We “Love” to READ Book Review and Bulletin Board Project

Today was a “late start” in my district…3 hours of professional development with the students coming at 11:00 (more on that later!)…then a quick hour of instruction, a different lunch hour, then a shortened afternoon…and this is coming off a “no school” Friday–and a snow/ice storm yesterday!

A Valentine’s Day Activity and Much Much More

As you can imagine, the students were a little . . . ummmm . . . excited? So what is a good teacher to do? ABANDON SHIP! I scrapped my plans for today and, instead, did an activity that I had planned for later in the week, our “We LOVE to read” bulletin board! It’s so easy . . . students simply pick one of the books they have read this year that they LOVE, write a brief book review, and then mount it on a colored heart background that they then decorate. Some years I hang this on my door, but last year I convinced my entire team to do it so we had 100 awesome heart-shaped book reviews down the hallway! It was so fun to watch the students stop and read all the different ideas!

What did my students get out of it? TONS!

1. We talked about books the ENTIRE time we worked…students made recommendations to each other, pulled out books to show others, and so on.

2. We talked about opinion writing–and clearly stating an opinion and giving a reason. Yes, sometimes we need to do big projects like five paragraph essays–but sometimes a manageable task like a single statement of opinion with one or two reasons can reinforce a skill as well!

3. All students were on equal footing and could participate equally. Whether a student’s favorite book was a picture book, Henry and Mudge, or Harry Potter–this project was accessible to all.

4. Because this was only a few sentences of writing, I was able to come around to EVERY child and do a little editing and conferring. What a great way to connect with every student!

We have so much curriculum and content to cover these days…so it’s wonderful to find an activity that works on key skills AND lets students be a little creative!

Hope this inspires you to celebrate books over the next few weeks!



Like the idea but just don’t want to have to think too hard? I put together the heart template, the letters to spell “We LOVE to read”, and other suggestions in my bulletin board resource. Here it is in case you want to take a peek. . . .(The one in my store is improved a little bit from what I did today!)

Meg