Summer Reading

I started a Kid's Book Club for Noah and his friends this summer. Our first meeting was this morning. We kicked it off with everyone's favorite book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I figured most of the kids would have read it, and it would be an easy way to start right away. It was all kinds of fun!
We played "Wizard Chess" with our lawn chess set.
We followed that with "Quidditch" with water noodle brooms. Hi-lar-i-ous! Oh you really had to see 14 kids with a water noodle between their knees running away from 2 kids (the beaters) trying to catch a ball that I purposely chose to be really big so it was hard to catch with the other hand on the water noodle. They had to then dodge the beaters while trying to throw the ball through a hula-hoop. (Why do I only think about video-ing after the fact.) Then, I made 1 kid the "golden snitch." His whole purpose was to play keep away from the kid playing the "seeker." So all of these things were happening at the same time. The party could have ended right there and been a success!
Then came Potions, Charms and Care of Magical Creatures. After that we used Chris' buzzer system to ask trivia questions and called it their O.W.L.S. review.
We all dished up some food and sat down to discuss the book. I was so impressed with the kids. They really had some great thoughts and opinions. My favorite part of the discussion was when I read to them the first paragraph, of the first chapter, of the first book. It is about how Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were as normal as normal could be. I asked the kids what normal is, and who decides what normal is. Good discussion.
I made each of the kids a "Summer Reading Journal." I took a composition notebook and covered it with scrunched up paper bags and it looked like a old leather journal. Inside the front cover I attatched a reading scavenger hunt and then challenged the kids to make reading goals for the summer using the scavenger hunt for ideas. I had a great time, and I think the kids did as well.