Let's Make a Bookworm

Join our family as we embark on an adventure of creating bookworms. I think your child will turn into bookworms himself to make this bookworm grow. If it grows long enough, its tail may meet its head as it stretches around the child's room!

This activity is good for the following age groups: Prereaders, beginning readers, older readers

MATERIALS: Construction paper, round object, scissors, felt pens, cellophane tape, thumbtack or masking tape

For every book your child read, he adds a segment to a bookworm's body. Tack or tape up the bookworm's head on a wall, then attach segments to make the worm grow in one direction (left or right). Establish a goal: for example, to make the bookworm go around the room, or wind its way around the bookshelves. If two children are cooperating, one can begin at the bookworm's head and the other at the end of the bookworm's body, adding circles until the two sections meet.

Give your child a pack of colored construction paper, a drinking glass or other round object to tract, and scissors to cut out lots of colored paper circles (at least a dozen to get started). The child draws the bookworm's face on a circle, and maybe attaches some paper antennae.

After finishing a book, the child chooses a paper circle, writes in the book's title and author, then adds the segment to the bookworm's lengthening body. The bookworm displays not only the number of books, but which books the children have read.