Safari Reading Cafe

This idea was adapted from something I saw online (Thanks to Joanne Griffin). I thought this would be a great way for my students to practice their reading and be good role models to the younger students at our school. We went with the safari theme since that fits our classroom theme for the year.

The students were really excited when I told them about doing a reading cafe for our little buddies. We discussed the different jobs we would have: readers (read to the younger students), waiters (read the menu choices of stories to hear and bring snacks to the tables), and hosts (greet students and show them to their seats). The students chose their jobs after knowing what was involved for each one. Next, we spent time looking for books that the kindergarten and first grade students would enjoy listening to. The readers practiced reading their books to the other students in our class (waiters & hosts). I had 9 readers, 9 waiters, and 2 hosts. They practiced for about 2 weeks before we did an actual practice run with our whole class.

It took 20 - 25 minutes from start to finish for each class. Some of the readers read 2 or 3 stories depending on length. Our guests eagerly listened to stories while munching on animal crackers. It was a fun time for everyone!

Here are our hosts greeting the kindergartners at our classroom door.

One of our waiters reads the book selections from the menu to our guests.

Some of our wonderful readers--

Some of our hard-working waiters