Chatterbooks Week! Activity Pack Reading and activity ideas for your Chatterbooks group Chatterbooks Week 11th – 18th October 2014 Chatterbooks Week 2014 is a celebration of Chatterbooks, the UK’s largest network of children’s reading groups, and of the fun that goes on in Chatterbooks sessions. It’s a chance for schools, libraries and individuals across the UK to introduce children to the pleasure of reading and sharing books by taking part in Chatterbooks activity, or setting up a Chatterbooks group. Here’s a special message from our Ambassador, Dame Jacqueline Wilson: “Taking part in this special Chatterbooks Week is a great way to carry on the fun and excitement of the Summer Reading Challenge and I know that Chatterbooks groups old and new will have a fantastic time getting together, finding out about great books and chatting. I can't wait to hear all about it!" This special Chatterbooks Week activity pack from The Reading Agency and Children’s Reading Partners, has session ideas which will work well when you’re starting a new group, or having a special party-themed meeting. In here you can also meet favourite authors who are our our new Chatterbooks Champions! For other themes for your Chatterbooks Week session have a look at our Jacqueline Wilson and Chocolates, Sweets and other Treats packs – or you could tie in with Star Wars Reads Day on October 11th. Chatterbooks [ www.readinggroups.org/chatterbooks] is a reading group programme for children aged 4 to 14 years. It is coordinated by The Reading Agency and its patron is author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Chatterbooks groups run in libraries and schools, supporting and inspiring children’s literacy development by encouraging them to have a really good time reading and talking about books. The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more through programmes for adults, young people and Children – including the Summer Reading Challenge, and Chatterbooks. See www.readingagency.org.uk Children’s Reading Partners is a national partnership of children’s publishers and libraries working together to bring reading promotions and author events to as many children and young people as possible. Contents 3 Warm ups 4 Activity ideas: a Chatterbooks Party! 7 Top Ten Books to make you happy 10 Chatterbooks Champions 12 Sample Chatterbooks session 2 Warm ups: getting to know each other, especially at the start of a new group. Roald Dahl’s birthday is on the 13th September. Does anyone have a birthday in September? Find out when each other’s birthdays are and see if you can line up in the right order of the months – and days – starting with September… A Roald Dahl version of the game ‘Port, Starboard’: Designate four corners as different characters from Roald Dahl books. These could be The BFG, Mr Twit, Charlie Bucket, and Matilda. Call out the names randomly – children then run to the right corner. The last one there each time is out! WORDSEARCH Find all these favourite storybook characters! MR GUM MR FOX WIMPY KID CINDERELLA BILLIONAIRE BOY SPOT CAT IN THE HAT ASTERIX HARRY POTTER PADDINGTON PEPPA PIG WALLY MARY POPPINS GRUFFALO Q W I M P Y K I D U W A L L Y Q M B M R E M N W C V Z S S F E W A A S G P A D D I N G T O N D R R R U U P L K R L G P E Y C B T Y E R M A G T Y T O L R L J G K P L B N P Z C G A B W I B H L R O G D X I L G J H C O X K V L E P P K G G L C V E Z F Q N Q M T P T U R W E R Y H J S K L X T T I B C U V R X C T H I B N O U O N R W F B E O D N V M Q P F G P S P U F R D E W I A E S F R R Y L R Y A K N P J T H T S G M V R X B I L L I O N A I R E B O Y R U T E O B C M B C V A S M G B A Z C B M L J G D A Q P T U X P H 3 Look for the words across, down, upside-down, and from right to left. The answers are at the end of this pack HAPPY SCRAMBLING! See if you can unscramble these Happy words! HAPPY THIDBARY You have one every year! HAPPY IFASMILE Mum and dad, and aunts and uncles HAPPY SMITCRASH December 25th THE HAPPY PERNIC A story by Antoine St Exupery HAPPY- OG-UCKLY Feeling carefree HAPPY WEN ERAY What you say on January 1st HAPPY AS A KARL A bird HAPPY VEER FRATE The last words of a story HAPPY TEFE Think penguin! HAPPY DINGEN The last part of something Activity ideas A CHATTERBOOKS PARTY! Start off with warm ups like the ones above. Make bunting to decorate the library – there are lots of online links to templates and instructions. Here’s a useful one! Get people to bring in scraps of bright material, or use plain material and use felt tips to decorate the flags with words and patterns. 4 Make party hats! Again lots of online links, just like this one. Cone shaped hats are easy to make and fun to decorate with shiny shapes and tassels and all sorts of collage-y things – or you could have paper or cardboard crowns. Don’t forget the party food! Crisps, squash, a special cake – maybe cupcakes decorated to show book titles. Or you could have a competition for a showstopper cupcake! And the games…. Enjoy traditional party games like Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs – or this Memory Game Get together 10 to 15 objects on a tray – eg. spoon, pencil, badge etc Give your group 1 minute to look at them and try to fix them in their memory. Cover the objects. Each person then writes down in a list as many objects as they can remember. The winner is the one who remembers most objects. 5 Alternate version: Cover the objects, remove one object – children then have to identify which object has been taken away. Repeat, removing a different object each time. The winner is the one with the most correct answers. Another activity which groups enjoy is making Shape Poems: It’s great fun to give your poem the shape of what you’re writing about. Valerie Bloom does this with Pyramid: A Stately Chamber where Vast treasures are hid And a variation on this is Grace Nichol’s Snowflake fluttering down the page Snowflake you little clown c a r n i v a l l i n g d o w n A small ghost kiss on my warm tongue. Or how about a heart poem? Write the words of your poem inside this shape (or draw a heart on a separate piece of paper) 6 See sample Chatterbooks session plan at the end of this pack. It’s taken from our new Chatterbooks Handbook – for full details see The Reading Agency Shop. Instead of goody bags have goody books! Here are some favourite books for your group to take home and enjoy – they are the top recommendations from children on our Summer Reading Challenge website. Vote in our poll for the most popular book! Top Ten Books to make you happy! No.1 Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid Puffin 978-0141324906 Let me get something straight: this is a JOURNAL, not a diary. This was Mom's idea, not mine. But if she thinks I'm going to write down my "feelings" in here she's crazy. The only reason I agreed to do this at all is because I figure later on when I'm rich and famous, this book is gonna come in handy. Today is the first day of school, so I figured I might as well write in this book to pass the time. Just don't expect me to be all "Dear Diary" this and "Dear Diary" that. Jeff Kinney is an online game developer and designer, and New York Times bestselling author. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Powerful People in the World. Jeff lives in Southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons. No.2 Roald Dahl The Twits Puffin 978-0141346397 Mr and Mrs Twit are extremely nasty, so the Muggle-Wump monkeys and the Roly-Poly bird hatch an ingenious plan to give them just the ghastly surprise they deserve! Roald Dahl, the much-loved children's writer, was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. After school in England he went to work for Shell in Africa. He began to write after "a monumental bash on the head", sustained as an RAF pilot in World War II. Roald Dahl died in 1990. Quentin Blake is one of the best-known and best-loved children's illustrators and it's impossible now to think of Roald Dahl's writings without imagining Quentin Blake's illustrations. No.3 David Walliams Gangsta Granny HarperCollins 978-0007371464 Our hero Ben is bored beyond belief after he is made to stay at his grandma’s house.