Lemonade Book Bag

One of my favorite lessons to teach when I was a teacher was a book bag lesson. I would collect all kinds of things from a story, usually related to the setting, characters, plot, etc.  At the beginning of the lesson, I would take each item from the bag and let the students look at them.  I wouldn't talk about it at all.  The kids would then have some time to make a prediction of what the book may be about.  They loved reading the book afterward to find out if their predictions were right!

Here are Six Reasons I Love Book Bags

1.  They aid in prediction skills.

2.  Children are more engaged while reading a book after looking through a book bag.

3.  There is a sense of excitement when you show them the book you are going to read.

4.  It can help summarize the book when you are done reading.

5.  Book Bags can be done with ANY book!

6.  It is just plain fun!

I have wanted to do this with my boys (on their level), but didn't know what book I should try it with.  When I read The Lemonade Babysitter by Karen Waggoner, I knew that it was the right book for this activity!  This book is such a precious story, but I wasn't quite sure if the boys would have the patience to follow along with it when I read it.  Enter, the book bag!  I knew that if they had certain things to look for and listen for as we read the book they would be MUCH more interested and might start to appreciate the book the way I wanted them to.

The things I included in my Book Bag were...

1. A Toy Train

2. A Zoo Sign

3. A Lemon

4.  A Monkey Mask found at Craft Jr.  (in the book they try on hats and they looked like masks to me...ooops...my six year old still got the connection even though I was wrong and was at fault for not reading carefully)

5.  A Brush

6.  A Polka Dotted Bow Tie

7.  A Stuffed Bunny

The bag was sitting on our table all afternoon and my son kept asking what it was for.  By the time I let him look through it he was VERY excited to say the least.

My son was thrilled to pull the objects out of the bag one at a time.

"A bow tie!  What could that be for?"

For some reason the brush cracked him up!  He made some excellent predictions when I asked him what the characters in the story were going to do.  He guessed that they were going to play with a train, and play dress up using the brush, bow tie, and mask!

When he was done with predictions I showed him the book we were going to read and he was anxious to start.  He pointed out when we read about an item in the bag.  After reading, we looked back at all of the items and summarized the story.  Educational and fun!

After seeing this book bag you may be making some of your own predictions!  Let's see if they are correct!

The Lemonade Babysitter by Karen Waggoner is a sweet story about a little girl named Molly, who doesn't like having babysitters.  She would rather go to work with her mom, so when a neighbor, Mr. Herbert, shows up to take care of her one day, Molly does her best to make sure the man will not want to babysit again.  Molly is  surprised that Mr. Herbert doesn't mind when she does his hair, makes him take dancing lessons, and asks him to take her to the zoo.  Mr. Herbert takes great care of Molly and the have a terrific day.  At the end of the day, Molly appreciates Mr. Herbert and makes sure that she does something nice to him in return.

Were your predictions correct?

I know we will be trying more book bags in the future.  They are so easy to put together!

This is the last book on our lemonade list!  Be sure to check back tomorrow for a collection of all of our lemonade activities and books!