Welcome to Cafe Font- Serving Up Good Books Since 2006

Welcome to Cafe Font! 

Do you have a reservation? 

That's how I greeted each student when they arrived to school the other day for our Book Tasting. You see, we had just finished a Mystery Unit and my kids were resting on their mystery skills without visiting other genres. Mysteries were easy! They followed a pattern! They knew the characters! They were short! It was time to make a change. So Kelly, the quieter half of this blog, recommended Book Tasting! 

I found a great resource from Head Over Heels for Teaching and began planning the books and genres while turning my classroom into a Cafe. 

I was thrilled with how my room looked. 

This sign greeted my students when they arrived. 

Doesn't it look great!

Since it was hat day (in honor of Read Across America Week) my "staff" wore chef hats for our Cafe. 

Cafe Font Staff- Me, My Co-teacher, Student Teacher, and
Classroom Para

Greeting the kids with our reservation list. 

The kids had a blast tasting different genres. I used the menu for Head Over Heels for Teaching for my kids to document what books they desired to read in the future. The genre headings are from her product as well and made set up REALLY easy. After the kids rotated through 6 courses they used a reflective napkins to write about their experience (also from the product). The whole event took about 80 minutes and then Cafe Font was closed for another year. 

This activity was a great way to get my kids to taste (and hopefully read) new books. 

Have you ever held a Book Tasting session in your classroom? I'd love to hear about it!

Have a GREAT Weekend!