Dinosaurs Before Dark

I made a poster that says "Magic Tree House Book Club" which I placed in the library to help direct families to the right room. 

When the children and parents walked in, they were greeted at the check-in table. The sign-in form asked for the child's name, parent's email address, phone number, and approval to post photos of their child on my blog. I used these email addresses to send reminders about upcoming meetings the day before.

While the parents signed in, the children got to choose from three Magic Tree House bookmarks. You can find these at http://www.magictreehouse.com/teachersclub/resource_center/pdfs/0-welcome-kit.pdf.

I summarized the first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark, and asked the children a variety of questions about the book.

When we arrived at the part in the book where the tree house spun and took Jack and Annie to dinosaur land, each child received a Dizzy Pill (which is actually a tootsie roll) to help make them less dizzy. After eating their Dizzy Pills, the children were instructed to spin around three times, as if they were in the spinning tree house.

When we got to the part in the book where Jack wrote in his notebook, I showed the kids the notebook I made that has all of Jack's notes in it.

During our book discussion, we took a craft break. Just as Jack found a medallion with the letter M on it in dinosaur land, we made our own medallions to wear on all our adventures with Jack and Annie. Prior to the meeting, I cut 3" circles from gold paper, hole punched them, and tied yarn through them to make a necklace. At the meeting, the kids wrote the first letter of their name on their medallions and enjoyed decorating them with crayons.

At the end of the meeting, we made a dinosaur mobile with pictures of the four dinosaurs that were in the book - the Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Anatosaurus. The children colored and cut out the four dinosaurs. Then, I went around to hole punch and tie yarn around each dinosaur, attaching them to metal hangers.

I was thrilled to have 17 children show up for the very first meeting - what a great turn out! So many children and parents came up to me after the meeting, saying how much they enjoyed the book club and appreciated all my hard work.