Spring Bookfest

We interrupted our Chocolate Unit for our Spring Bookfest, with special guests Heidi and Meg. Everyone had previously prepared a report or project on a book of their choice, and at the Bookfest we presented our projects to each other and had a nice lunch. We held the festivities outside in the backyard, using the playhouse porch as our stage. It was really fun!

For her project, Daisy made a matching tiny book to go with her favorite penguin book. I helped her take pictures of every page, print them out at a tiny size, and then she cut out all the page spreads and I helped fasten them together. She LOVES her tiny book!

She was cute doing her oral presentation, if a little giggle-y. :)

Abraham told us about an Encyclopedia Brown mystery involving an egg-spinning contest. He re-created the contest, told us the facts, and let the audience see if they could solve the mystery. It was really good.

Heidi talked about Sid Fleischman and some of the events in his life that inspired his books. I was particularly interested to learn that he wrote a biography of Mark Twain (I have only read his fiction). Abraham liked learning some details about Fleishman's background as a traveling magician, and we liked the reminder that when we write and re-write and revise again and again, "all that's wasted is the paper!"

I thought for sure I had taken a picture of Meg's presentation, but I can't find it! Cute Meg talked about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and taught us what she had learned in that book about philately (a new word she taught us, which means studying stamps and postal history). We learned about the 3 elements of a stamp (value, design, country of origin) and then Meg helped everyone make and decorate their own postage stamps! It was such fun!

Malachi gave his presentation on The Stokes Guide to Western Birds. He drew pictures of the baby, juvenile, and adult plumage for all his favorite birds (robins, bald eagles, yellow warblers, painted buntings, and flamingos) and told a little bit about each kind of bird. It was very informative! The little girls helped him by holding up the pictures.

Sebastian's presentation was on the DK Eyewitness book Electronics. He made a poster showing and explaining the different parts of a circuit board. He had a real circuit board which we could touch and look at, and then he explained how each component worked, and what its symbol would be on a circuit diagram. I learned a lot from this presentation!

Our Spring Bookfest was a rousing success and we hope to make this an annual (or semi-annual!) event. It was a fun day!