I talked about this more in depth last year, but a making a movie every year to help promote summer reading has really elevated my school visit presence but also takes a lot of the pressure off. If you’re looking for how to make a movie, you can go to last year’s post here where I talk a little more in-depth about how I used iMovie to make my Indiana Jones themed movie, which you can watch here. This will be my seventh year making a video now, I always theme it off of the CSLP theme of that year so that other libraries can potentially use it and see it, but also so that it helps generate an idea for a movie. This year, we did “Mario Library Kart,” because 2025’s theme of “Color Our World” made me think of Rainbow Road. You can watch that new movie in full here.
I actually shot this not at my library, but at my wife’s library so I could use her staff to fill in the other parts. That kind of collaboration really helps with the burden of pulling it all together. To make it more beneficial to both our libraries, we shot 2 different endings–one where I win and another where the other library wins. This slightly made the whole process more work, but made it more beneficial to both of our libraries as well. But of course everyone wins when you use the library.
Oh real quick, you will probably notice that the movie has no sound, besides music and sound effects. A couple reasons for that. Voice recording makes video a lot more difficult, so there’s a longer turnaround and it probably won’t sound that great when you’re done anyway. This eliminates that completely. Removing sound also makes this slightly more accessible because it’s easier to follow what’s happening. I usually just say what the title cards and bumper cards are for the kiddos that can’t read the best yet.
So the benefits of a movie–you can really hit most of your talking points or reinforce what they learned in a fun new way. These visits are usually 30 minutes, and what they are going to remember is the fun things you talked about, like a story or a movie. The details will get fuzzy. So bringing those points up again in a NEW and FUN way make sure they retain that information. It’s one thing to talk about the summer slide, it’s another to see people literally avoid a slide as an obstacle. I also make sure I give a hand-out with a QR code to watch the movie at home or in class again, so there’s more opportunities to get that information. If nothing else, when I show these movies, I get kids coming up to me months or even years later saying, “There’s that guy that’s funny!” Which is exactly the memory you want to make.
A summer movie also relieves a lot of the stress of school visits. Half of the work is already done, so you can just zone out and recharge for the last 3 minutes, while kids are entertained. JUST make sure that you bring digital back ups–extra cords, a few flash drives with your visuals, and an extra laptop. Don’t assume technology will ever work. That stress aside though, it’s a much more stress free visit that will guarantee excitement about your program.
–My Summer Visit Structure-
So I focus mostly on grades Kindergarten to 2nd grade, with my older kiddos I do something slightly different that I’ll get into later.
(Minute 0-3) Introduce myself and talk about all the fun things that we are going to do. I try to grab their attention by explaining that they can earn prizes over summer and that we will be watching a video. It’s also good to give structure and a verbal agenda for our kiddos that need that.
(Minute 3-6) Explain about the summer slide. That’s the whole reason for the program technically so why not learn about it? I show them a real simple graph and tell them the story of two kids, one kid that was active over the summer and one that wasn’t. I tell them that at the beginning of June, both of their brains are STRONG!! And I have them do muscle poses–hilarious. I tell them all the great things Kid A did to keep their brain strong over the summer like reading and going to the library. I tell them that Kid B didn’t do any of that and now has a noodle brain, so then we all do noodle arms–also hilarious. And now has to work really hard to catch back up. That’s why reading is important, but that’s okay because reading is so much fun…
(Minute 6-14) So PROVE to them that reading is fun with a good story. Use one of my interactive story suggestions which you can find here. Kids have been sitting for like 6 minutes at this point and all I’ve been doing is talking. If you don’t make this fun you’ll lose them. So make it the best one you got and make sure there’s movement. I have a lot of tips on how to control the crowd for interactive storytimes so make sure you follow that link.
(Minute 14-20) A quick overview of how kids can track their progress and what they can do to earn their prizes. List of some of the best ones to get them excited. Take questions at the end BUT before you do that, answer some of the frequently asked questions yourself–“like what to I do if I skip a week?” or “do I get to pick my own prizes?” Otherwise, for this part you’ll just get kid questions like “I’ve been to the library…” THAT’S NOT A QUESTION BILLY, AND I HAVE 5 MORE OF THESE TO GET THRU!
This year I also made sure that every kiddo had some way to start tracking their progress that day. I might go into this more later, the most common question I got was “can I get the reading tracker now?” and it was always a bummer to say “No you have to wait however many weeks.” There’s a lot of time to forget everything I talked about, so this year, everyone gets part of their reading tracker after the visit to keep interest up. So some sort of hand out is key–QR codes to calendars, trackers, videos, anything to keep families engaged and informed.
(Minute 20-24) Explain the calendar and give them some highlights of library programs. Every program is designed to keep their minds “STRONG!” so all the kids can start flexing again. If you look at the clock, I’ve been talking with no interaction for way too long so this helps get the energy up a bit for the home stretch. Again I take some questions but address some of the more frequently asked ones, like no, you don’t have to touch the snakes at the snake program.
(Minute 24-27) Movie time. End on the high note. If you look at my movie again, you’ll see that it address most of the points I was talking about–even the summer slide. Boom. I tell them how they can watch the movie again so that they can show parents and get excited about the program all over again.
That’s a pretty foolproof plan. For my older kiddos (Gr. 3-6), I keep it shorter and don’t do a story. I show them program highlights like what we build at Lego Night, and then I end on the video again. This year my older kids are coming to me so I’m ending on a tour so we’ll see how that goes.
Anyway, hope this helps!
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