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Re: summer reading programs
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summer reading programs
8:51 PM EDT 8/22/05
Hi, everyone,
I would love to hear how other very tiny libraries run their summer reading programs--what has worked well for you?
This year (my first) I had 8-10 kids from the town summer recreation program coming on Tuesday afternoons for about 45 minutes during my regular work hours. I read passages from books, did some crafts, gave them time to check out books and read. Luckily, I had few other patrons at the same time. I feel it went well, but one thing that was tricky was getting the reading records out--different kids came different weeks, and I just kept giving them to new kids, but after a while the summer is getting on... And now I'm not sure many of them will get them back to me, even though I talked up the treasure box of little prizes for turning them in to me by the end of the summer ( and I have a reminder on our street-side sign). Any suggestions on that score or on reaching other kids in a community where most families seem to have both parents working during the day?
Re: summer reading programs
1:21 AM EDT 8/31/05 as a reply to Rachel Clark.
Hey there, welcome to All Aboard! What a great question and thanks for sharing what you were able to accomplish this summer.

I too look forward to hearing from other solo-librarians on this topic.

In the meantime, tell us a bit about yourself! emoticon
Re: summer reading programs
7:46 PM EST 12/29/05 as a reply to Rachel Clark.
We had a great summer reading program this year. We revamped everything. In the past i focused everything on Thursday, having 2 reading groups back-to back, with activities & snacks. A number of years ago, I had groups of 25 in teh younger crowd, but we had dwibndled to just about nothing. It didn't make sense to prepare for groups when no one came. This summer we had drop-in make-it-take-it crafts on Mondays. Thursdays I offered one story program with another activity. We tried reading for time with every 100 minutes earning a "library buck" that was redeemed in August. We opened this to adults & youth, this year. I had yard sale type items & small toys on the Sale Day. This seemed to be a big hit with everyone.

I went to our children's librarians conference this spring & got the courage to ask for a tent from a commercial donor. Much to my surprise they said yes! So we held story time in the tent & we had a drawing for it at the end of summer. It was a huge draw -- it was a huge tent!

I've already been scouting out parrot puppets for this coming summer's pirate theme!
Re: summer reading programs
10:49 AM EDT 6/19/06 as a reply to Rachel Clark.
busymom,
Thanks for sharing what you did last year. This year I'm adding a new touch, having a big poster with the outline of a castle (our theme is Medieval) and lots of stone blocks inside, the idea being that kids can color in a block for each book read. i thought they might like to see how it fills up, and it's easy. I'm also going to try keeping the reading logs at the library this year. At the end of the summer I'll let all kids who kept a log choose a trinket from my treasure box, whenever they do come in, even if it's not till fall...I don't yet have a steady stream of kid patrons.
Re: summer reading programs
11:22 AM EDT 6/19/06 as a reply to Rachel Clark.
We are not a small library, but we have used the same incentive for our summer reading club for years and it is always a hit: Ice Cream! One of the locally owned ice cream shops donates coupons for a free cone when the kids turn in their reading logs. Something about free ice cream that seems to really work :-)