The Reading Fair always seems to fall during the most busy part of the year...right between Thanksgiving and Christmas...but somehow we manage to find enough time to make a fun project each year. This year Henry's school is waiting until January to do their Reading Fair, which meant we only had to worry about Grant's project. Grant picked out a really cute book that we got at the Scholastic Book Fair back in October to use for his project: Pete and Penny's Pizza Puzzles The Case of the Secret Sauce. Grant read the book, then I read the book, then we got busy brainstorming project ideas.
We decided that making his board look like the outside of a pizzeria would be really cute! Grant started by painting the background of the board. I cut a kitchen sponge into the shape of a brick and mixed up a little bit of red and brown paint. I showed Grant how a brick pattern worked and he got busy stamping the board. He actually did a really great job and only got paint on one of my chairs in the process:) Jason found an old cardboard box and helped Grant cut the awning out with his exacto knife.To decorate the awning, Grant used my paper cutter and cut strips of red and white paper then attached them with spray adhesive.
I used my Silhouette to cut out the name of the book onto vinyl and Grant helped me add it to a piece of brown paper that he had cut to look like the sign for the pizzeria. Grant also added a big door, two windows, and two cute little bushes to write all of the required information on. After we got the windows finished, they needed a little something extra so I got out my circle punches and some pipe cleaners and Grant made some flowers to add to a window box.
To add a little bit more to the project, we made a jar of molasses {the secret ingredient that the kids in the book are looking for} out of an old Starbucks jar and some brown paint. Grant also decorated a pizza box that I picked up from our local pizza shop. He copied a couple of the puzzles from the book and we placed them inside the box. 
I was so proud of Grant for working hard and only complaining a couple of time! And I was even more proud when he won first place in his division at school! He was so cute when we were waiting for the winners to be announced...he had his fingers crossed on both hands! I think he wanted to win:) Since he won in his division, we get to move on to the district level in January.
