Book Fair - A Celebration of Favorite Books!

Last spring, I did a Book Fair with my fifth grade students.  It was a huge success.  The kids loved making the project boards.  The project incorporated reading skills, writing skills, and creativity.  Plus, after projects were completed and displayed, kids in all grade levels could get ideas for their summer reading!  So, this year I collaborated with my fouth grade teacher friend and we did a 4th and 5th Grade Book Fair. We had about 200 projects on display in our library.  It was awesome!

For the project, students choose their favorite book they have read this year and create a Book Fair Project.

Here are the components that were required:

• Book title, author, publisher, and copyright date.
• Setting
• Main Characters and descriptions
• Plot Summary
• Conflict
• Resolution
• Tone or Mood
• Author's Purpose
• Genre

Students could add in extra things such as:

• Theme
• Author's biography
• Photos or other visual aids
• Book / movie comparisons 
• Book review
• Etc... (Really, the sky is the limit!  Or whatever will fit on the board!)

The best part of this project is that kids use their creativity when designing their board.  Kids used all sorts of things to decorate their board and they were all different, yet fantastic!

When I introduced the project, I sent home a letter to parents explaining the project guidelines, including due dates and links to project examples.

Here's the Book Fair Project Planning Sheet I had the kids use as a rough draft.

And now for some of the great projects!  I wish you could see them all!  Here's a small sampling of the fifth grade projects.

Once all the projects were on display in the library, I created a Book Fair Scavenger Hunt where students could have a chance to peruse the projects on display and look for certain projects that contained...a book that has an animal as a main character, a book that's purpose is to inform, a book that is set in a magical place, etc... My students loved this scavenger hunt.  It gave them time to look at and enjoy the projects, plus reinforced the skills that were taught during this project.

This project could be adapted for any grade level.  It's fun, engaging, and gets kids thinking (and hopefully, reading) some great new books!