Be Creative @ Your Library

It's Summer Reading Program time again! On Wednesdays or Thursdays, I'll post information about the books we read and the art projects and crafts we made, as we are having an art class this year, as well.  I invite all of you to participate.  If you do, please leave me a link in the comments, so I can see what you have created!  This year's theme is "Be Creative @ Your Library," so all of the projects and stories will be based on various creative activities.  If you have older children and still want to participate, consider reading them a bit of a novel every evening.  On Mondays, I'm reading for a half an hour from Mr. Popper's Penguins, but you could read from anything!  Just choose a book that is appropriate for your family and get reading!  If your local library has a Summer Reading Program, I encourage you to take your children and get involved!  And now, without further ado, I present to you the kick off for Summer Reading 2009!

We Read:


Ralph's Secret Weapon, by Steven Kellogg


Seven Blind Mice, by Ed Young


Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson

We Made:


Paint brush name tags.

We will use these paintbrushes to help us keep track of our reading minutes this year. Each child decorated their own paintbrush, which I then laminated and hung on the wall along the baseboard. For every fifteen minutes a child reads, he or she can put up a paint splat above their brush. All of the kids are really excited to get their splats all the way to the ceiling! After we were all done with our brushes, we made our way outside and I let the kids make up games to play with each other. They love running around behind the library and playing games of their own design seems to be a big hit!

Comments

[amy]

this is really fantastic, sarah. i think we'll play along!

[abcgirl]

i like your paint splat reading tracker idea! you must have a smallish group of loyal regulars. i had that in one of my libraries. my current library has a largish group of somewhat irregulars, so our reading trackers are a little more boring.

did you give the kids any props for their games or have them just make up games that didn't need equipment?