TD's Summer Reading Club Week One: 7s and 8s

Welcome to the first week of the 2013 TD Summer Reading Club. Go! Bon Voyage! 

Within the Library, we are exploring the Wonders of the World. Our first stop was right here in Canada: Niagara Falls.

We began with a discussion about Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The kids had some interesting ideas about other ways someone could go down a waterfall. In a bucket, a boat, or just swimming - then we discussed the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall! Ouch, that would hurt!

We sang through our waterfall song, and the kids really got into the actions:

"I'm going down a waterfall,
A waterfall, 
A waterfall. 
I'm going down a waterfall, 
As fast as I can go! 

I will be the first I say, 
The first I say, 
The first I say. 
I will be the first I say, 
To go down all the way! 

It really is a bumpy ride, 
A bumpy ride, 
A bumpy ride. 
I really is a bumpy ride, 
Going down this way! 

In a barrel I am dropping, 
I am dropping, 
I am dropping. 
I a barrel I am dropping, 
Down the waterfall! 

I made it down the waterfall, 
The waterfall, 
The waterfall. 
I made it down the waterfall, 
Safe as safe can be!" 

Our first craft was a Canada Flag, to commemorate the location of our first Wonder.

The kids coloured their flags, then cut them out and taped them to skewers. They discovered that if you didn't tape them just right, the flag slid right down the skewer!

Next we made our waterfall craft:

We used:
- blue plastic plates cut in a horseshoe shape
- blue streamers cut into strips of water
- blue construction paper cut into strips of water
- blue ribbon cut into strips of water
- blue marbles glued to the top of the plate
- tacky glue 

Some of the kids glued marbles to their construction paper, and some drew fish on their construction paper to look like fish were swimming down the falls.

After our craft was finished, we played a couple rounds of musical chairs. As each kid went "out", they got to remove another chair from the circle until the last person remained.

At the end of each program, I remind the kids and parents to bring their reading passports to the front desk to get a sticker and enter their name in to win a prize. We draw for prizes every Friday at 4:00. 

Next week, we will explore the Eiffel Tower!