This year for summer reading, my twins were assigned to read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. I am so excited! I remember loving the Ramona books when I was a girl! I wanted to put a few activities together for my kids so that they would be motivated to read and to keep reading. As excited as I am about this book, I wanted some activities to be sure my boys stayed engaged as they read. I brainstormed a few ideas to share:
Idea #1: Draw a picture of Ramona from the beginning of the book, then draw another picture of Ramona from the end of the book. How did she change?
Idea #2: Some fill-in-the blanks like Ramona is ______________. She likes _____________. She doesn’t like __________________. For each chapter.
Idea #3: Define the words nuisance, plight, and arthritic.
Idea #4: Draw a picture of Ramona’s parents.
Idea #5: Recreate an event similar to one in the book.
- You could try drawing a picture of your foot like Mr. Quimby and Ramona do.
- Maybe you could do an experiment to see if you can tell the difference between a raw egg and a hardboiled egg without cracking them. Test your theories.
- You could make a meal together with chicken in yogurt and a pan of cornbread (you could make a regular pan of cornbread or improvise like Ramona does).
- If you are feeling really brave, you could replicate the meal Ramona & Beezus refused to eat (with tongue) and see what your family thinks.
Idea #6: Incorporate DEAR time. (Mrs. Whaley originally calls it Sustained Silent Reading and then changes it to Drop Everything and Read. You could talk with your child about which name he prefers and use that.)
Idea #7: In the beginning of the story, we learn that Ramona is staring off at Mount Hood through the window at school. Mount Hood is in Oregon and it may be fun to learn a few things about Oregon (that explains why she complains about the rain so much) with my boys so they can understand why she wears a coat in her car (we live in Houston—we almost never wear coats at all) or they don’t want to let their cat outside so they can save money on their heating.
Idea #8: Learn the song that Willa Jean refers to when she plays with Bruce and Ramona.
I also created a 3-page comprehension guide. You can print the pages and have your child write the answers or you can just read the questions to them and conduct a sort of comprehension interview. I hope this helps! Have you done any fun things with your kids while they read Ramona?
