TD Summer Reading Club Week 2: Ages 9-12

Week 2: It's a Bugs Life 

Welcome back to the summer reading program! We had an absolutely super second week, because it was bug week! We learned cool facts about all sorts of different bugs. Did you know millipedes typically have between 40-400 legs! Imagine what you could do with that many legs? Then I asked the kids to tell me what their favorite bugs were. The general consensus was butterflies and ladybugs, because co'mon, who doesn't love them?

To start things off I played a game where the kids had to identify which caterpillars were poisonous and which were safe:

Do you guys know the answers? 

*Key: dangerous, safe, dangerous, safe, safe, dangerous 

Then we after that we played a game of wink murder! Here's how you play:

1. All guests sit in a circle and closes their eyes (no peeking!). The host taps one person to be the "murderer". Everyone may open their eyes, but no talking is allowed. The murderer must successfully wink at five (or less depending how many are in the circle) without getting caught.
2. If you are winked at you must dramatically fall to the center of the circle and wait for the game to end. If you catch someone winking you immediately raise your hand and secretly tell the host. If they're right they win, if they're wrong they "die" and the game continues until the murderer winks at all his victims.

Then after we were all done finding the murderers, we got up to have a cookie face race! The goal was for the kids to place a cookie on their foreheads and get it in their mouths without using their hands. It was tricky! 

Then for our last activity we played blind bigfoot! Here's how you can play too:

Materials:

1.  Large sheets of paper (11 x 17 inches ideally)
2. Crayons, markers, pencils, pens, ect.
3. Blindfolds 

Directions:

1. Issue each child a large sheet of paper, one drawing tool, a blindfold (if using) and a scoresheet. Ensure that each participant has a large, flat space (floor or table, protected by newspaper) on which to draw.
2. Show a few images of Bigfoot and describe to the group what Bigfoot is thought to look like.
3. Ask the kids to write their name at the top of their page. Explain that you’ll read off the instructions one at a time, and that the kids must draw what you say while blindfolded after you finish reading each instruction. 
4. Kids should now put on their blindfolds (or close their eyes). Begin to tell the children to draw the parts of Bigfoot, starting with the head, a body, arms, ears, face, feet, ect. Waiting a few seconds between each one to allow kids time to draw. The results will ensure laughter! 

Then finally, we ended with our craft, paper butterfly puppets!

Materials:

• Black construction paper 
• Colored construction paper 
• Glue 
• White paint 
• Q-tips 
• Scissors 
• Markers
• Crayons
• Popsicle stick

Directions:

1. Print off butterfly templates on the black and colored construction paper (a large one on the black paper, and a smaller one on the colored paper). 
2. Cut out butterflies from paper.
3. Glue the smaller colored butterfly on the larger black one. 
4. Color a face and designs all over your butterfly. 
5. Paint along the black edges with the white paint using your q-tips. 
6. Glue the popsicle stick on the back of your butterfly. 

Next week we're going back in time to visit the dinosaurs! Stay tuned to hear about all our adventures!