Summer Reading School Visits

Every year (like many other public libraries) we visit each of the schools in our service area to let kids know about our upcoming summer reading program.  For the past few years we’ve used a trivia game that I’ve created using PowerPoint slides that corresponds to the summer’s theme and also to the grades we see.  We’ve learned that by keeping the kids more entertained and excited about the assembly, the more they’ll want to participate in summer reading.  In previous years, the library did skits and other things, but many were very passive, whereas this trivia game keeps kids engaged with the assembly – not an easy thing to do at the end of the school year!

With a focus on science this year, it was easy to come up with different trivia questions for kids.  We usually like to try and throw a book cover or two in the mix as well as close-up photographs of animals, fossils, diagrams of human body parts (i.e. brain, heart, etc.), and constellations and others things you’d find in space.  With a primary focus on photographs and images, even the youngest students can participate.  We usually choose a boy and girl from each grade level to help us.  In our assemblies we usually see a couple grades making the teams 2 – 3 kids a piece.  Then we let the audience members know that they can participate from their seats.  If they know the answer, they are asked to simply raise their hands.  With the older kids (3rd – 8th graders) we actually include some True/False questions that the audience can answer.  If they think the statement is true they stand up, if they think it’s false they stay seated.  This allows the audience members even more participation within the assembly.  I also add a few “Did You Know?” slides with quirky information that most kids don’t know, like the weight of an space suit, the fact that pigs and camels are related, and other cool facts that I come across.  The best place for this info?  Definitely the Guinness Book of World Records, almanacs, and other fact books are prefect resources!

The kids have a lot more fun in our presentations now and we hope they go home and tell their parents about the library and give them the summer reading brochure we hand out.  If anyone is interested in seeing the PowerPoint presentations I’ve put together, shoot me a message and I can get them to you!  I’ve gotten a number of requests for the slides, so I’ve posted them below!  Use whatever you want from our presentations!

Presentation – Grades 1 – 2

Presentation – Grades 3 – 4