Every few months, Kelly Small and fellow fifth-grade teachers at Wellington Elementary School transform their classrooms into “Starbooks” cafés and treat their students to a “book tasting.” Complete with green-apron baristas, cardboard-sleeved paper cups and green table decorations, students sip hot chocolate while spending a few minutes sampling a book. After a brief period, classmates swap books. By the time the café closes, each student has created a short list of books that piqued their interest. Starbooks is so popular among students that a café recently sprang up in a fourth-grade classroom. Starbooks is effective at stimulating the students’ appetites for books, and the fifth-grade teachers know how to engage their students and keep learning fun.
