Last Friday my library officially kicked off our summer reading program with an Olympic Games. We thought an Olympic Games kick-off was appropriate for the theme,  “On Your Mark, Get Set…READ.” We opted to do early registration, crafts, snacks and games.

Crafts

My coworker loves to find crafts. These are the ideas she found for our kick-off.

  

   

Games

I was in charge of finding games. Unfortunately, our building is without AC, so I decided to find games that would still be entertaining but would not overheat the kids. I thought it would be fun for the kids to have a passport for this section. For every section they completed, they received a sticker. Their final task was to make a ribbon for their completion.

The staff said the long jump and javelin throw were the most popular activities. They said the kids would get very determined and would get back in line to do them again. The Marble Run was so-so. It was kind of a one trick pony.

Passport

Long Jump

Javelin Throw

Marble Run

Ribbon

Photo Op and Food

We had the Olympic Rings as a Photo Op. Kids could either stick their heads in the holes or stand next to it.

The food was pretty awesome and simple. We bought a mixture of cheesy and movie theater popcorn. We then combined them and made Olympic torches!

Observations

We had a total of 315 people for two hours. This was a more low-key event compared to last year’s kickoff. However, with the lack of AC and the number of people, we were OK with it.