brain-storm away with all the great things you can do with each idea!
Sign Up for Our Monthly Newsletter!
Involving children in program planning is a vital part of quality school-age care curriculum. With experience, comes the knowledge of knowing what the children may like to do.
Thinking of starting a kids' club? Here's a template for how to start a club for kids from rural to urban to small town. For neighborhoods, parents, churches. Whether you are looking to start a math club, science, club, theatrical These after school club ideas are sure to help children develop socially.
Tell us what you want to do! Talk to them and other interested kids; inform them of a meeting to brain-storm ideas. At the meeting, empower the children.
20 Ideas for Starting a Book Club for Kids
If your program is large, do this with more than one group. It will be easier to facilitate, and will afford eachage-group a venue to voice its collective thoughts.
Discussing ideas also works during group, or snack time, or when children are simply chatting around a table. Ask if you may join them,then encourage discussionand active listening. Be sure to always address the suggestions you receive. Post a question of the week on various program topics. Another similar idea would be to put up a large sheet of roll paper. At the heading, either ask a different question each week. Place a large sheet of roll paper in area where there are no black boards or whiteboards.
Use any sub-title you like: The wall is a good tool for thought and spontaneous sharing. Consider hanging the wall where kids line up during transition times. This is also a wonderful resource for staff to review and use often! Check out this collection of discussion helpers! Make sure that the kids in your club are at a similar reading level. While adult book clubs can often get away with assuming their many members will all be able to get a lot out of a book, having radically younger members of a book club with kids who are older is likely to cause friction and maybe hurt feelings.
If there are multiple ages of kids, consider an older book and a younger book each time, so that the kids can focus on the book they find most satisfying. Consider adding a book-themed craft, like making cool book covers for your books. Craft time actually ends up being great time for discussion as glue is drying or paper is being cut.
Looking at their crafts displayed in their bedrooms can also remind children of how much fun book club is and how much they want to go to the next meeting. Check out this Magical Treehouse craft when reading the Magic Treehouse books!
WHERE DO YOU START? HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT COMING UP WITH KIDS CLUB IDEAS?
Another way to extend the fun is to turn book club into a lead-in for going to see the play version of a book, or a viewing of the movie version. Learning early about how to compare film, theater, and books is great for kids and feels like fun even when they are thinking critically.
If you want to make the meeting more interactive and engaging for high energy kids, consider adding a game!
Having a game in the experience will make the lessons of the book stay with the student for longer and keep everyone from wandering off. Games like Roll and Retell , linked below, can combine discussion with an action of rolling dice.
How to Start A Book Club for Kids . Reading & Language . Education | PBS Parents
Younger children may want to have the book read to them, rather than reading alone — there are few ways to make reading come alive for kids better than reading aloud, and if they make a friend while experiencing that joy, even better! Even for children as developed as 3rd graders, consider starting with these books , guaranteed to keep their attention through different characters and exciting action. Kids are often very familiar with workbook-like pages, and if you look up whatever book you are reading, you are likely to find printable pages that allow them to think through the book they have read and chat about it amongst themselves as they work on the pages.
When deciding about the books that children will read in the future, it might be helpful to provide a resource or a list of choices with summaries; while some older children will already have their own ideas, younger elementary school children will benefit from a narrowing of their choices to, perhaps, four options that they can later use if different children express different interests. Remember to send the parents home with their own little reminder, either about where the club will be next month or how to get in touch to make the planning happen.