A few weeks ago I was online looking for new library activity ideas and came across a Book Tasting activity with a fun musical chairs twist on one of my favorite blogs, The Unquiet Librarian. I shared the idea with two of our sophomore teachers, Coach Maxey and Coach Keefner, who were excited to try it out to introduce their students to some new books.
1. The first part of the activity involved a musical chairs twist. Students walked around the chairs while the music was playing and had to sit in the chair directly next to them when the music stopped. Since it is rodeo season here in Houston, we played classic Garth Brooks songs and everyone had fun with it. yeehaw!
2. Students had 7 minutes to “taste” the book and fill out a score sheet that was located in that spot. They examined the cover of the book, the summary, read the first few pages of the book, and then wrote a reaction/response to their reading experience. We had 4 rounds of musical chairs/book tasting and then students had a free choice round where they chose a book from the table that they wanted to look more closely at.
3. At the end, students were given an opportunity to check out any books from the book tasting activity….and they did! There were at least 7-8 books checked out during each class period!
Students were completely engaged and excited about the book tasting. It gave them an opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and spend some time with books that they might not normally check out.
Thank you to Buffy Hamilton for the great activity and materials!