October’s book for our wild+free book club was Charlotte’s Web. Most of us had already read this classic story, but I thought it would be fun to read it again during the month of October, when our own county fair was going on. We put on our own little fair for the kids, and it turned out pretty cute! These book clubs we are doing with our homeschool group has become something we all really look forward to each month. They bring the books to life and we celebrate literature with themed food, crafts, and activities, and sometimes costumes! If you want ideas on how to start your own book club, make sure you check out this post. I am excited to share the details with you from our Charlotte’s Web Book Club Party!
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White is loved by all, and is really a must-read, if you haven’t read this one yet. It’s good for all ages, too. I would think Charlotte’s Web would even be an adorable birthday party theme! And if you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know how much I love throwing kids birthday parties. So let’s jump right in!
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The Food Table
We tried to stink with the Fair food theme, and it was delicious!
- popcorn (I got these old-fashioned looking paper popcorn bags)
- Caramel apples (we had slices and dipping caramel)
- Lemonade
- corn dogs with ketchup and mustard
- homemade cinnamon and sugar donuts
- Pies
- Veggie tray
- Muffins
- cookies
I made this little sign on Canva that you can print for yourself HERE. I put it in a cheap frame the Dollar Tree and put a bit of fake spiders web and a little spider (from the Halloween section) and scattered some farm animal toys around the table. The red and white gingham tablecloths were thrifted and I have used theses for SO many parties. If you ever see some fabric gingham tablecloths at a thrift store, pick them up! I bet you will use them.
The Craft
I missed getting good photos of the kids making their craft because I was busy running the games, but they turned out cute. The kids did a crayon resist water color of a web. Some kids just painted what they wanted, some painted cute farm scenes. This is an easy low-cost project for kids of all ages. The younger ones can be assisted with drawing the spider web with a white crayon before using watercolors to paint over it.
The Games
The ducky game was fun but the mini ducks I picked up from Walmart were a bust- they wouldn’t float upright ! I wrote numbers 1-8 with permanent marker on the bottoms, and then each child picked a duck and got a prize that coordinated with the number. My baby was more interested in using the duckies as a teether.
Ring Toss is a classic! I already had this vintage wood Seven-Up case, so I just drank some pop and hard cider from glass bottles, and used those. I bought the rings from Amazon, and figure I would probably use this game again at future parties.
Knock the cans down was another hit. I bought the cheapest cans of green beans I could find, took off the labels, and stacked them up. Can’t much easier than that. I left the beans in the cans to make it a little more of a challenge than if the cans were emptied. But I forgot the tennis ball at my house! Luckily one of our mamas found a ball in their van, and saved the day. The older kids liked this game and played over and over again. It was quite entertaining to see homeschoolers try to make a single file line to play these games. They looked at me confused when I tried to direct them to stand in line.
The Prizes
Usually if we have games, we don’t hand out prizes, but I wanted the kids to feel like they were at the fair, so I gathered up all sorts of little goodies from my house to hand out to the kids as they won the different games. I didn’t buy anything for the prizes, most of these items were leftover birthday party favors! But if you need to buy items, head to the Dollar Tree and get things like pencils, erasers, stickers, crayons, little books, notebooks etc. Maybe even candy. I had a bunch of leftover peppermint patties that I added to the prize bins, but I didn’t want to hand out too much candy, especially with Halloween just around the corner. I brought brown paper lunch bags for the kids to write their names on so they could bring home all their little prizes.
- straws
- lots of different kinds of stickers
- mini coloring books
- mini Smokey The Bear pop-up frisbees
- pop-it sensory/fidget toys
- rubber bracelets
The Charlotte’s Web book club party went by super fast, as these things always do. It was really fun and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves, too. This is another book that I could have easily gone way overboard with. I love a good ole fashioned nostalgic county fair, and I thought about all the different games and foods and decorations I could have done. I thought about renting a popcorn machine… but of course I have a budget with these things, and sometimes simple is best. The kids don’t know what’s missing anyways. I am one to easily get carried away and to keep adding more. But I think even keeping this one simple, it turned out great!
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