The children who participated in our Summer Reading Program had a great time learning about elections and voting with stories, games & crafts. This year we had 2 one week sessions, with 2 separate age groups. A total of 47 children attended the program. To help learn about elections the younger group heard stories like OTTO FOR PRESIDENT by Rosemary Wells, DUCK FOR PRESIDENT by Doreen Cronin, MY TEACHER FOR PRESIDENT by Kay Winter & FIRST POOCH by Carole Boston Weatherford. Not all books were about elections though. We also talked about book care and parts of a book. Stories like MANNERS WITH A LIBRARY BOOK by Amanda Doering Tourville & MR. WIGGLE’ S BOOK by Paula M. Craig helped with that. The older group also heard stories such as GRACIE FOR PRESIDENT by Kelly DiPucchio, IF I RAN FOR PRESIDENT by Catherine Stier, and WOODROW FOR PRESIDENT by Peter W. Barnes to name a few. This group was also given Reading Journals on the first day which they used to record notes on what they were reading at home. If they brought their journal each day with an adult’s signature showing they did their reading, they got to choose from the treasure box. They really enjoyed this and were eager to share their notes with the rest of the group.
Some of the crafts the children made included picture frames, bracelets, paper flags, mini stepping stones, painted rocks, & magnets.
We also played games, did bubbles & sidewalk chalk outside, completed word searches, crossword puzzles, a special Washington D.C. map, dot-to-dot pictures, and made “campaign” posters to promote reading. We had a voting booth and ballot box that the children used to vote on a few different issues. On Friday we had movie day and the children were given a special treat.
We had 2 participants from out-of-town that were here visiting relatives. Sara Erickson and Aidan Loock were welcomed by the second group and we enjoyed having them participate.
My helpers this year were Megan DeMuth, Bethany Nelson & Brooklyn Reynolds the first week and Sara Erickson & Anna Liston the second week. These girls did an excellent job & were a tremendous help!
Thank-you to everyone who brought their children to SRP this year! Make coming to the library with your children a weekly or bi-weekly habit. It will help them grow into responsible readers who know how to use the library.