Last summer was my first year to do a summer reading program. It went very will except for the way I gave out the prizes for reading books. I would like ideas on how you give out prizes. Thank you
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Debbie shared our five summer reading programs, which were her creative genius. We brainstorm prizes each year, basing them on what is being done in the program. We have offered prizes ranging from gift certificates and small items from places like Oriental Trading/Amazon to coupons from local businesses. Acquiring the coupons took a lot of time, and over the years, the businesses have become harder to work with because many require you to go to corporate rather than just work with local management so this approach has almost come to a halt.
In recent years, we have used designated funds from donations or book sales to purchase a book for the winners. We have worked with parents to provide a book the winner would appreciate or want. It is not always successful, but it has been one of the approaches we have worked on. During the program, we have given out candy or small toys from a basket for the readers as they come in with their portions completed. This helps them enjoy the process leading up to the end. We always finish with an ice cream and cake party. It is short but sweet, and they all seem to appreciate the work we put in.
We buy a variety of prizes for all age groups and divide them into two categories (10 books and 20 books). We have them in tubs on a shelf. We have reading logs where patrons can list 10 books. The first one they turn in, they get a 10-book prize (worth about 50 cents). The second one gets them a 20-book prize ($1.00ish). The third log is 10 book prize, the fourth log is 20 book prize, and so on. At the end of the summer, we give out ice cream coupons for a free scoop of ice cream at a local coffee shop. Prizes can include small bags of candy, small toys (Dollar Tree type), potholders, note pads, school supplies, and more. People pick out their prize when they turn in the reading log.
Anyone who reads 100 books (always children) gets a new book put in the library with their name on a label recognizing them.
We have all ages participating! It has been successful for us!
Donna Miller Hudson First Baptist Hudson NC
We're doing a read-to-me club for preschoolers, so I am interested in hearing ideas for incentives appropriate for younger children. And after reading Debbie Dehart's response to your original question, incentives that parents will like their children to have.
:-) Maybe other parents aren't as grouchy as I was!!!
But I'm curious to see other responses, too.
Last year we gave out duct tape to the top readers and Chick-Fil-A free sandwich coupons to all our readers courtesy of Chick-Fil-A. Colorful multi design duct tape is apparently a hot item right now with the kids and everybody loves a good sandwich.
Our "summer reading" consists of a Battle of the Books, with only one team of winners - who get a gift card to a book store. I'm considering trying to get some coupons to local restaurants to make up a packet for each participant this year.
The whole prizes thing is actually one reason I'm shying away from a more traditional summer reading program. As a parent, I really disliked all those little things that my kids would "earn" at school or church, because they weren't really worth anything and inevitably broke or got lost within a day or two. What kinds of things do you give out?
How did you do your "Battle of theBooks" -- a summer reading program was requested, so I am trying...
Oh my goodness that was so long ago! Since then, we have developed five programs and rotate between them.
However, Battle of the Books:
We did it for two groups: K-2 and 3-6, I think. For each group, we came up with a list of books, I believe we did six. The kids who wanted to participate were SUPPOSED to find others and make teams but they failed rather spectacularly and so we assigned them to teams. Ideal would be about 4-5 kids per team but we didn't have that many sign up.
The kids need an adult coach, a parent or someone they recruit. The kids have some number of weeks to read the books, and then you have a Battle. So we did one for the younger kids and one for the older.
I wrote questions for each battle. I honestly don't remember how many. They were of all types - quotes (they had to identify from which book), "in which book" questions, questions about things that happened in the stories. None were interpretation or opinion. They were questions for which you could point to the page and line number where the answer was stated.
If you want more than this, let me know. You can also google "Battle of the Books" reading program - schools and libraries all over the country do it - and you'll find lots of variety in terms of how they do it.
well, I would be interested in knowing the five programs you made--this year was my first doing anything like this, but I did notice the date AFTER I already sent my question! Thank you for the information about the Battle of the Books. We have a lot of kids, but not a lot in any one age group, know what i mean? I may try to adapt this to adults next summer. It is 99% adult books in our library, with the books for kids being on shelves in the classrooms. Still, i ended up improvising a summer reading program for adults, youth, and young kids for this year....I'd like to develope a more structured program for next year, though. I sure appreciate you replying, eventhough your origional comment was a decade ago! Thanks
1. Book Bingo. We created separate bingo sheets for each of four age groups: Pre-school (adult read-aloud); K-2, 3-6, teen and adult (the kids' had a 5x5 square grid; the teen and adult a 4x4 square grid). A different category of book in each square. When they read four/five books in a row, they would get a prize (coupons, or something from the treat basket (candy, chocolate)). They could complete 2 bingo cards in the course of the program (usually 6 or 7 weeks).
2. Choose Your Own Adventure. We created 12 Adventure Cards for each age group (they are usually similar or the same as what I listed under Book Bingo, and often we put the teens/adults together). Each card had a fun name, like "Whodunit" for mystery books, or "A Life Well-Lived" for a biography, or "Christmas in July" for a Christmas book, or "Parables Tell a Story" for a picture book that is a parable, or "Somewhere in Time" for a historical fiction....etc. etc. etc. On the back of the Adventure card was the actual assignment, for example, for "Author, Author" the assigment would be to read four books: One by an author whose name begins with A-J, a second by an author K-R, a third by author S-Z, and a fourth "you choose".
They could only repeat a certain Adventure ONCE, because one of our two main goals is to get people out of their reading ruts.
3. All About Books! Pre-school through Grade 6. We created three booklets - 8 1/2x11 sheets folded in half and stapled - and on each of 16 pages is an assignment of a category of book to read, and then something to do, related to the book - it might be draw something about the story, or answer a question or a few questions, tell someone about the book, etc. The activities and assignments are, of course, tailored to the age group.
4. Passport to Reading. We created booklets for Pre-school-Grade 6; these were a half page folded in half, so kind of like a passport size. We used fun clip-art resembling passport stamps to decorate the pages. Each page has an assignment of a book category to read and a space where they can choose a stamp from a collection we had at our table, and stamp that page when they had completed the book. We got lots of travel-and-foreign-country-related prizes from Oriental Trading to give as prizes when they accomplished certain reading goals.
5. Reading by the Numbers. My son created large numbers for us (filling almost all of a regular sheet of paper) with each number divided into seven squares. Then we put an assignment on each square. As they finished each assignment they could color in the square. With this one, they could only do number 1 during week 1, and 1 and or 2 during week 2, etc. So no working ahead. Some of the squares has assignments like "read in the car" "write a poem" "read under a tree" "draw a picture for a book you've read" and then, with the parents' permission, we put up their creations on the wall outside the library.
For adults, we usually do a bookmark. We come up with 16 different reading assignments and put them on a bookmark. They can read as much or as little as they like.
General things:
1. We have participants write down how many pages are in each book they read, and at the end of the program, we give prizes to the first, second and third highest ones in each age category.
2. Here is a list of the kinds of categories we use in most if not all of our programs - you'll see we get pretty creative in order to have a lot of options. Some of these are used for all ages; some are more age-specific. And also, although we have some specific categories which they may not love, we give enough where they have a choice (like "a bottom shelf book") they do actually quite a bit of freedom:
biography
fiction
your choice
series book
classic or good read ("good reads" are books which aren't Christian, but we deem to be on a level with classics in terms of writing quality, showing Biblical character qualities, excellence in story-telling. Most of our good reads are in the children's collection)
mystery
historical fiction
fantasy/dystopian
Author whose name begins with ... (A-J, etc, however you want to divide up the alphabet)
non-fiction
bottom shelf book
top shelf book
a book with a red/green/blue/whatever cover
a young adult book
a book recommended by a librarian
easy reader
animal story
Bible story
Arch book (we have quite a few of them)
Christmas in July
Let me know if you have any questions. I know that even though it all makes perfect sense to me, it could be clear as mud to others.
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