TD Summer Reading Club Week 1: Ages 9-12

Welcome to the TD Summer Reading Club! This year our overall theme is "PLAY" so can you just imagine how much fun we are going to have this summer? There will be 8 weeks of fantastic reading programs throughout the summer and ending just before school starts, it is an amazing way to keep up your reading for the entire summer! There are contests and prizes each week so we can read and play all summer long. 

WEEK 1: Play with your imagination

For week 1 of our reading program we played with our imagination. We allowed our minds to wander off and dream of anything we wanted to! Our question of the day was : What is your favourite thing to imagine?  And there was some brilliant answers! Everything from riding on a unicorn across a rainbow to building the biggest and best Lego city.

We all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves, we said our name and what our biggest and best summer plans are! 
We started off with a couple games to loosen up and to have some laughs. The first game we played was big booty. Here is how you play:

1) - Get at least three people. The game is best played in large groups of at least five. Arrange yourselves in a circle, standing or sitting.

2) - Number the players. Establish one player to be "Big Booty," which is essentially just a name for the leader. Number the other players as "Number One," "Number Two," and so on, going around the circle in order.

3) - Start clapping. "Big Booty" will establish a simple 4/4 rhythm which consists of the pattern "pat, clap, pat, clap". (You pat your thighs or a table surface with both hands then clap your hands.) Start at a moderate tempo. The group joins in with the leader, so that everyone is patting and clapping simultaneously.

4) - Begin the game (assuming you're the leader) by singing "Big booty, big booty, big booty, oh yeah!"

5) - Pick a person in the group by stating the number of any other player in the circle. That player is then to state his own number, followed by the number of a different player (or "Big Booty" if they wish to pass the turn to the leader), and so on. All this is to be said in time with the given patting/clapping tempo. For example:

All: "Big booty, big booty, big booty, oh yeah!"

Big Booty: "Big booty, number seven!" (said with a single pat and a single clap)

Number Seven: "Number seven, number three!" (said with a single pat and a single clap)

Number Three: "Number three, number eight!" (said with a single pat and a single clap)

6) - Continue the pattern until someone makes a mistake by doing one of the following (in which case they must leave the circle):

• falls out of rhythm (usually because they didn't realize their number was called)

• talks during the chant when it is not their turn

• picks their own number

• picks the number of the player who just picked them (Example: "Number Five" picks "Number Three" then "Number Three" picks "Number Five" again--"Number Three" is out)
 7) - Close the circle and reassign new numbers according to the new order of people in the circle. If "Big Booty" falls out, "Number One" becomes "Big Booty." The game ends when there is only one left standing after the circle dwindles down in members.

We played another fun game called "Honey, if you love me"
The group starts in a circle with one person in the middle.
This person tries to get others to laugh by saying “Honey if you love me you’ll smile.”
The person on the outside must respond without smiling or laughing saying, "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile."
The person in the middle can do various things, without touching anyone, to get another person to smile.
If the person does smile then they will become the center person.

We played a couple other games like octopus tag, telephone and graveyard! After we were all tired out from the games we sat around and had our snack: watermelon and juice. Then we started working on our craft!

 DREAM CATCHER

Supplies Needed:

·         One paper plate

·         Scissors

·         Hole punch

·         Yarn (four 12" sections and one 48" section)

·         Clear tape

·         Pony beads

·         Feathers (ours were about 3 1/2-4" long)

·         Markers

Directions:

1. Cut a 5" (or so) circle from the center of the paper plate, leaving the outer rim of the plate intact.

2. Use the hole punch to make a series of holes every inch or so around the inner edge of the ring.

3. Use markers to decorate the ring with patterns and images as desired.

4. Weave the 48" piece of yarn through the holes in the inner edge of the ring going across the ring to create a web for the bad dreams to get caught in. This is the fun part--even young children can relax and weave this inner section. The funkier, the better! We secured the beginning and ends of our yarn to the back of the ring with clear tape.

5. Use the hole punch to create a single hole at the top of the ring to hang the dream catcher. Make a loop from one of the 12" long strands of yarn, run it through the hole and knot it to secure. If you like, you can string a couple of pony beads onto the hanging loop to add some color.

6. Use the hole punch to create three holes about an inch apart along the bottom edge of the dream catcher. Feed the remaining 12" strands of yarn through the holes and double knot to secure. Feed pony beads onto the yarn coming from each hole. Knot and then use clear tape to attach a feather to the bottom of each strand. Trim excess yarn with scissors. Repeat to make three strands of beads with feathers coming off the bottom of the dream catcher. I made the center stand slightly longer than the other two.

Next week our theme is SUPERHEROES!! We will be talking about all the different heroes and villains that we know and then by the end of the day (after a long and strenuous superhero camp) we will become our own superheroes!

Remember to keep bring in your reading logs each week so that you can enter to win the weekly prize. See you next week!