Our 4th Grade #BookBento Project!

I have seen people post about #BookBentos a lot this year. I love following all of the libraries and classrooms posting....

...on Twitter and Instagram using #bookbento.  They are all super inspiring and fun to see and share. 

I also love following the #bookbento Instagram account, 

which has amazing examples and inspiration like this one.  

Today, my friend and 4th grade teacher, Kate Lamoureux, and I, 

kicked off #BookBentos at Van Meter with her students. 

We were so excited to not only do this project together, but to learn more about #BookBento too. 

We put together these slides to share with our students.  Feel free to use these for bringing #BentoBoxes to your library and school community too! 

First, we talked to them about what a Bento Box was and shared stories of eating sushi and other things out of these amazing little boxes that originate from Japan and other Asian countries.  We discussed how Bento Boxes were set up and arranged, offering separate sections for different portions of food and treats. 

We explained to our students this is what we would be doing with our #BookBento project, but focusing on books we have read and the elements wrapped around the book and our feelings and reflections as readers. 

We then showed the 4th graders lots of examples from ones we found online and the @BookBento Instagram.

Kate and I went over the requirements...

....for building a #BookBento, which we got from...

...Jennie Bales blog post, Book Bento Boxes.  

Next, it was time to build our own #BentoBox!  

Kate used Amal Unbound, which her class read earlier this year for Global Read Aloud.  She brought a few things from home to build her #BentoBox, 

 while the 4th graders watched, thought and talked about objects they would also include.

 Together we can up with a beautiful composition and #BookBento to represent Amal Unbound. 

Since we will be uploading these into Buncee and sharing on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #BookBento, we decided it would be best for Kate and I to take the pictures using our iPhones in the Square setting and uploading them into a Google Folder for the students to grab their images while creating their #BookBento.

Today, we only had time for them to gather their books together and brainstorm what objects they would need for their #BookBento.  

They will be bringing these objects to school tomorrow, so we will be able to create and photograph their #BookBentos. And as I mentioned, I will upload them into a Google Folder for the 4th graders to use for their creations. 

Here are a few from the first day and we can't wait to share more next week.  

Kate and I can't wait to see how these #BookBento projects turn out and we can't wait to share them with others. 

We hope you follow along too!