Fee Fi, I Spy

I'm knee-deep in Summer Reading Program at my branch library. It's been a wildly successful summer, but has left little time for blogging.

I've been meaning to write about one of my "I Spy" SRP displays, which has turned out to be a fun and passive interactive element to our programming. It was easy to make and has been a hoot to watch as kids discover the objects.

First, I was inspired by Pinterest and this centerpiece for a Jack and the Beanstalk party:

 

The original website for this wonderful party can be found here:  http://www.piggybankparties.com/oink/2011/10/inspiration-jack-and-the-beanstalk.html

Since the Collaborative Summer Reading Program theme this summer is "Dig Into Reading," I figured Jack and the Beanstalk--an obvious nod to good gardening gone bad--would be a great idea as a display in my branch.

Simple enough . . . and a few pool noodles and hot glue burns later, I made our display on top of one of the easy picture book stacks:

Once it was done, inspiration struck and I decided to make the beanstalk the center of an "I Spy" game for children. I assembled all the props I could find around my branch that pertained to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and set up both fiction and non-fiction titles along the theme--gardening, farming, life in the middle ages, Jack and the Beanstalk variations, etc. (When the stacks are covered in books, it makes finding the objects a little harder.)

Then, I made signs for kids to use as prompts for finding the objects. I titled it "Fee Fi, I Spy":

It's been great fun to watch the kids find all the items on the checklist, and heartwarming to see a parent or caregiver pick up a child who's too short to see the top of the stacks and help them search with the child in their arms.


Of course, there's a treasure at the end:

 http://shopcslp.com/cslp/Dig-Into-Reading-Door-Hangers-c_171894/

 

 

And there's a treasure for me, too:  the opportunity to create a little magic among the stacks and make summer a little more interesting around the library. And that's me crossing my mid-line this week.