Super Spies in the Library!

Our second summer session in the library was all about being spies.  I had about the same number of kids show up to this session as the last one, with some new faces.  I know families are on vacation or the day of the week wasn't convenient, but so far, I've gotten really good feedback for even offering the sessions!  It makes me happy, since one of my goals at my initial interview for the library was to make it more "community friendly."  While I had sent home notices before school ended about each of the sessions, I also reached out on Facebook to local friends and made sure people realized that they didn't have to be a student to attend.  I have several friends who are homeschoolers, and I wanted them to feel welcome as well.

When students first arrived, I had a little welcome sign and checklist for suggested activities to complete for their spy training.  I also had mustaches for students to put on for their disguise that I had picked up at Dollar Tree.  They claimed they were self-adhesive, but honestly, either the paper was too hard to peel, or once you peeled it, half the mustache came off!  Tape to the rescue!  It was a little disappointing, but gosh, they were sooo soft!  I kept playing with them, and the kids didn't mind as much.  Somehow, mustaches on the forehead became popular as well :)

 One of the most popular activities was the "laser maze."  Using electrical tape from Walmart, I created a "laser grid" between two of my nonfiction shelves.  I had one rising second grader that did this continually for almost 30 minutes!  Too funny!  Towards the end, my daughter and one of her friends decided to "add" to the maze, making it virtually impossible to get through, which, being rising fourth graders, might have been the point?

Some of the other stations included code breaking, fingerprinting, doing a "search the room" for more codes, a silhouette search (matching the mystery genre character to the silhouette - for the younger ones, I did more familiar characters such as Clifford and Hungry Caterpillar), and filling out a "007 badge" of sorts.  Not sure why I don't have pics for all of the stations, but want to share what I have!  The kids really seemed to enjoy the whole "Spy Academy" theme, and many came back for our Superhero Day (which I'll detail more in my next post).  

As with my other session, I had a display of themed books (this time, mysteries and spies) set up for students to look at and check out.  While everyone cannot make it to all sessions, I have all books due at Open House, which is coming up fast on August 7!  I was a little worried about books not returning that were checked out during the summer, then realized that the parents that were taking the time to bring the kids in would definitely be responsible enough to make sure the books were returned!

I did bundle a lot of the activities I created, such as the code, silhouette hunt, and fingerprint dust recipe.  That's available in my TPT and TN stores (link in previous post), but wanted to include my checklist and display signs for you to look closer at!  Click on the pictures below to download or to look more closely at them!  The signs I created to fit display signs I had picked up from Michaels Craft Store a few years ago (and had lost but recently found - timely, huh?).  They're 4 to a page, so I'm sure they'll fit to whatever occasion you need them.