Book Club - Naomi Knows It's Springtime

It's been awhile since we've had a book club because every time I had it scheduled, somebody was sick.  This morning, however, everyone seemed good to go and we were excited to have our friends over for our monthly book club.

Today we read the lovely book Naomi Knows It's Springtime by Virginia L. Knoll.  The language in this story is beautiful: "Naomi knows it's springtime when wind whispers secrets to the trees and doesn't screech and bellow at the houses anymore."  Each page describes something Naomi knows about springtime using one of her senses.  I recommend reading the story with a glass of lemonade and a pair of flip flops.  Or perhaps a Corona.

Since the author does such a fine job of describing springtime, I asked the kids how they could tell spring was on its way as a prompt for observing the change in seasons.  The kids mentioned noticing bugs, or wearing t-shirts instead of sweaters and sweatshirts.  I said I always know spring is coming when the birds start chirping at a terrible hour outside our bedroom window.  Not exactly the poetry of Ms Knoll, but you have to start somewhere.

After we read the story we went outside to look for spring.  I gave each child a piece of paper that read: "_____________ knows it's springtime!"  They took a marker to draw or write how they could tell it was spring (it was quite cold this morning so I was nervous this was not going to work out so well).

We noticed buds, or "new leaves" on the bushes outside.

Hadley noticed that there was mud instead of snow on the ground.

At one point someone found a worm, and another child noticed that it was dead. "It's dead.  I'm going to write that down."  Suddenly I was afraid this book club was going to go in a very different direction.

After we collected some observations, we went inside to work on another activity.  The kids each made a caterpillar and a butterfly.

The caterpillars had numbers on them for the kids to put in order and then glue on the body.  Harper was mostly interested in the glue part.

I have to give credit to Hadley for this activity.  She picked it out, and the kids seemed to like putting the numbers in order.  Except for Harper.  But she has no respect for caterpillars.

Another mom made pretzels and jello in the shape of butterflies for the kids to eat.  They were a huge hit.
(You can see one of the butterflies that was made on the table.)

So even though it might not feel like spring this morning in the DC area, we had a nice time talking about it.  Before we know it, we'll be reading a book titled, Naomi knows it's time to turn the A/C on.  That sounds like a hit of a story.