Celebrating THE ADVENTURES OF THE BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS with MARCIA THORNTON JONES

THE ADVENTURES OF THE BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015! The 64 titles in the original series combined with the 19 titles in the BAILEY CITY MONSTERS and BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS JR. CHAPTER BOOKS spin-off series provide a multi-age, multi-level, multi-interest reading list that could last an entire school year for students in grades 2-4! Help celebrate the BSK’s 25th anniversary using these Common Core Initiative Standards (reading literature and writing) and NCTE standards (standards 3 6, and 7)!

1.      Write one-line summaries on index cards for each chapter of the BSK adventure you read. Shuffle them and see if a friend can put them in the correct order. When you’re done, illustrate your cards and use them to make your own graphic novel!
2.      Become the Bailey School Kids! Write a script highlighting the main plot events in the beginning, middle, and end of the book you read. Act it out for your friends!
3.      Fold a piece of paper into fourths to make four columns. Label each column with a character’s name: Howie, Melody, Liza, and Eddie. Brainstorm adjectives that describe each character and add them to the appropriate column, then look through your book to find examples of actions, words, and descriptions that support your adjective choices. Be sure to show your results by writing the page numbers in the appropriate columns.
4.      Did something in the BSK adventure remind you of something that happened to you? Write a memoir about it.
5.      What should be the next story in the series? Brainstorm a list of titles that would make great additions to the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series. Practice authentic persuasive writing by sending a letter to the publisher to let them know! But you don’t have to wait for Marcia to write one. You can create your own fan fiction!

Want to celebrate with me in person? Author visits are a great way to celebrate reading, writing, and core content. Here are a few ideas to support a scheduled visit using core content standards.

1.      Write a letter to the PTA, principal, and/or superintendent to convince him/her/them that inviting an author to your school is important.
2.      Marcia T. Jones has published more than 130 books! How many can your class read before she arrives? Keep a record using a graph.
3.      What makes a book good? Brainstorm a list of criteria for judging whether a book is good or not. Now, read three of Marcia T. Jones’s books. Rate each one using the criteria you listed!
4.      What books by Marcia T. Jones are your school’s favorites? Conduct a survey of all the classrooms in your school. Make a chart of your findings and post it in the library! How can the information you learned help your librarian and classroom teachers?
5.      Does inviting an author increase reading enthusiasm in your school? Conduct before and after research by recording the number of times books by Marcia T. Jones are checked out from the library. Compare the ‘before visit’ results with ‘after visit’ check-outs!

Interested in scheduling an author visit? Visit www.MarciaTJones.com for information about author visits as well as for more reading/writing activities--including two plays. You can also message me on LinkedIn and Facebook.

(Illustrations by John Steven Gurney)

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