The Hunter Academy of Active Learning: A Novel Approach to Novel Studies

Since my son is already a proficient reader, I've decided to focus on novel studies during our reading time this year (we also have a language time where we work on grammar & specific reading comprehension skills, as well as a separate writing time). He really liked a Magic Treehouse book we read at Thanksgiving, so I decided to stick with this series for our novel studies. For the first 2 we read, he was simply answering questions online for each corresponding chapter he read...simple enough, yet B-O-R-I-N-G. I decided we needed to spice up our novel study activities and remembered an activity a former colleague used in her classroom....it was a BINGO type board filled with various activities. The students chose which activities they wanted to complete, the only rule being was that they had to get a BINGO (5 in a row) when they finished. I took this idea and adapted it, since I didn't feel like he necessarily needed to do 5 items in a row, but wanted to keep the idea of choice for him.

I ended up creating 12 activities that could be used with any Magic Treehouse book, or any book, reallty, if the names are removed.

Click here for a downloadable copy of my activities

Click here for a downloadable copy of the character map I use

I then cut out each topic and taped it to a 3x5 index card. I taped the index cards into the inside of a manila folder, 6 activities on each side, so that the cards could be flipped up.

After each chapter my son chooses an activity to complete and does so underneath the corresponding index card (unless the card prompts him to complete it somewhere else).

For the activities that call for him to create something (like the Lego model), we take a picture and then tape it to the backside of the card so that he'll be able to look back at what he did long after the model is deconstructed.