I got this idea from the TD Summer Reading Program – School Age Programs and it turned out to be a fun program and a definite repeat for future years.

Materials

• Paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Discarded magazines
• Timer

I collected a variety of magazines including Teen Vogue, Seventeen, National Geographic, Parenting, and  Arts and Crafts. I chose about 30 words (but we only did about half of that).

I told the kids that they had 60 seconds to find the following item in the magazines. Some of the words I chose were: wedding, baby, name of a country, pet animal, recipe, car, flower, pair of jeans, sunglasses, watch, iPhone, bird, book high heels, Nicki Minaj, something orange, one direction. The last word I told them to find was letters that spelled out L-I-B-R-A-R-Y.

After we got the all the items cut out, I told them to invent a collage.

Why I Like this Program

Information literacy! It got the kids to look at the magazines and figure out what was in them. For instance, while looking for an animal, one of the kids was looking in Seventeen magazine. I told her to look at what each magazine is about, and then dig in. By the end of the game, they were assessing the word and then finding the appropriate magazine to search. Not to mention, it’s CHEAP!

July 2nd was a busy day at our library. We kicked off the TD Summer Reading program with a SPLASH of COLOUR. This is a great program to run in the summer because it is low cost and you need little supervision. We ran this program all day and had over 25 kids that participated.

Materials

• Drafting paper
• Markers
• Window markers

This year’s theme for the TD Summer Reading program is GO! and that was the theme for our mural. I gave the kids a little guidance and wrote “GO! Summer 2013” in block letters across the mural paper.

We set out Crayola Washable Window Markers so the kids could write on the windows. If you want, you could always use paint (tempera paint mixed with a little bit of dish soap) – but is a bit messier to deal with. Markers were also put on the table so they could scribble on the mural.

This is the finished product:

Minute to Win it is a popular program at my library. The kids really enjoy playing.  My budget for this program was $0.00 – so I had to recycle, reduce, and reuse for this program.

Rules

Each contestant must complete each challenge in one minute or less. If you complete the challenge, you get one point. Player with the best time (or the most complete) gets two points.

The Challenges

Tweeze Me: Using tweezers to relocate as many beans from one bowl to another.

Go Fishing: Using a paper plate, you have one minute to fan a tissue paper fish to the other side of the room.

Separation Anxiety: Sort the gumballs in to the appropriate cups using only one hand.

String it Together:  Using a pool noodle, slice into 20 smaller pieces. Number each piece. Contestants must string together the noodles in order from 1 to 20.

Ping Pong Ball Shake:  Tie an empty Kleenex box around your waist and fill your truck with five balls. Wiggle until the box is empty.

How it Went

The kids had no problem completing each challenge. I had 6 children participate. It was an hour long program, but we finished up at about 50 minutes. Usually, I would do a second round – but we were on a time crunch and the kids wanted their prizes. I don’t like giving out candy to children, but I gave them each two leftover gumballs  for participating. The winner got to pick out a discarded book.

I asked the children what challenge was the hardest, they said “String it Together.” Next time, I will probably eliminate the numbers on the pool noodles and let them string 20 in the fastest time.