Alma Elementary School has started a book club to encourage a love of reading.
The voluntary and is offered to third and fourth graders.
Third grade teacher Emily Hess started the club this year. At the beginning of the school year, the elementary teachers came together and brainstormed ideas that they were passionate about.
“I always liked reading and I thought it would be nice to focus on reading for enjoyment instead of for school,” Hess said.
Students have only had one meeting so far. The meetings are once a month on the last Tuesday of the month lasting from 3:40 to 5. At this meeting out of the ten third and fourth graders that signed up, nine showed up.
For the first meeting the members discussed their first book, “Wolf Hollow” by Lauren Wolk, had snacks and played games. It was an open discussion and Hess said they had a lot to say.
“I liked playing games, especially ‘I have, who has’ with the book,” third grader Sasha Willier said.
The members do have to purchase each book that the club decides to read, which was made clear when forms were first sent out. Hess hopes that in the future she can get the books donated or for less now that she knows how many members there are.
Along with discussing the book at the first meeting, the club also talked about the future for the club. They figured out what future books they wanted to read and they also started to plan a school wide bookmark contest. With the contest, all kindergarteners to fourth graders will get to design a bookmark that the members will judge. Then the winner’s bookmark will be printed for the entire school to enjoy and use.
Hess also hopes that she can get the club involved with the community. She thought about the possibility of a book drive, so students have books to read during the summer.
— Kaytlyn Meseke, @kaytlyn_nelle
The Charger 
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