Book and Activity

For years the kids and I did a book and activity. We would read a book and then do some kind of activity. Back in the day when everyone was coming up with clever names for stuff several people called this a “Booktivity,” I don’t know if that’s still a thing. I thought it might be helpful for you to see all of our booktivities in one place.

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What will not be in our book and activity post

While I have many many book and a movie posts with activities, I will for the most part not be including these posts. I might include the picture books for this, but as a general rule, I will not.

I will also not be including any preschool units, because those are usually for several different picture books. So as a general rule, I’m not including those, but a few might have slipped in.

Finally, I’m not including any of my nursery rhyme lessons. I don’t really know why, but that was the rule I made for myself.

If you’re in a record state, you could print off this Printable homeschool book log to keep track of all the books you use.

Picture Book and Activity

This is an odd assortment of book and activity lessons, and some of these are not necessarily tied to a particular picture book, but a type of picture book. This section also includes quite a few writing lessons.

• How to use picture books to teach maps
• How to write the Unexpected Twist– for picture books with twist endings
• Leaf Men– pipe cleaner dolls
• Laura Numeroff (If You Give a…)
• Fairy Tale birthday party
• Using picture books to teach writing
• Danny and the Dinosaur writing lesson
• Learn about Compound Words (I Once Saw a Bull…frog)
• Finding Facts in Tall Tales (Ima Hogg and Strap Buckner)
• Finding the Elements of Story (Tom Sawyer picture books)
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Make Way for Ducklings
• Mortimer’s First Garden and Sunflower House (Sunflower art project)
• Gingerbread Man
• Koala Lou– Mem Fox is a treasure
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
• Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Me on the Map lesson– this is just one of several in this unit

Holiday book and activity

I guess I could have left these on their specific holidays, but I started to include them, so it’s too late now.

• Gingerbread Pirates
• Froggy’s First Christmas
• Jan Brett’s the Easter Egg

Historical book and activity

Most of these are picture books, but are more for history lessons, than a traditional picture book.

• Goliath (Great Baltimore Fire)
• The Big Cheese (Thomas Jefferson’s presidency)– teaching how to summarize a story
• Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers
• Legend of the Indian Paintbrush
• Pecos Bill
• Legend of the Bluebonnet
• Aesop’s Fables lesson
• Cesar Chavez lesson
• Last Mule of Gee Bend
• Sequoyah lesson
• Muhammad Ali
• Greatest Showman (PT Barnum)
• Battle of Baltimore (Star Spangled Banner)
• Abraham Lincoln Crosses a Creek

Just a few science book and activity

Hmmm….. I apparently have only a few that are easily set aside as a book and activity, but I suspect there might be more.

• Florida Evergaldes
• I’ve only found one so far, I know there are more hiding in the recesses of my blog

Novel book and activity

We had a few novels that became book and activity ideas beyond our book and a movie night. I will give you the caveat these are primarily Harry Potter ideas (though most could easily be adapted to almost any fantasy book).

• DIY Harry Potter costumes
• Magician’s wand
• Mystery of the Missing Dog– this is an early chapter book, so early it’s almost a picture book, I know many books use invisible ink, so you can use this easily for many books