Dog Theme Classroom Favorite Books Display

The 5th Grade Gifted and Talented Reading class has been voting books into the "Favorite Books" list for the year.  Each student designs a cover illustration for the book as part of the homework assignments and has one week to finish. Then, I take the illustrations to other teachers in our building to choose their favorite "book cover."

 The next day I show the students the top 5 choices (just to build momentum....) and then announce the choice. The winning cover is presented in class to applause. Then it is framed and added to the wall display.

The students take this assignment very seriously because the artwork will be on the wall in the front of the class for the rest of the year. They have said that they are trying to make it very difficult on the teachers who choose the winner for each book.

Since our classroom is decorated in Dog Theme, we have "ARF" Favorite Books as the slogan. Students took over this idea. One student choose a dog photo and drew the silhouette on black tagboard. He cut it out and it looks like the Jack Russell puppy it's supposed to be! A small group of girls took over the poster with the slogan. (They were quite creative with the silvery lettering for "ARF." They didn't have an R, so they made one from an upside down "J" and a piece of another letter.)

Here is a close-up of The Witch of BlackBird Pond and The Keeping Room.

Here are winning illustrations of The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker and My Brother Sam is Dead.
Aren't they beautiful?

The next cover illustration to join the wall display - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry will be voted on tomorrow but I couldn't wait to post this. I'll add the photo in soon - it's going to be a tough decision!

So, here is our winning illustration for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. There were so many great ones. I think having this display is keeping them engaged in the learning. They want to read a lot so that they can get another book illustration in the display.