A Dozen Programs and Activities for a Teen Medieval Themed Summer Reading Program

1. Post weekly Quests in the YA room as an independent program. Each week provide quizzes to enter a prize drawing. Examples:
Teen Questionnaire: Teens complete a questionnaire about reading preferences or programs.
Magazine ReQuest: Teens unscramble titles of YA magazines in the YA collection. Circle a favorite and request a new title.
King Arthur Quest: Match Arthurian characters with brief descriptions of each character.
Questword Puzzle: Create a crossword at www.puzzlemaker.com using castle/knight/medieval words.
Favorite Author Quest: Create a word search puzzle at www.puzzlemaker.com of popular YA authors’ last names. Teens circle a favorite and write a favorite title.
Photo Quest: Post photos of medieval everyday items or weapons printed form the Internet or scanned from books. Letter the photos and give teens a numbered list of the names of the articles to match.

2. Teens can host a Medieval Fair for families. They can create and man the games and activities. Paint a refrigerator box to look like a castle tower and little kids can fish for prizes over the castle wall. Paint a stove box with a dragon and a cauldron. Cut a hole in the top of the cauldron for a bean bag tossing game. Teens can braid hair or do hair wraps for girls and paint unicorns and dragons on children’s faces. Offer sidewalk chalk for a dragon drawing competition. Invite a calligrapher to write names in calligraphy on cards.

3. Invite the Society for Creative Anachronisms to perform sword fights in costume. Your group may also know someone who will do a program about Medieval life or the life of a knight.

4. Host a series of chess nights and end with a tournament of champions.

5. Create personalized coat of arms. Precut shields can be decorated with colored paper cutouts, clip art (sports, music, school, movies, books, etc), and calligraphy markers. Hang up in the YA room to decorate.

6. Cover the YA room walls with craft paper. Use a black marker and yardstick to create stone walls and cut out crenulations along the top edges.

7. Get creative with refreshments at programs and TAB meetings. Cocktail wieners in barbecue sauce make perfect Dragon Toes. Big pretzels are Love Knots, any cereal snack mix looks like Castle Rubble.

8. Play Castle Clue modeled after a Clue board game. Your library becomes a castle and teens move from room to room collecting clues. Use my version or have your teens create a variation.

9. If you have a movie license, there are several Arthurian films teens would like and A Knight’s Tale or Monty Python and the Holy Grail are very funny.

10. Try a craft project. Make soap or candles, and learn about aromatherapy.

11. Teens like to color, too. Print out cool coloring pages and leave in the YA room with colored pencils and markers. Try these sites: Dragons, Castles , Gargoyles

12. For a new twist on a mehndi program, offer Celtic Tattoos. Reserve books with Celtic designs for patterns and order mehndi kits from a company like The Henna People

See YA Around

© 2005, 2006 RoseMary Honnold.