It’s always a little easier to enjoy a school book when you have people to enjoy it with, the accountability of schedule, and a way to make deeper connections with the characters through relationship.
Find out more about starting your own Burgess Animal Book Club here!
The Burgess Animal Book for Children has so many animals from cover to cover. Each week, I’ll make a pot of tea, set out our Coloring & Writing Books with our colored pencils, and then we will sit down at the table to enjoy the book together. I read aloud as my kids color the animals. Before reading, I’ll also pull up images of the animals on the computer and set it at the end of the table for my kids to refer to while they are coloring. After reading, we write down some of the information about each animal on our pages. The kiddos who only have the coloring pages listen and add information that they caught about the animal, which means that they narrate what they have learned back to me and each other. I often check out more books about the animals from the library for my kids to read on their own throughout the week. If we are really interested in a particular animal, we’ll read the library book together.
This has been the way that we have enjoyed this book over the years, but our time in the book became even richer when we invited some friends to join us in a book club.
How We Started
One of the first things I wanted to do was offer the kids an opportunity to name the book club. I wanted them to take ownership over it and we had a lot of ideas. “Creature Club,” “Critter Club,” “Burgess Book Club,” and “The (Last Name’s) Burgess Book Club” were all ideas. We settled on “Burgess Book Club,” which may last us awhile since we have the possibility of working through a few of Thornton W. Burgess’ other writings if we wanted.
I explained what our time would look like in order to give structure and understanding to the children who had never done it before. Expectations are always helpful and when you add more kids to your time, it’s important to be clear. I wanted to explain that I would read, they would color, and we would have time and opportunity to discuss things at the end of the chapters.
I made sure to continue our tradition of tea during the book and added some snacks to the mix. This encourages children to feel comfortable and welcome at the table.
We were really pleased that we could start sharing our love of the book with others and have something to enjoy together!
How to Use the Different Options of Pages
There are a few options when using The Burgess Animal Coloring Pages:
- You can simply purchase and download the type of pages that you want and print them off. You’ll find the bundled pages of both type here: Etsy Full Coloring Book PDF Links (You’ll find two listings of each type that make up the full book)
- You can also purchase a spiral bound book from Etsy Full Coloring Book Physical Copy
The Coloring Pages look like this:
You can see the difference between those and the Writing & Coloring Pages here:
It’s good to be realistic about the age of your child and the results. Here are examples of my youngest two children, age 4 and 6, and what their coloring pages usually look like at the end:
I’m just so happy that they enjoy the book and get to participate and I can tell that they feel the same way.
Sample Schedule
We like to meet weekly during our school weeks and take breaks during the standard holidays. For us, that means that we meet for 6 weeks, take a break week, meet for another 6 weeks, and then break for the holidays. After the new year, we’ll do it again meeting for 6 weeks, break, and then the last 6 weeks.
I don’t make the children color each and every picture. They can always return to their book and spend some time coloring and writing throughout the week. I find that some children are very quick colorers and they need a few pages to color while listening. Sometimes, however, children like to take their time. When I have a few like that, I make sure to have at least one child coloring each animal during the chapter to make sure we can enjoy each one. Then at the end, the child who chose each animal can tell us a little about the one they wanted to focus on.
- Week 1: Introductions & Expectations for the Book Club, Ch. 1-2, Peter and Jumper
- Week 2: Ch. 3-4, Marsh Rabbit, Arctic Hare, Chatterer, and Happy Jack
- Week 3: Ch. 5-6, Rusty, Timmy, Striped Chipmunk, and Seek Seek
- Week 4: Ch. 7-8, Johnny Chuck, Whistler, and Yap Yap
- Week 5: Ch. 9-11, Little Chief, Stubtail, Prickly Porky, and Grubby Gopher
- Week 6: Ch. 12-13, Paddy, Jerry and Robber
- Break
- Week 7: Ch. 14, Little Robber, Trader, and Longfoot
- Week 8: Ch. 15-16, Nimbleheels, Whitefoot, and Danny
- Week 9: Ch. 17-18, Piney, Bigear, Midget, Grasshopper, Harvest, and Nibbler
- Week 10: Ch. 19, Teeny Weeny, Blarina, and Marsh Shrew
- Week 11: Ch. 20, Miner and Star-nosed Mole
- Week 12: Semester End Party Time – Catch up on any of the animals that they wanted to be sure and color before next semester! *Reading from “Old Mother West Wind” tales by Thornton W. Burgess
- Big Break
- Week 13: Ch. 21-22, Flitter, Little Brown Bat, Jimmy, and Little Spotted Skunk
- Week 14: Ch. 23-24, Digger, Glutton, Shadow, and Black-footed Ferret
- Week 15: Ch. 25-26, Billy, Little Joe, Spike, and Pekan
- Week 16: Ch. 27, Reddy, Gray Fox, Arctic Fox, and Blue Fox
- Week 17: Ch. 28-29, Old Man Coyote, Howler the Wolf, Yowler, and Tufty
- Week 18: Ch. 30, Puma, Jaguar, Ocelot
- Break
- Week 19: Ch. 31-32, Bobby Coon, Ring-tailed Cat, and Buster
- Week 20: Ch. 33, Silvertip, Bigfoot, and Snowking
- Week 21: Ch. 34-35, Unc’ Billy, Lightfoot, Blacktail, and Forkhorn
- Week 22: Ch. 36- 37, Bugler, Flatiron, Wanderhoof, Thunderfoot, Fleetfoot, and Longcoat
- Week 23: Ch. 38-39, Bighorn, Billy, Piggy, and Hardshell
- Week 24: Ch. 40, Sea Otter, Walrus, Fur Seal, Harbor Seal, Elephant Seal, and Manatee
- Optional Celebration Week at the End!
Even if you aren’t meeting with other families, this could be a good schedule to get through the book. You can also choose to stretch it out and take your time a little bit more if you want to. When the children were smaller, I would read and stretch the book out, just doing a chapter at a time. You can also space it out two times during the week instead of one.
The idea is to enjoy it together, not make it a burden for you or the kids, and learn a little bit more about the wonderful animals around us! You may find that you and your kids appreciate some of the animals you see around you a little bit more by the end of this book. We certainly do!
Animal Cards
You’ll find some detailed animal cards on my blog that look like the image above.
You could use this to help your kids fill out the writing sections, color the pictures, or review. Simply put the animal’s Burgess name in the search bar located on the right bar of that page and it should bring up the animal (if it has a card ready, it’s a work in progress).
Feel free to ask any questions or give some of your ideas in the comments.
Until next time, keep looking around the spinney together! <3 Kate