Do you have a reader that loves the My Weird School series? Author Dan Gutman has delighted many chapter book readers with his best selling books!  Now it's time to continue the fun with the My Weird School Fast Facts series to learn exciting, interesting, and even gross facts from science to history to everything in between. This great series is perfect for any My Weird school fan or nonfiction reader! 

As a licensed reading specialist and school librarian, I have designed a class to help foster the joy of reading and provide a fun and engaging book discussion group using this amazing series that will have your child excited to read and learn!

The class is structured so that students can join in anytime. Each week we'll have one of the Fast Books featured with a designated chapter and area of focus. Your child may have read that specific already, be in the midst of reading, or hasn't read it at all and all of those choices work for our club. The class is designed so that we will read and discuss the chapter during our class, working on reading skills, nonfiction responses, and engaging with lots of amazing facts! We will have time then to discuss, play games, and work on writing based on the information read. 

Given that the book is a nonfiction text and can be read in any order, you will see we cover different chapter that jump around the weekly book and that's part of the fun. Student voice and choice may help direct the conversation as we explore the designated chapter each week.  This allows for the students to take ownership in their learning.  I love to "hook" students on a text and then stop because my library students, and even my own kids, will say, "Can you just read one more chapter?"  After we have met within our book club with the selected book, your child will hopefully be inspired to read whatever chapters remain. My goal is to have created a passion for reading and desire to learn more thus leaving your child eager to read.

Each week with the given book, I will have a main literacy skill or focus to accompany the facts based on reading and/or writing.  You will notice each book is given two weeks, each with a different chapter and focus. Please see the schedule below for more specifics.

 I also will provide an optional "challenge" after each meeting that provide activities for families to work on outside of our class time. These optional activities are provided as a way for your child to complete an activity to further their reading and writing skills. Activities will vary from week to week and may include things such as a simple project, a reading response, building/creating, or even a drawing activity. Students will be encouraged to submit any challenges to me for feedback, but it is not required. 

If your child misses some of the reading for whatever reason, please know they can join in due to the fact that a nonfiction text does not have to be read in order. Your child can easily jump in our activities and discussion of nonfiction facts and information!

Please note: If you do not see a class time conducive to your schedule, please let me know. If you have a group of friends/family that would like their own class, I can create a private section at no additional cost. This can also work for home school groups or learning co-op groups. 

Please see the schedule below: 

1st week
Book 1: Geography, Chapter 1
Focus: Map skills

 2nd week
Book 1: Geography, Chapter 3
Focus: Continent Games and Activities

3rd Week
Book 2: Sports, Chapter 4 (basketball)
Focus: Writing facts with a graphic organizer 

4th Week 
Book 2: Sports, Chapter 10 (the Olympics)
Focus: Top Ten Fact List

5th Week - 
Book 3: Explorers, Presidents, and Toilets, Chapter 13 (Toilets) 
Focus: using a KWL chart

6th Week 
Book 3: Explorers, Presidents, and Toilets Chapter 12 (Fast Facts about Presidents)
Focus: Biographies

7th Week
Book 4: Space, Humans, and Farts, Chapter 3 (Solar System)
Focus: Using an anticipation guide

8th Week 
Book 4: Space, Human, and Farts, Chapter 9 (It's Alive)
Focus: Creating a Web (concept mapping)

9th Week 
Book 5: Dinosaurs, Dodos, and Woolly Mammoths, Chapter 1
Focus: 3-2-1 Activity

10th week 
Book 5: Dinosaurs Dodos, and Woolly Mammoths, Chapter 5
Focus: Reading for details--facts, opinions and True/False

11th Week 
Book 6: Dogs, Cats, and Dung Beetles, Chapter 2
Focus: Main Idea and Supporting Details

12th Week
Book 6: Dogs, Cats, and Dung Beetles, Chapter 3
Focus: Fact Finding Scavenger Hunt

13th Week 
 Book 7: Mummies, Myths, and Mysteries, Chapter 1 (Ancient Egypt)
Focus: Non-Fiction Text Features

14th Week 
Book 7: Mummies, Myths, and Mysteries, Chapter 2 (Ancient Greece)
Focus: KWL Chart (using prior knowledge, asking questions, and comprehension)

15th Week
Book 8: Pizza, Peanut Butter, and Pickles, Chapter 1 
Focus: Comprehension Strategies - finding answers in the text

16th Week
Book 8: Pizza, Peanut Butter, and Pickles, Chapter 2
Focus:  Making Timelines

As there are only 8 books currently in the series, we will focus on 1 book for a two week time period before moving to the next book. Once we have made it through all 8 books, the section will close and new ones will be posted with the same schedule.