WEEK 1_Einstein the Class Hamster_October 2014
Book: Einstein the Class Hamster By: Janet Tashjian
Ages: Kindergarten – 3rd grade
Duration: 5-week program (1hr 15mn/meeting)
Theme: Game Show/Trivia
Synopsis:
This program is designed to take children on a 5-week journey to complete a chapter book and participate in related activities. This particular program spends more time on activities than crafts. Each meeting is divided into walk-in activity time, reading, games, and snacks. A different game show activity is planned for each week culminating in a memory matching game that revolves around the interesting facts presented at the end of each chapter in the book.
Week 1:
At a Glance:
start collecting trading cards through a scavenger hunt that will start off each meeting
read 3 chapters in Einstein the Class Hamster
Recognize vocab as we read and earn stickers
Play a version of Minute-to-Win-it two participants at a time taking on silly challenges
Enjoy a snack
Provided materials:
Walk-in Activity: Collect and Color
As participants arrive, allow each child to choose a stack of 3 scavenger hunt clues from a face down pile. Begin helping the children navigate through the sections of your library to find the materials listed on the cards. When participants have located all three of their materials, they may begin coloring the trading cards hidden inside.
The trading cards reflect “Einstein’s Tasty Tidbits” from the ends of each chapter.
Collect these trading cards making sure each card is clearly labeled with each child’s name. Children will find new trading cards each week. They are to be laminated and returned to the participants on week 5.
Mosquitoes
State Capitals – Texas and Massachusetts rhyme
Ferrets
Reading: Chapters 1-3
Vocab List:
Host
Contestants
Shetland Pony
Compete
Malaria
Sponsor
Audience
Interrupted
Segment
Sensitive
Ferret
Incubators
Relatives
Valuable
Resource
Salary
Before reading, choose a few vocab words from the list provided and post them on a display board. I've highlighted the words I decided to use. Go over the words talking about definition and ask the participants to repeat them back to you for an added exposure to the new words.
Then, ask students to listen for those words as you read. If they hear a word from the board, they should raise their hand. The first person to raise their hand and recite the vocab word Award a sticker to each child’s vocab chart when a word is correctly recognized.
These charts will be given to the participants at the end of the 5-week program.
Activity I: Minute-to-Win-it
Choose pairs of children to compete and select a pair to go first
Either a child not preparing to compete or another staff member chooses a game at random from the game bucket
Fold up sheets of paper with the game title on it and place in a “Game Bucket.”
Lead students to the station for the game that was pulled from the Game Bucket and relay the rules of the game
Load a stopwatch for 1 minute and time the participants on their challenge (I chose to play the Minute-to-Win-it theme music while children played.)
Move through the games from the bucket until either all children have had a turn or time runs out
Game Ideas:
Candy Concentration
This game is meant to be played with an Oreo, but all we had were peanut butter cracker sandwiches! Participants are to balance the Oreo (or whatever) on their forehead. When the leader shouts “go” the clock starts and children have 1 minute to guide the item from their forehead into their mouth WITHOUT using their hands. Each player may have 3 chances (3 new cookies/sandwiches.) First one to sink an Oreo, wins!
Table Tower
Give each participant an equal number of cups to stack. Demonstrate the stacking order they should use. Children have 1 minute to stack as high as they can. If their tower falls, they must start again. Whoever has the highest stack when the time runs out, wins!
Playing Card Storm
Set up two clean, empty glass bottles (Starbuck’s Frappucino bottles work nicely) on a table and place a deck of cards on each. A joker should remain face-up on the bottom of each deck. Participants have 1 minute to blow all of the cards off of the bottle EXCEPT the joker. Whoever completes the challenge or gets rid of the most cards (except the joker,) wins!
Beads one-by-one
This game was originally meant to be played with M&Ms. We didn’t have any, so we used pony beads. (You know, those big plastic beads kids used to make gecko keychains out of?) Set a handful of beads in a pie plate and hand each child a straw. Whoever can suck up the most beads with his/her straw and dump them into a nearby cup, wins! CAUTION: make sure to only use beads that will NOT be sucked up into the straw!
Windy Pom Poms
Place two lines of painter’s or masking tape along a table. Hand each participant a straw and a pomp om. Beginning at one end and finishing at the other, children must guide their pom pom along the tape line. If a pom pom leaves the tape line, participants must re-start! The first one to finish, or whoever gets the farthest in one minute, wins!
TP Shred
Suspend two rolls of toilet paper on a pole horizontally. The pole should be small enough to fit through the toilet paper hole and still allow the roll to spin. Set up a starting line in front of the toilet paper. Using a good supply of rubber bands, let each participant try to shoot his/her toilet paper into shreds from the starting line. Whoever ends up with the most toilet paper pieces, wins!
Floppy Fish Relay
Cut out the shape of a fish from blue tissue paper. Mark out a path with masking tape arrows on the floor around your space. You'll need a starting line and a finish line. Hand each participant a paper plate. Place the tissue paper fish at the starting line and place a green sticker on one fish and a yellow sticker on the other. (This will help determine who's fish is who's.) On your count, the participants must fan their paper plate at their fish and guide it to the finish line. Participants can ONLY use the wind created by the paper plates to move the fish - no hands! The first fish to the finish line, wins!
Snack: Halloween Candy & Juice
Be sure to ask your participants about special dietary needs before scheduling your snacks!
Extension: Collect and Color
If extra time remains, allow children to finish coloring any of the trading cards they didn’t get to at the beginning of the program.
