Nonfiction book clubs

I hope you have heard about our nonfiction book clubs! I have never tried this before, and it is going so well! Everyone seems very motivated about reading, and it's so fun to see students working so hard to learn more about an area of interest. I started by brainstorming a list of topics students were interested in studying. They then rank ordered their interests and I put students in partnerships or trios based on the subject they wanted to study. Topics range from hamsters to natural disasters to hockey! With the help of Mrs. Flanagan, I collected books for everyone in their area of interest and now our book clubs are off and running! So far, students have had time to explore their books, write questions they hope to find answers to during our book club time, and begin to read to search for this information. Tomorrow I will teach them a fun way to record information/facts they learn. Since a majority of what we read as adults is nonfiction, it is critical that students gain skills for reading nonfiction texts.

I used these pages to group students according to interests.

The cats group.

These two are studying magic tricks.

Learning about hamsters...

One half of the hockey group. :-)

Studying dogs...the other person in this group was absent. :(

The sharks/whales duo

Dolphins!

Part of a trio studying natural disasters, or forces of nature (volcanos, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods).

I love how students found quiet spaces to work together!

So diligent...

Choosing topics has made everyone so focused on the task at hand! 

He wanted to record his findings in his own notebook!

So much to learn...

So many books, so many facts, so much FUN!

These two were reading the same book and sharing what they noticed.

Having background knowledge about a topic is helpful!

Under the loft is the "hot spot" to work...everyone wants to be here!