How to Eat Fried Worms

I've shared a few times recently about our Boys' Book Club and the books we have read. You can see Stone Fox and Winnie the Pooh.  We also read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I didn't host those so I don't have pictures or activities to share. (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be EASY and fun! I know the mom that hosted used those candy buttons as the lickable wallpaper!)

Our next turn to host was after reading How to Eat Fried Worms. I learned a few lessons with this one. First, the kids that attend really NEED to have read the book beforehand for it to be fun (I know this should be common sense...). Second, there IS a limit to the number of boys you should have. HA! They were way less interested in this because they just wanted to go outside and we had enough that there were some arguments.

BUT...the book was fun and hosting was a lot of fun, too!

Snacks were the best part...

I had some ideas for looking at the parts of a worm and talking about the book, but we had a fair few that hadn't read and they were restless so we turned on the movie instead...

The boys thought this one was HILARIOUS. It's a good read for elementary kids who will be delighted by the disgusting topic!

Winnie-The-Pooh

I've been doing recaps of our Boys' Book Clubs of the past because I'm not sure I ever shared them here. We've been doing a lot of reading together at home during our pandemic lives and it made me think about these...You can see our Stone Fox post HERE and our The One and Only Ivan post HERE.

Our second book for Boys' Book Club was Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne. An old classic, and one I wasn't sure 3rd graders would be interested in, but they actually liked it! This one was less labor-intensive with not so many activities (the snacks are always the best part and then they really want to play), but they loved it! 

We ate Honeycombs cereal and Teddy Grahams, "Tigger Tails" (puffy Cheetos) and "Pooh Sticks" (pretzel sticks). I can't remember if I had honey sticks or not, but for some reason I *THINK* we did.

After we fixed our snack plates, I read Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick. If you haven't read this, RUN out and get it right now. It is such a precious story of the details behind Winnie-the-Pooh. I love it and I almost cry every time I read it. (I read it last year to James' 4th grade class and even they loved it!)

I also bought "Pooh ears" for the occasion and thought they'd NEVER wear them. Well...

And finally, we purchased and watched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which follows many of the stories in this first Pooh book.

Another successful Boys' Book Club was enjoyed by all!

The One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is one of our FAVORITE read-alouds ever. It is just such a beautiful book! Based on a real-life gorilla that lived out his final days at Zoo Atlanta (I visited him many times growing up), Ivan is a "shopping mall gorilla," that is on display in a glass enclosure in Tacoma, Washington. A very fictionalized version of his real-life story, we meet Ivan and some of the animals he is friends with in his lonely existence. 

After reading our book, we invited a friend over for our first-ever Boys' Book Club experience. It was SO FUN. We had book-themed snacks...

(Chocolate donut holes are "Me Balls." Me Balls are Ivan's name for poop. As gross as that is, the boys thought it was HYSTERICAL.)

(Grapes and Trail Mix, which consisted of popcorn, Froot Loops, Circus Peanuts, and Animal Crackers.)

Will dressed for the occasion!

(One activity was to design Ivan's domain. There was a LOT of description of Ivan's shopping mall home and I asked the boys to draw what they thought it looked like. You can find this worksheet HERE. Will's TOTALLY impressed me. When we did this, he was only 6 years old. He is NOT my academic child, but he is super creative. I wish I'd labeled everything he added to the domain below, but you can see that he is on a tire swing, he has bars, there are banana peels, I think there's a red blanket, etc. I was SO PROUD and impressed! The big boys added one or two things and then moved on. LOL!)

We also did Ivan handprints. These turned out so cute! I love a cute piece of handprint art!

Finally, we showed the boys some documentaries I found on YouTube of the REAL Ivan. Similar stories HERE and HERE. This was before the movie was made, but you can also find Disney's version of this on their streaming service. Katherine Applegate has also written a sequel to the story called The One and Only Bob about Ivan's canine friend who lived with him in his domain.

If you haven't read this, it's an EXCELLENT one to add to your library and share with your children. It DOES have some sad moments, so be aware, but the story is just so beautiful.

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