Earlville Public Library District

     WANTED:

SPIES AND DECTECTIVIES

 

    A SUMMER READING

  MYSTERY ADVENTURE

       2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

HELLO EVERYONE! 

Welcome to our

Summer Reading 2013 Program!

 

 

 

 

 

We developed a five week program for children to pretend to be a part of a Detective or Spy Agency.  We offered mysteries to solve and programs to explore each week.

 

Each child completed the typical registration information form, but we took that form one step further by turning it into a Special Agent Information  Sheet.  Each child had the chance to use their imagination in deciding if they were special agents, spies, and/or detectives.  I.D. cards were issued, as well as badges.  These badges and I.D. cards were used each week to verify who they were and to keep the kids interested in being part of the detective agency. In addition to the form, pictures, with parental consent, were taken as well as fingerprints.

 

The parents and children enjoyed the registration process and at our closing program, the forms were returned to kids with their pictures attached.

 

We had such a good time with this program we wanted to share it.  The following pages are a week by week schedule of activities for ages preschool through junior high.  We have tried to include all the ideas we implemented and supplies needed for each craft. 

 

We hope each child in your group enjoys being a spy, a detective or a special agent.  Our goal was to keep the kids using their imagination and to reward each child for reading over the summer days.  I feel we succeeded very well.

 

For more information, contact our library at inquiry@earlvillelibrary.org

Or call 815-246-9543.

 

Happy Reading ~

 

Deb Larson

Youth Director

Earlville Public Library

Earlville IL  60518

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Week One 

“What’s In the Water? / Celebrations Week!”

 

 

Our first week of this years Summer Reading Program was a bit crazy!

Our town of Earlville was getting ready to celebrate its 150th birthday and had a big celebration.

So our first week was pretty low key.

 

 

Purpose of the Day: As a detective today they explore water & discover its many uses for animals and us.

 

PRE-K: What’s in the water? (Water day)

 

Set up outside:

- Water balloons,

- Pool

- Ducks

- Chalk on black top (or sidewalk)

- Snacks

 

Craft: Pouches

What is needed – Foam patterns, Stickers, Stick on Alphabet letters.

We used these for students to store their ID badges.

 

Story: Pout Pout Fish By:  Deborah Diesen

Back Up Story – Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

 

 

SPLAT WATER BALLOON GAME:

(Can be done on sidewalk or blacktop)

Place each kid at a designated station around the blacktop area. In order for each child to get a balloon from the pool, they must follow the instructions before returning to the target area:

• Stealth Mode - (quietly on tiptoes to pool an back again)

• Quick Mode - (Fast as you can)

• Backwards - (Search behind & in front of you like a Spy)

• Bear Crawl - (Like a soldier under fire)

• Surrender Mode - Hands up in the air an walk backwards

• ______________________________________________

• ______________________________________________

 

• Under water Search: Sea Creature Rescue

  Kids must search for the sea creatures with toes & feet. Each child should find 10 different creatures. Ducks & left over balloons are decoys – DO NOT pick them up, but must be scooted out of the way with their feet. Game may last up to 5-12 minutes.

 

 

1st-5th GRADERS:

Wii Time & Reading to Lily an Hopper.

• We set up our Wii equipment, for those who signed up for our program and played a game called JUST DANCE. When a certain amount of children were playing, the others that were waiting were able to read to our dogs (Lily and Hopper). This program lasted about an hour and a half.

 

 

 

Each week we displayed the books on the special topic of the week on our display shelves. We also added information to our bulletin board.

We called the bulletin board our “Info Station”.

 

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Week Two 

“What’s Under There? – Dino Week”

 

Purpose of the week: To discover and explore things buried beneath us, mainly dinosaur fossils.

 

 

PRE-K:

Do an I..D Check and Book Log Stamp

Craft: Dinosaur Craft to color.Supplies needed:

Dinosaur Craft

Crayons

Dino Song Time – Look in “Originals” to see the songs we sang

Story: Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp By Shields

Hand out Dino Masks & Feet and then read the story. Have children read and dance along with you. (We bought from Oriental Trading)

(Back Up Story Find – A – Saurus by Sperring)

 

 

Activity: Going on a Paleontologist Dig! Let children sit at a tub of their choice, give them a spoon and a paint brush to wipe away the sand of their found treasures (ALL SAND MUST BE WIPED AWAY BEFORE PLACING IT IN THE SANDWICH BAG – this is an outside activity)

Supplies needed:

• Tubs

• Sand

• Bones

• Jewels

• Spoons

• Paint brushes

• Sandwich baggies

 

 

< >Treat: Bugles (Let them be as DINO Claws), Dino Gummy Snacks

 

1st and 2nd Graders

Do an I..D Check and Book Log Stamp

CRAFT: Dinosaur DIG Fossil (Bought from Guided Craft - look at the Odd and Ends sections for more details) (This is an outside activity)

Story: Find-a-Saurus by: Sperring Give Out Dino Masks during the story(Back up story – Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp By: Shields)

Dino Song Time - Look in “Originals” to see the songs we sang

Activity: Going on a Paleontologist dig!!! Let children sit at a tub of their choice, give them a spoon an a paint brush to wipe away the sand of their found treasures (ALL SAND MUST BE WIPED AWAY BEFORE PLACING IT IN THE SANDWICH BAG)

 

Supplies need:

• Tubs

• Sand

• Bones

• Jewels

• Spoons

• Buckets

   < >Treats: Bugles, Dino Gummy Snacks

 

 

 

3rd-5th Graders

Do an I.D Check and Book Log StampCraft: Dinosaur DIG Fossil (Bought from Guided Craft – look at the Odd and Ends sections for more info) (This is an outside activity) Pick A Book: Which would you rather read?Pick A Book is where we grouped together two books and discussed what they were about and then the child was able to choose which side they wanted to read. We did about 6-9 groups each week.  (These are books picked from our own shelves)

 

Supplies:

• Tubs

• Sand

• Bones

• Jewels

• Spoons

• Buckets

Activity # 2: Going on a Paleontologist Dig! Split into teams, race towards tubs and get jewels, bones, etc with spoons and bring back to the team place in the bucket and hand off your spoon to your teammate.  

 

< >Activity #3: DINO HUNT: How we did this DINO HUNT was by taking a collection of dinosaur books from our non-fiction (same collection) copied the pictures an cut them into fourths. Once we cut them into fourths, we placed them on the walls of our children’s department (picture side facing out). And on those pieces we put different clues or facts that might help a child figure out what dinosaur they are looking for. They had to find four matching pieces and figure out what dinosaur it was, if it was a meat eater or planet eater, and give us one cool fact about that certain dinosaur. What is your mission?Do the characters know you as a detective? Or are you undercover as an ordinary person?How do you plan to complete your mission?

Take a few minutes to think about your mission. Then share with the rest of us what you would do. Kids LOVED this game!    

 

Dino Puzzle Maze

Each kid gets 4 pieces to the dino puzzle.

They must trade or barter to get connecting pieces for their puzzle pieces.

No one may have more than 4 puzzle pieces at one time.

The first one to have 4 connecting pieces is the Dino Puzzle Sleuth!

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Week Three

“What’s Up There? – Space Week”

 

 

Purpose of the week: To explore outer-space and discover something we didn’t know about our own solar system

.

PRE-K and 1st-2nd GRADERS:

 

• Log Sheets, stamp/ name tags

• Solar System – decorate w/stickers – outside craft

• Craft – small bowl w/ paper plate, it will be a space craft.

• Than once we had our space craft made, we had a contest with them! Some things we did was to see what spacecraft would:

• Throw the highest

• Throw the farthest

• Land on a planet (hoola hoops)

• Hoola hoop leap frog style – w/ 1st & 2nd graders

• Book to read:  Pupniks: A Story of Two Space Dogs By- S. Ruth Lubka. We read this book outside in the gazebo

• Decorate your saucer – crayons or markers (depends on the bowls you choose)

• Things you could draw on your saucer: windows, men, designs, your name, etc.

• Solar System: How it looks in the sky – inflatables – on blacktop!

• Bring out the sun

 

Treats: rice krispy treats

Space crafts – paper plates/bowls

Craft: solar systems

 

Line up the planets as they are from the sun

• Rotate around and around

• Treats

•  

 

Other books you could also read:

• Jupiter Stone By Paul Lewis

• Magic School Bus – Takes a moonwalk

• By Joanna Cole

• Alien & Possum Story 1

• By Tony Johnston

 

 

Supplies

• Chalk

• Stamper/ink

• Space stickers

• Crayons

• Inflatable planets

• Hoola hoops

 

 

 

3rd-5th Graders: TRAINING DAY

 

Purpose of this day: to stimulate what training might be for an agent – Accuracy, Memory, Endurance, Following Orders. 

Name tags/log sheets/ stamp book logs

Make spacecraft for competition - use markers, stickers, foam stickers, ect.

 

STAGE 1 OF TRAINING: space craft competition: winners get prizes!

Farthest throw

Highest throw

Best aim through gazebo windows

Best landing – into hoola hoops

 

 

EDUCATION: on blacktop- solar system orbits

Planet info & # of moons – be ready for memory test later. We also used balloons to represent the many moons in our solar system!!!

Each planet described- beginning with the sun. We used our on solar system books to get the information we shared with them,

 

 

STAGE 2 OF TRAINING:

Potato Sack race – test on agility an balance & following orders

Memory test- quiz on the moons in our solar system

 

 

STAGE 3 OF TRAINING: - more memory work – MOVE INSIDE

Story – Pupniks: A Story of Two Space Dogs By- S. Ruth Lubka.  (QUESTIONS WILL BE FROM STORY – Listed below)

Quiz 1 – What does Belka mean? – SQUIRREL

Quiz 2: What does Strelka mean? – LITTLE ARROW

Quiz 3: President Kennedy’s Dog, Pushinka means what? – FLUFFY

 

Pick A Book: Which would you rather read? All books picked for this activity were related to space/mysteries/spy action.

Show Sonny Williams clips of the Space Station on YOUTUBE.COM

 

 

SUPPLIES FOR THE DAY:

• Jump ropes

• chalk

• potato-sacks,

• glue/scissors/stickers,

• Hoola Hoops, solar system/moons (balloons).

• Space Crafts: paper plates, bowls, glue. Stapler

• Saturn craft( purchased from oriental trading), treats,

• and prize bowl – books.

 

Treats/Give aways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Federal Agent Visit During this week:

 

Since we are doing a “Spies and Detectives” for our theme, we wanted to be able to bring in a real federal agent to discuss what they do for a living! But for this federal agent to come in, federal restrictions required us not publicize beyond our library news. No pictures were allowed for safety reasons for the agent and his family. The program was a great success and the agent, having school age children had appropriate stories he shared with us, as well as much of his gear.

 

 

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Week Four

 “Who Am I? – Abc Mystery Week”

 

Purpose of this week: To use our detective & reading skills to solve our mystery.

 

Pre-K:

 

Nametags/ Stamp Book Logs

Coloring sheets were passed out to occupy the kids that were here and were waiting on the rest of the children to show up.

Hand out little note books before reading our story. The little note books were for our mystery craft.

Story – Alphabet Mystery By Audrey Wood

Activity: ABC HUNT

How this is done is by placing stencil letters (BIG or SMALL- a few inches at least) all over the walls in your library. (We kept it only in the child’s department of the library) We also hung up pictures of an EYE, a MAGNIFIY GLASS, a HEART, and Different types of ANIMALS, FOODS, and TOYS for the preschoolers.

We told them to go get ONE EYE, ONE HEART, and then a something else off the walls (Like a toy, food, or animal) an glue them into their note books that they got at the beginning of our program. Then we told them to get ONE EYE, ONE MAGNIFIY GLASS, and something else that they would like off the wall as well. (Toy, food, or animal)

 

Supplies:

• Stencil Letters

• Eye pictures

• Magnify glass pictures

• Heart picuters

• Food pictures

• Animal pictures

• Crayons

• Stick glue

• Coloring sheets

• Small note books

 

 

You can do this as many times as you want. We did part B at least one more go around. So they had at least two (eye, heart, something) and two (eye, magnify glass, something)

 

Treat

 

Other Story Book options:

The alphabet from A to Y with bonus letter Z

By Steve Martin

 

 

 

 

1st-2nd   GRADERS:

 

Nametags/ Stamp Book logs

Do Scooby Doo Craft (what you need will be below)

Story: Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Disappearing Donuts! By Gail Herman

ACTIVITY: Scooby Doo Letter Hunt! How we did this was simple. Like the ABC hunt, we had the entire stencil letters (BIG or SMALL) an stuck them to the wall. (Only in the child’s department.) Than once we read the story we separated them into teams. We had so many jobs for each job. We had four jobs per each team. Those jobs being:

1) THE PEELER: This job is for one who can CAREFULLY peel of the letters from the walls.

 2) THE SCRATCHER: This job is for one who can cross off the letters they have found on their mystery clues sheet.

3) THE CLEANER: This job is for one who can pull off all the putty from the letters and form it into a ball.

4) THE COLLECTOR: This job is for one who can put each letter in the team team envelope.

 

 

 

Supplies:

• Pencils

• Envelops

• Popsicle Sticks

• Goggly Eyes

• Glue

• Pom poms

• Pipe cleaners

• Markers/Crayons

 

Once jobs were assigned we gave them what they needed, and they went off searching for what letters they need. They were given a list of letters to what they needed to look for. That’s were job number 2, THE SCRATCHER, came in handy. That person would tell the team what letter to look for; once the team found the letter, THE PEELER, would take it off the wall an hand it to the cleaner. Once THE CLEANER was done taking the putty off the letter, he would hand it to the collector. Than THE COLLECTOR would add it to the team envelope they were given too before the activity began. Once they have gathered all the letters they needed to search for, they gathered together an had to figure out what all the letters spelled out. It all dealt with that whole days theme, Scooby-Doo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd-5th GRADERS:

 

CREATE A “WHO DUN’IT” TV SHOW

 

Today was a fun today for the older kids. We have done this before in the past and it works amazing every time!  What we did was a layout on how to write a TV show. With the layout, they were able to go through the packets they were given (AKA - the layout) an go step by step on how to write a TV show. Our format that we used will be given to you in the section, ORIGINALS.

 

 

Mystery Night Evening Tour of Earlville (7/17)

 

This tour was a night for all ages – families were welcomed to join. What we did was as a group; we walked around town and discussed different locations and what happened there in the past. But the kicker was to figure out if the story was fact or fiction. We asked children under the age of 8 come with an adult. We also allowed them to bring flashlights if they wanted to. We ended by a mystery question about the library’s history. We started this tour at 8:00 P.M, and ended at approximately 9:00 P.M

 

 

 

 

Junior High Day (7/19)

 

Why we wanted to have a JR High day was because in our small community, we feel we do not reach this age as much as we should. We bought a skit called “Summer Camp Mystery”. We figured they would be able to express in ways they normally do not get to. We bought it from, www. .com, so if you would like to go and browse through this site they had different types of skits that you could buy at an affordable price. It had lots of action, silliness and good fun for all involved.

 

 

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Week Five

“Who Dun’ It? – Who Stole the Cookies Week”

 

Purpose of the week: to use detective skills and solve the mystery.

 

 

 

Pre-K & 1st-2nd Grade

 

 I.D. cards/ stamps/name tags

 

Activity:  Design a cookie – foam circles

 

Choc. Chip Cookie Toss – Blacktop.

 

How we did this was simple. We have a basketball court near the library and we used chalk to make big circles (Choc. Chip Cookies) on it. We made three levels with two cookies on each except for level three. Level three had one big cookie that kids could aim for. They all took turns in teams tossing beanbags, rings, an silver discs. We also kept score to see what team got the most.  

 

Read: Whole Stole the Cookies By: Bonnie Lass– Gazebo

 

How to build a cookie quiz/trivia

 

Once we were done with the story, someone (staff member) asked the children what types of things were in cookies. Once she got to hear a few answers, she asked them if they could help her figure out what could go in cookies from the many choices she had in her bowl. The kids will have a RIOT! We asked them things like “Do TRACTORS TIRES go in cookies?” or “Do LEAFS belong in cookies?” It was a good time.  

 

Game: “Cookie cookie, who stole the cookie

Gather kids in a circle

Sing the song “Whole stole the cookie from the cookie jar”

Have someone place the cookie by the feet of the child they choose to be the person stealing the cookie from the cookie jar.

Once the child find outs they are the one who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, have every other child close their eyes, and have that first child place the cookie underneath the child they think should be the next cookie thief.

 

 

Supplies 

Stamp/Log sheet Collection

Chalk

Rings/bean bags

Saucer discs

Foam Circles Cookies –

Foam pieces to use for decorating / Books

How to build a Cookie Quiz

Cookie for game

Hand out Invitation to Closing Program

Treats:

Cookies /Frosting /Sprinkles /knives

 

 

Treats: frost your own cookie –

outside if weather permits

 

 

 

3rd-5th Graders: Skit Day

 

 

Props:

• Hats- visors, ball caps

• Boas

• Whistle

• Yarn,

• Buttons

• Aprons

• Sunglasses

• Necklaces

• Clipboards

 

 

Since we are doing a “Who Dun It?” week, we thought we would incorporate a skit that has a mystery twist to it. So we used the skit for the JR High! Since it gave kids a great way to express themselves more than what they normally do, we gave them props to use for their certain characters. The kids did not know if they were the good guys or the bad guys. The librarians also took characters parts to help build up the plot. The kids figuring out and playing out there character in this Summer Camp Mystery skit!

 

 

 

 

If you want to find out the smaller details, such as: our originals, where we bought items, etc; of our program, please click below!

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH! 

Paige Frecmann

Deb Larson

Nina Lopez