For the past several years, Ms. Sturgis and I ran an after school book club with various themes. The past two years, we met once per week after school and read a book out loud together (last year was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the year before that we read Wonder). While the students enjoyed our time together, many had a difficult time staying focused on the book after a long school day. We also found that we wanted to do more activities related to the books but we never had enough time.
This year, Ms. Sturgis is teaching science and she had the wonderful idea of combining books with nature/science. I was excited because there are so many wonderful, interesting picture books related to nature!
Our Nature Kids Book Club met once per week (10 times) for 45 minutes and we had 20 3rd/4th grade students. Each week, we started by reading a picture book out loud to the club. Then, we did an activity related to the topic of the book. Here were some of our meetings!
Book: Our Tree Named Steve
Activity: made paper out of recycled paper
Book: Me...Jane
Activity: made nature journals and went outside to observe with our senses
Book: Thanku
Activity: went on a nature scavenger hunt
Activity: made snowflake catchers and looked at snowflakes outside
Book: Owl Moon
Activity: dissected owl pellets
Activity: made animal tracks with plaster
Book: One Plastic Bag
Activity: made friendship bracelets/bookmarks out of recycled plastic grocery bags
We tried to get outside as much as possible and we are so fortunate to have a natural area (benwell) right next to our building. After our first meeting, we realized that we needed to keep our activities short and hands-on because we had several students in the club with special needs. We'd like to give a special shout-out to the McHen
ry County Conservation District for helping us make paper and make animal tracks!I loved sharing picture books with the students and then combining them with related activities. This format could be used with so many other themes such as art, STEM, poetry, animals, biographies, and more!
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