Ridge Meadows Community Enjoys All-School Read, Activities Centered on 'The Wild Robot'

Students at Ridge Meadows partnered with Novel Neighbor bookstore to create a schoolwide reading experience for everyone — students, families and staff — centered on the middle-grade novel, "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown.

Librarian Lisa Molengraft had two goals in mind: to give the whole community a shared book experience and to use that story to highlight strong social-emotional learning traits modeled by the characters. The hope was to help students think more intentionally about their own actions and celebrate the growth they see along the way.

"The Wild Robot" served both purposes perfectly. In the novel, Roz the Robot washes up on an island inhabited only by wild animals. As she learns to survive, she discovers that her actions shape how others see her — just like in our own lives. Roz’s journey is full of growth, empathy and the power of community.

For three weeks, students across the school joined in. Some listened to readalouds by teachers or parents, others read independently and many tuned in to story recordings voiced by Molengraft. Kindergarten students read the picture-book version and then completed a hands-on engineering project inspired by the story. To spark deeper conversations, chapter-by-chapter discussion prompts were shared with families.

The excitement was hard to miss — robots were everywhere at the school! Student-created projects were on display, a parade of robots traveled from the Innovation Room to the library, the chorus rehearsed a song from "The Wild Robot" movie, and students have even built working battery-operated robots in the library Makerspace. A bulletin board hanging in the hallway touted “character compliment” cards where students recorded acts of kindness and compared friends/teachers to characters from the book who also display admirable actions. 

"I’m so grateful you all were able to give the kids the Wild Robot book. It’s the first true chapter book (my student) has read, and he had me order the other two in the series!" one parent wrote to Molengraft. "Thank you, as always, for all you do!"

Molengraft said the final step in this shared experience is taking action. In the book, Roz teaches about caring for others, helping whenever we can and learning from different perspectives — but those lessons only matter if we live them out. In that spirit, the Roadrunner Student Council is choosing a service-learning project to involve the entire school community.

As Roz reminds the book's readers, “If I could do it all over again, I’d spend more time helping others.”