Summer Reading Fun

We are participating in two summer reading programs.  The one is at our local library; the other is at the library in the nearby town where we go to story time during the school year.  They are organized differently but complement each other very well in my opinion.

The theme this year at our local library is "One World, Many Stories."  Personally I am not sure how the theme is actually incorporated except for the fact that we have cute little passports to record our reading journey.

For each 30 minutes I read to the girls or I have Tabitha read to me they get one Summer Reading Buck. 

They also get a buck for attending on Thursdays.  The first week the children got to see some great animals.

An armadillo 

Fennec Fox

Possum

A few different turtles

Alligator

We watched his being put to "sleep" by laying him on his back.

Not sure, but thinking this is a pygmy owl.  We learned that the tufts on the side of their heads are not ears.

Turkey Vulture.  This one kept flapping his wings and I actually have a tuft of his soft feathers that went flying and attached itself to my diaper bag.  I believe this one has a broken wing.  Which is how this gentleman usually gets his animals, they are given to him when they are hurt or not wanted anymore.  

Some snakes

Even a rattlesnake.  (And I didn't have nightmares that night!)

They got a chance to pet and hold some of the animals; Amelia was so excited and ready and willing to hold even the snake.  She had some help obviously.  Tabitha would have no part of it.

This past Thursday we learned about keeping the waters of our rivers clean.  We learned to find mayfly nymphs hiding under rocks because if you find them it means the water is not polluted.

They even got magnifying glasses:

They so wanted to go down into the river with the other kids but I had somehow missed the fact that they were supposed to have on appropriate shoes (wading boots, flip flops) and Amelia had on her sneakers.  Besides the fact that I wasn't sure if I would make it down the bank holding Hannah.  

As you can see by the pictures, I gave in .  They were so upset watching everyone else, I just had to take them down.

Then we went back to the library and they got to "buy" something from the Summer Reading Store with their bucks.  Here they are showing off their purchases and their shirts.

Tabitha really wanted the bug catching net.  Amelia got the Soaker Catchers.

To help them toward their reading time, we are glad to be able to take out books from the other Summer Reading Program.  We are to go in at least once a week to spin the wheel.  They spin to find out how many books they can take out.  I am trying to find books from other cultures or stories written about other countries/cultures.  I will share about the books in another post as this one is already getting too long.  I did find a few that were about other cultures.  If they were independent readers they would spin to find out where in the world they were to travel (which room) and pick out an appropriate book pack from that area.  When we are done picking out books we check them out and then spin the wheel to see if they can pick a prize from the big chest or the little chest.

In addition to the Wheel spinning, each day of the week there are different activities.  We do not go to all of them because it is 20 minutes away.  Gas is just to expensive to justify this.  Mondays they get free gum, Tuesdays they have Story time (I am thinking about taking them at least twice, just not every week as it is at the same time as play group), Wednesday they are closed, Thursday they have craft day and Friday they have game day with Free Candy (would rather pass if you know what I mean)

This week's craft was a bookmark

We are looking forward to more fun this summer!

I am linking to:

Also linking to:

No Ordinary Blog Hop


Smart Summer Challenge