"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - 4

Today the book club started out with an exciting competition - the big bookworms presented their character sketches of their own created child-characters, who have 'supposedly' won the fifth golden ticket for visiting Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory. Umm Uzair distributed among kids folded pieces of small papers with numbers in them - this way, kids got to know the order, in which they would be presenting. As each child came up in front, Umm Uzair wrote their number and name on the whiteboard, along with the name of their created character. Masha'Allah, we had nine presenters and this is how the list looked like:

We really enjoyed hearing the presentations, seeing the illustrations and even live demonstrations of the children's stories, Alhamduillah. All the children had put good effort into creating their characters and all of them really could have been the fifth finders of the lucky tickets.

However, we had to find the one winner of our competition. So after hearing the character sketches, Umm Uzair once again distributed small pieces of paper to all mothers and children in the room, on which they wrote the number of the presentation they liked the best. She later counted the votes and got an obvious winner - Hibatullah (the youngest of all our participants!!!) with her character of  Ted Khan, who never liked to take shower and was tricked into washing his hands and mouth by his parents, who promised him in return a Mr. Wonka's chocolate bar, which turned out to be the lucky holder of a golden ticket. Here is part of Hibatullah's story, which she wrote out all by herself:

Hibatullah's Ted Khan

And here are some of the other stories we heard today:

Muadh's Jesse Meany

Hajrah's Chexy Flexy

Ayesha's and Maaria's story - part 1

Ayesha's and Maaria's story - part 2

Sohaib's Thackery

Uzair's Peter Shy

Hafsa's Elizabeth Boutique

Hafsa's illustration for Elizabeth Boutique

 After the competition presentations, the big bookworms continued reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl to find out who the real winner of the fifth ticket was.

As the story continued, Charile's life took a turn for the worse: his father lost his job and meals at home became scarcer than ever. Charlie showed certain wisdom that only children can; by moving more slowly, not going out to play and setting off for his walk to school much earlier than usual, he would conserve some of his body's energy. His family was fretting with worry, they could see he was starving, and no matter how they tried to give him their share food, the good little fellow refused to take it. It was now, when things seemed like they could get no worse that a wondrous thing happened... what could that be? I bet you can guess, and surely you are right! Follow along with the us, bookworms, if you can, tonight...


The small bookworms heard a wonderful story about a Giant - presented by Fatima and her mother. It was "The Smartest Giant in Town" by Julia Donaldson. The main character of the book George the giant wished he wasn't the scruffiest giant in town. So, one day, when he saw a new shop selling giant-size clothes, he decided it was time for a new look. With smart trousers, a smart shirt, stripy tie and shiny shoes, George became a totally new giant. But, on his way home, he met various animals, who desperately needed his help... and his clothes!

As Fatima and her mother read this wonderful picture book, the other bookworms had to guess, which animals needed which of George's clothes. At the very end of the book, the animals thanked George for his kindness with a very special gift. What the gift was? Read the book to find it out! :)

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - 3

This week, the big bookworms continued reading about the adventures of Charlie in Roald Dahl's book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". We read about the first two finders of Mr. Wonka's golden tickets: the nine-year-old, enormously fat boy Augustus Gloop, who muched on sweets all day long, and the spoiled little brat girl Veruca Salt, who always got from her rich parents whatever she wished for.

We also read about Charlie's birthday and his only b-day present - his very own Wonka's chocolate bar. We listened with very hopeful hearts that he would find the ticket... but his chocolate bar was not among the lucky ones. Although Charlie's parents and both sets of grandparents tried to keep up his spirits and encouraged him for enjoying his chocolate, the truth was that somewhere deep inside all of them were sad that Charlie didn't get the golden ticket.

Afterwards, we learned about two more finders of the golden tickets: Miss Violet Beauregarde, who was famous for continuous chewing of gum, and armed with eighteen toy pistols Mike Teavee, who all day sat at TV watching gangster movies.

As we got to know the lucky finders, Umm Uzair announced a competition for us. She said that for the next book club, we have to come up with a fifth child character, who would fit in nicely with the four ones we had read about. We had to give the character a name, describe some of his/her weird qualities and tell, how he/she found the golden ticket. Umm Uzair promised that the winner will be determined by voting and a prize would be awarded for the best character! Good luck to all the bookworms!!!

Our younger bookworms listened to a story about a big hippo, who bullied any animal that crossed his path... until he kicked a buzzing ball! It "bee" -came a life changing event in the hippo's life.

Following the story, Umm Abdullah demonstrated different mannerisms of a guest visiting a friend and asked the children to decide, which was the correct way to behave and which wasn't. The children were then asked to demonstrate good manners for the rest of the group to watch as well. It was a fun laughter filled activity to round off the day.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - 2

Our senior Book Worms continued reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, beginning with a story about a queer Indian prince, continuing with the strange observation that the amazing factory never had any workers entering it or leaving it and yet it churned out delicious chocolate, and ending with the exciting announcement that Mr. Willie Wonka would be hosting five lucky children on a tour of his scrumptious factory.

After listening intently, the children were prompted to ponder over the story of the strange prince, who had Mr. Wonka build him a chocolate palace to live in. The magnificent palace eventually melted in the summer heat. What would have happened if someone in Karachi had commissioned a similar home? The following is the outcome of our Book Worm members imagination:

The group of smaller bookworms started their reading by following the mischief of Peter the rabbit. One day, Peter’s mother sent him and his sisters off to woods to look for some berries. Sisters, as good little rabbits, listened to their mommy, while Peter right away decided to go for some forbidden enjoyment – farmer McGregor’s garden. Peter stuffed himself with fresh and crunchy vegetables so badly that his tummy started aching. And, if that was not bad enough, the farmer McGregor noticed him and started chasing him all over the garden. Only barely did Peter make it out of the garden unharmed, although he had to part from his shoes and jacket, which he lost in fleeing from Mr. McGregor. As we read the book, bookworms took turns lifting the flaps of the book and searching for the hiding places of Peter the rabbit on every page – that was fun!

In the second book, we got to meet Poldy, the scarecrow, and his friends birds, along with whom we learned about colours. Poldy and his friends landed in a dark jungle, where they suddenly saw splashes of colours all around them. They discovered that these bright colours belonged to parrots, so that they can recognize each other in the dark jungle. Later, they met two children, who taught Poldy more about colours and even coloured his body and clothes with all sorts of beautiful colours. However, accidently, Poldy fell into water and all his colours got washed away.

As we read about the beautiful parrots, we had some discussion about these birds. It turned out that at home Aasiya had four nice parrots of her own! Noor had just the day before visited a family, which also had a parrot, which was flying all over their home! She even told us of the strange noise the parrot was making. We also discussed about how parrots learn to speak. Umm Uzair suggested that they do it very similarly to how babies learn to talk – if they hear some words being repeated over and over again, then they start mimicking these words and eventually learn to speak them. She also told the bookworms a joke about a parrot.

After reading, bookworms had activity of making their own parrots. They coloured the bodies of the parrots Umm Uzair had prepared for them and then folded from coloured paper wings for them.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

We were happy to come together again after a two-weeks break due to heavy rains in the city and the security issues due to the protests against the video made about our Prophet (sa). 

Today's reading for the group of elder kids: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl (chapters 1 & 2). 

As we got in mood for starting our first chapter book in book club, all of us had to admit that we do love chocolate (except Uzair, who is not fond of chocolate at all). When asked, if we had heard before of this Roald Dahl's book, some of us replied that we were familiar with it, some had seen the movie version of it, while for others it was the first time they heard of it. We made ourselves comfortable for the reading and the story began... As Umm Uzair was reading the first two chapters, we  met Charlie's family - his parents and two sets of grandparents - and, of course, Charlie himself. We learned that Charlie's family was very poor, they barely had enough food to eat and that Charlie absolutely adored chocolate, which he got to taste only once a year - on his birthday. We tried to visualize, what it was like for Charlie to live in such poor conditions and what he must have felt like, when he saw other kids eating candies daily, while he knew his parents could not afford to buy any for him. We also learned that the town Charlie lived in had the biggest chocolate factory in the world, owned by Mr Willy Wonka - a great inventor of all sorts of sweets.

After reading, we worked on book-based word search, competing with each other, as to who will get all the words first. The grid was huge and the task was not easy, but many of us successfully managed to find all the words.


As the elder children began their journey through a mouth watering novel, the younger kids accompanied a little bird through his quest in search for his mother. This baby bird could not fly but he could walked and eventually he ran to seek out his beloved mum though he did not know what she looked like. Our little Book Worms enjoyed this story by the ever popular Dr. Seuss.



Next the little Books Worms put together a short story about a little boy who manages to get out of a tangle (of hair) with the help of his father. After viewing the book and discussing the images their though were put together and narrated as a story by Umm Abdullah.

The session was wrapped up with the children making paper tulips using their hands as a stencil for the flower. You too can make this simple and elegant bouquet by following the instructions here: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/flowers/handprintflower/

"Come Over to my House"

With today's book club, we started a new setup for reading - kids were divided into two groups: (1) up to 5 yrs children and (2) those over 5 yrs old. Insha'Allah, beginning from the next week, the reading groups will expand to three, adding a separate group for the elder (10+ yrs) boys, who will start reading a chapter book and discuss the plot and characters of it in more detail. 

The elder group's reading for the day was Dr. Seuss' book "Come Over to my House". Before starting on the book, kids had a discussion about the differences they have noticed in the lifestyles of people, as they travel to other countries. Food, of course, topped the list, which then expanded to the types of houses people live in etc., etc. We talked also about what is particular about Pakistan - the country that we live in.

The book took us on a journey all over the world, showing us the houses kids live in, the food that they eat, the ways they wash themselves, sleep and have fun. As we turned the pages, we tried to guess by the pictures and the setups, which continent/country is shown. Sometimes it was easy, as the clues were very clear, but at other times it was difficult. After all the different settings we saw, the book ended with the following conclusion:

There are so many houses
you'll meet on your way.
And wherever you go,
you will hear someone say...
"Come over to my house!
Come over and play!"

Thus, even though there are so many different cultures in the world, kids are everywhere the same - all of them have friends whom they love to invite to their house over to play. :)

The younger Book Worm Club members journeyed through a few short stories. The first book was a delight for all cat lovers, as they pondered over the dilemma of an old man and his wife who had to chose a single cat from amongst not one or two cats but  "hundreds of cats, thousands of cat, millions and billions and trillions of cats!"

Our next book took took us deep into a dark wood to visit some baby owls and their mother. Then when the  baby owls found their mother gone, they sat and they thought (all owls think a lot)....where could she have gone and what should they do? The Book Worm Club members wondered too.

Little Book Worm Zakariyya was thrilled to hear his favourite books being shared with his friends and after the two stories were read rushed to bring another of his favourite books, closely followed by his elder brother Sulaiman who also returned with a similar book. Thus the Book Club enjoyed another two short books:  Red Hat, Blue Hat about an absent minded turkey who has trouble with clothing, and Moo, Baa, Laa which explores the language of the animal world.

After the books were read and laughed over, the little Book Worms shared colour pencils and crayons to construct paper fans under Lubna Aunty's guidance. Soon everyone fluttered their home made fans to cool themselves on that hot summer story filled day.

We're back!

Our summer + Ramadan break is over and the bookworms book club is back again, Alhamdulillah! We are happy to announce the starting of the new session for which many of you so eagerly have been waiting. To say the truth, even moms were eager to meet again, as nothing can refresh better the soul of a homeschooling mom than extensive talks with other homeschooling moms. :) 

Our today's reading: "How to be a Happy Hippo"by Jonathan Shipton

Before venturing into the book, the kids brainstormed ideas about the things (except sweets) that make them happy. It somehow turned out to be a general trend that most of kids loved to go or travel somewhere - and best if even to another country! Traveling by plane was also mentioned a few times. Thus, we can conclude that our bookworms do love to be on the go. :)

About the book: Horace Hippo has everything a hippo could want or need - well almost everything... Horace's dad is a very busy hippo, and Horace never gets to see him. So when Horace's dad promises to play with him one day, Horace waits all day and night. Finally, having become fed up waiting, Horace digs a hole, covers it with grass, and traps his father as he walks out in the morning. Horace's dad takes it all with good humor and the two then spend the entire day together! In fact, as we read the book, some mothers suggested that we should read this book for all the busy dads as well. :)

After the reading, the kids enjoyed their "social time" playing with their long-not-seen friends. Snacks was a welcome ending of the session, as usual.

From today on, we will be holding our book club sessions regularly again, Insha'Allah. 

Bookworms on Summer Break!

After our grand Bookworms Presentations on May 2, book club is taking a summer break. There are plenty of workshops for kids around the city this summer, Alhamdulillah, so we hope you will keep yourself busy. Plus, if you miss your book club friends, this is a good chance for visiting each other! Check back on our blog for further notices about re-starting of book club in the fall.