How to Put On a Children's Book Auction
Educational Games Encourage Literacy and Teach Economic Skills
Jan 5, 2009
Children often value the items they work hardest to earn. Thus, playing educational games that let kids exercise their literacy skills to win books goes a long way in not only encouraging reading but also helping kids develop skills to be good readers. Here is a fun educational activity designed to promote a love of reading that can be adapted for schools or parties.
Educational Games for Kids
After children read and/or hear a story, hold an educational game where children answer questions about the story and earn points for correct responses. Don’t just give a pop quiz – make this an actual competition where each child decides what types of questions he or she wants to answer, earning more points for harder questions.
Quiz questions can range from basic (i.e. “What was the name of the girl hero in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?") to specific (i.e. “How many bananas did Arlo Moore need to eat in Tom Birdseye’s I’m Going to Be Famous to break a world record?") to very specific (i.e. “According to Lemony Snicket’s The Bad Beginning, what is the definition of the word ‘rickety’?"). As kids see friends earning more points by answering harder quiz questions, they’ll want to challenge themselves too.
Note: One storyteller found the fairest way of quizzing children was to go down an attendance sheet or guest list and allow each child to choose and answer a question. If the child failed to answer correctly, the storyteller offered the question to the rest of the group, letting the first person to raise his or her hand try to earn the points.
Points can be distributed in many ways. Some like to give “funny money” to kids. Others prefer to have children keep personal logs of their points in cheap notebooks, similar to deposit records on checkbooks. This method also helps children develop money-management skills.
Either way, be sure to have an up-to-date record of all the kids’ points to maintain order.
Children Book Auction
As soon as the quiz is over (or if this is a long-term school activity, at different times in the year) let kids use their points to bid on popular children’s books in an auction.
Be sure to educate children about what an auction is and how they should bid on the books they want. While kids should have fun bidding, make sure they know they can’t scream out their bids, but need to raise their hands and let the auctioneer see where each bid is coming from.
Introduce each book up for auction in an enticing way. Did the author of this book write other stories the kids loved? Is the book part of a popular series? Is there something about the book’s design that makes it especially exciting? Remember, kids should get just as much pleasure from reading these books as they do bidding on them.
If possible, add authentic auction elements. Using a gavel is a nice touch – and keeps kids focused on you.
As the kids spend their points, it might be difficult to remember their current point totals. Having an assistant ready to keep track of their points is a good idea.
More Activities for Kids
The beauty of these educational games is that kids exercise their reading and memorization skills to win more books they will use to further develop these skills – creating a cycle of learning.
With some creativity, these educational activities can also be reworked in a variety of ways. For schools, children can earn points from book reports, tests, homework assignments etc. You can also create a book fair where children buy books using their points, rather than have them bid on books in a children book auction.
Whatever you decide, remember – keep things fun! The more involved the kids become in this activity, the better they learn!
Learn another educational game that simulates learning disabilities to help kids develop empathy at Activity Lets Kids Understand Learning Disorders.
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