Five Rivers Public Library’s summer reading program entitled “Unearth a Story” was June 10th, 17th, 24th and 30th. Books were read to the children with weekly themes being: Soil & Roots: Where Roots Begin; Dino-Mite Adventures; and Construction: Dig, Dump, Build. The final party was held at the Parsons Splash Park with Parsons City workers, providing grilled hotdogs, buns & supplied condiments & drinks for the children.
The crafts, games, snacks & activities were geared towards the theme of the Summer Reading Program. Week 1, the discussion was all about roots. The children planted seeds, talked about plant roots and composting, and caught earthworms. Next they discussed the layers of soil ending by assembling layered parfaits representing the layers of soil.
Week 2, there was fun “hatching” dinosaur eggs with vinegar droppers making them fizz with a dinosaur prize inside. Then they made and erupted volcanoes, made fossils and also dug for specific dinosaur fossils, played Dinosaur BINGO, and dug for arrowheads and made a necklace with their findings.
Week 3, the children made a handprint stepping stone as a very nice keepsake. They made slime, ran an obstacle course, and dug for gemstones in the sand. The City of Parsons supported us by bringing a vac truck and a street sweeper to the library. Each week a complete lunch was provided by the Tucker County Extension Service.
All children received goodie bags, with the top three readers receiving a special tote filled with a variety of items. Our top three readers were, 1st place Annabeth Evans, 2nd place Lorelai Evans and 3rd place went to Quinn Hovatter.
Of the reading lists that were turned in, 1,834 books were read for the 3 weeks of the program as well as 282 people attending. To encourage the kids to read, they could earn free food items around town by either reading or having someone read to them. There were several businesses who contributed certificates to the reading program: Piccolo Paula’s Caffe, McDonalds, Sunrise Coffee Company, Black Fork Pizza, Bethany’s Cakes & Cupcakes, Mr. Pizza, Happy Jax Frosted Memories and Shop & Save.
We would like to thank Tucker County Extension Service for providing all activities for the first week as well as providing lunches for the children every week. Thank you also to Tucker County Community Action for supplying chips and juice for our program this year, to Wendy Niceler from The Health Plan for being an extra set of hands for crafts, and to Alisha McCune for reading to the kids one week.
We appreciate the businesses for their support! We also appreciate all the parents, grandparents, etc. who brought the children to our program! The kids had a great time as did the volunteers and library staff!
