Summer Reading School Assemblies

As I type this it’s 31 degrees outside and feels like a heat wave after the temperatures we’ve been getting over the past week.  But, as they say in the theatre, “The show must go on.” (The summer reading show, that is)  We’ve got most of our entertainment shows booked, we’re still figuring out in-house programming and I just started working on our marketing material for students and families.
Tonight, I’m working on our school assemblies to promote this year’s theme.  We are part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP), so this year’s theme is “Every Hero Has a Story.”  Each year, we visit our local elementary schools, middle school and Catholic school giving the kids a sneak peek at the program – our fun events, workshops, prizes and more.  And over the years, we have found that creating a game show of sorts, really keeps the kids engaged in our presentation and gets them excited about the program.
Our presentation begins with information specific to our program, when the kids begin registering, how they can ear prizes and all about our fun programs all summer long.  Our game show has 10 – 15 questions that we display in a PowerPoint presentation and we invite usually 4 – 8 kids to come “on stage” and compete against each other.  The audience gets the chance to answer questions when teams miss and have to pay close attention when “audience questions” come on screen.  I’m planning on focusing, not only on superheroes (which are a crowd favorite), but also community helpers and historical figures as well.  We always throw in a few interesting facts, hoping that kids share them with their families around dinner or at bedtime and with the older kids we also have created True/False questions that the entire audience can participate in answering (stand up for true, stay seated for false).
If anyone is interested in seeing what we do, please let me know and I can email you our presentation.  The whole presentation usually lasts about 20-30 minutes and I love seeing the kids excited about the library and about reading.