If you have been here for a bit, you know we love a good book party! One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is being able to throw these fun activities together and spend the morning discussing all things books. This year, we read the Wild Robot series by Peter Brown and it won over all our hearts (adults included).
Here’s a synopsis of the book from GoodReads in case you haven’t started this series.
“Can a robot survive in the wilderness?
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is—but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island’s unwelcoming animal inhabitants.
As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home—until, one day, the robot’s mysterious past comes back to haunt her.”
You are just going to have to trust me that this book had it all – heartwarming, comedy, sweet characters… (and as a Mom, I cried… multiple times. No shame!)
We held out party after we finished all three books in the series, but you can totally just read the first and still party it up!
The Party Activities
On the day of the party, I served hot chocolate (to go with our marshmallow robot creations). Also pretzel sticks as “sticks” to dip in chocolate hummus (mud). Plus lots of activities to complete! Here’s a look at some of the things we did…
- Activity sheets from this bundle (we love the mix and match robots activity, landform activity, and draw your own island!)
- Learning to draw the characters (free on TPT)
- Coloring sheets
- Marshmallow robots (I simply gave them different sized marshmallows and toothpicks to build their own robots… it was simple and they got a kick out of it)
- Copywork for my oldest in her journal (the prompt was: Who is your favorite character?)
- Discussed our favorite characters and why, talked about the setting, our favorite parts, which of the four was our favorite book, themes such as community, accepting those who are different than us, , family, survival, compassion
- Listened to the Wild Robot movie score in the background
- Painted their nails silver (like Roz), which they were very jazzed about
After we finished, we also went to the theater to see the movie and it was such a fun family day. We discussed movie and book differences.
These parties for my kids are not elaborate by any stretch, but it is just about discussing books together in a fun way and encouraging a love of reading. I want them to reflect on the things we’ve read and begin to learn to dive a little deeper, without reports or tests or quizzes that often kill a love of reading. It is about togetherness and enjoyment… a warm beverage and good conversation with a few fun things! I hope they always look back on these parties as a fond memory of time spent together enjoying exciting stories and good literature.
