Vacation Under the Volcano

For warm up, the children decorated a picture of Hercules since that's the book Jack and Annie search for in Pompeii. Then, they rolled it to look like a scroll because in ancient Rome, books were written on papyrus scrolls.

I summarized the thirteenth book, Vacation Under the Volcano, 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 Rome, 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 notebook I made that has all of Jack's notes in it.

Then, we made gladiator shields. I passed out a blank shield to each child. They used crayons and AlphaBits to color and spell out words on their shields.

Our next craft was making a sundial, which was what the ancient Romans used to tell time. Each child colored a paper plate and numbered it 1-12, like a real clock. I helped the children punch a hole in the middle of their plate and insert a straw. When the children take their sundial home and place it in their backyard, the straw's shadow will point to a certain time.

At the end, everyone made their own volcano! By mixing four, salt, water, and oil, I made playdough prior to the meeting. Each child received a bag of this playdough, as well as a small water bottle. The children stuck the playdough around the water bottle to form the volcano. Then, they took home instructions on how to make the volcano erupt lava.

This meeting had an AMAZING turn-out! We had 28 kids show up. :) A reporter and photographer from the Acorn also came to interview me about the book club. I'm looking forward to seeing how the article turns out!