A Perfect and Easy 3rd Grade Book Club: The Penderwicks

Fun and Easy Outdoor 3rd Grade Book Club for Kids

We did a really fun book club using the third chapter book in the Newbery Winner Penderwicks series. The only trick is to get the weather to cooperate. It was so easy:

I took the kids to a Pine Woods hiking trail. Technically, it’s an off-leash dog park around a fenced reservoir.
I brought our dog.
The snack could be pie but that’s a little messy in the car so I opted for two tubs of mini-brownies from Whole Foods and small water bottles. I was referencing the first Penderwick book.
We brought a soccer ball to play 2-on-1 slaughter. (All the girls in this book club play soccer). The girls only kicked the ball around for 5 minutes though. They preferred to hike the trail in search of the perfect walking sticks.

We were there for a little over an hour. We would have stayed longer but one girl had to be somewhere. And what did they do and how did it tie into the book? Well… thanks for asking!

The book has pine woods next to a golf course. There is actually a golf hole next to this trail.
The girls pretended to be different characters in the book. Most girls took on two or three roles. I didn’t even have to prompt this! (Miracle!!)
The girls loved having a dog with them and my dog loves going here.
We pointed out similarities from the book to this place.

But also, the girls ran and laughed. They walked over a fallen tree that made a bridge over a dry creek bed. They looked for poison ivy (to avoid it). They climbed around a bubbling creek. They met dogs. It was a gorgeous spring day. The kids said it was the best book club ever! Sometimes, easy can be so great!

The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall

p.s. If you want more book club meeting suggestions, you might like How To: Create a Great Kids’ Book Club. All my book club for kids posts are here.

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