CCH Literature Fair

In November, our homeschool group hosted its first Literature Fair. We modeled ours after this one, based in Georgia, that I had read about it a few years ago on Homegrown Learners. It looked like something our kids would really enjoy doing, so over the summer a few friends and I adapted it to work for CCH and we saw the fair come to life one cold November night.

For the Literature Fair, students choose a book to read, a topic to research, then prepare a display. The night of the fair, they are interviewed about their book and research by a judge.

Rosemary chose to read Dolphin Tale, the Junior Novel and research prosthetics. Benjamin wanted to make a display about the Great Smoky Mountains, so he chose to read When I Was Young in the Mountains. Although that’s not technically set in the Smokies, he figured that the Appalachians in West Virginia were close enough.

Sixteen very enthusiastic Literature Fair participants

Our exceptional judges, and some of my very favorite people

A few of the families. We hosted the fair at night to allow families to attend all together. It was great that so many dads were able to be there.

And a few of the displays by the kids:

Ben was very proud of his display. He painted the entire background of his board on his own and helped to make the cornbread. He also carefully built his log cabin out of his Lincoln Logs.

Rosemary worked very hard on her project, too. While she didn’t receive a ribbon, it was still a really great learning experience (for her and for me). As a result of this experience, Rosemary got to meet Kevin Carroll, one of the prosthetists who worked with Winter to create her tail. That was one of the highlights of our entire year, let alone this project.

Kevin Carroll, Rosemary and Ben (thanks, Kyra, for making this happen!)

Denise did such an amazing job with the refreshments. They were delicious and such a nice touch. I just wish I had a better picture!

To wrap up the night, the kids were presented with certificates and the top three in each age level (except K-1st) received ribbons.

K-1st graders

2nd-3rd graders

4th-5th graders

6th-9th graders

It was a lot of work to make this happen this first year, but we are so excited about doing in again in 2015. It really provided us with an opportunity to dig deeper into a book and learn something new.