Once upon a time… there was a club- The Circle Book Club!  This club is for people who read stories to enlighten the minds; they travel far and wide to discover new worlds by simply diving into a story. 

Recently, the Circle Book Club wanted to read stories to the preschool kids in the Child Care 2 classes- but our Covid situation in our nation was holding the event up.  The club couldn’t hold their annual fall Read-a-Thon or Holiday Raffle either because of the pandemic. However, that didn’t stop the club what-so-ever!  

This year the BHS Book Club ran a wonderful event that allowed families to come together during the pandemic.  They held a virtual storytime for children of the BHS staff members. Circle members have become very comfortable holding meetings online and the members came up with the idea of reading stories to kids via a Google Meet!

The Circle Book Club advisor, Mrs. Ignelzi, along with members got to work and began choosing stories from sites ranging from storyberries.com to storiestogrowby.org.  Crew member Marisa Perez created an animated invitation on a Prezi slide detailing the event. 

Mrs. Ignelzi explained, “It was emailed to Bremen employees, and staff responded right away saying they were going to join the google meet with their kids.” Other members continued to spread the word. 

As the day arrived, members prepared their stories three hours before the actual event. Later that night, ten staff members joined the meeting.  There were 13 kids!  

Six students read and presented the illustrated virtual books. Students read Brown Bear, Jack Rabbit, and the Hungry Caterpillar and many more! After every student read, parents and kids clapped and thanked each Circle member. Kids were smiling, laughing, and pointing at the screen as Circle members read and presented the illustrated virtual books.

After the event ended, Mrs. Ignelzi received many emails thanking Circle for the stories including the following remarks: “Thank YOU! My kids loved it! Tomorrow, same time, same place?”, “It was really cool to see past students read stories to my kids!”, “It was really nice to get the Book Club kids together with teachers and our families… We look forward to more events like this in the future!” 

Club members also enjoyed themselves explaining it as “a chance to interact with people outside of their classmates and family,” says Junior and club member Natalia Frazier. As the event received more positive feedback and good turnout, Circle decided to make “Small Circle Bedtime Stories” a tradition. Circle members also thought of opening this event up to kids in the Bremen community in addition to employees’ kids.  It will be great to include families in the BHS community in a reading event for next time!