Energy and Laughs! - We get evening calls to do Parent Nights, Family Outreach Center Nights, Headstart Nights, etc. Most successful: space in a room to ourselves, if it is an Open House type event.
If it is simply a "Featuring the Public Library" type of thing, the most successful times I ever have are the ones in which I pretty much show them the basics: We have a giant version of our children's library card, which I take, as well as a giant poster showing the upcoming (or last summer's!) version of SRP clip art. I jump around, I ask them questions about the library ("Who knows how much a library card COSTS?" "What color are the kids' cards?" "What BORING color are the grown-ups cards?"), the same way I do with their children, and I get immediate interaction, laughter, and cooperation.
Prize Wheel - For our school aged kids, we have a prize wheel (spin the wheel and win one of our many leftover SRP prizes from past years or a book or a movie poster or something) and it's a huge hit.
I Spy Poster - The most successful thing we did was paste a bunch of magazine pictures and cut-out stuff on poster board. Then we had slips of paper that named different objects on the board. Kids picked a slip and tried to spot the thing. Gave us time to give info to parents (clever and tricky, thanks to my smart staffers!!). Successful kids got a hand stamp. They could play twice if they missed the first time.
What fun activities do you incorporate into school outreach?
Graphic courtesy of Pixabay
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