Scavenger Hunts in in the school library? Yes! Playing games in the library is a great way to learn library skills. These library scavenger hunts and games allow students to put into practice the skills they learn on finding things in the library. They give students the opportunity to put important library skills to work and find fun books to read in the process. Here are 5 fun games to help students.
Library Sections Game
Have you ever played 4 Corners? Library sections is just like that without the corners, Students have a certain count to WALK and find a bookshelf. The counter will call out a section of the library and if you are touching a shelf in that section, you are out. I have found it easier to always be the counter and watch. Instead of randomly calling a section, I keep the names of the sections in my pocket and pull out a section. The main sections I focus on are Everybody, Fiction, Biography, Magazines, and Series.
Library Scavenger Hunt
This Library Scavenger Hunt a way to help students learn the library. This scavenger hunt uses descriptions of library sections and places to help readers put their knowledge to work. Clues are hidden in the library to guide students to specific places in the library. These clues range from the circulation desk to the fire exit and from reference materials to the everybody section. This is a fun way to have kids start using their understanding of the library. This is a great follow up to the Library Section Journey.
Book Library Scavenger Hunt
Another way to assess student understanding of the library is with a book hunt. Students are given a card with a topic. They will use the online catalog to find a book matching that topic and then take a picture of that book on the shelf. They can always bring you the book as well, but the excitement of the picture taking helps with the fun of this game. And when they take the picture you don’t have to reshelve the book later. Fun topics to use for the book library scavenger hunt are sharks, dinosaurs, cars, I Survived, and specific people in the biography section.
Letter/Sight Word Scavenger Hunts
For younger students just learning the library, use a letter or sight word scavenger hunt. I hide 10 of these at a time in the sections where they look for books. You can just put them up to find or you can give students a recording sheet to write the letter or words that they find. This is a fun way to review their reading skills, while searching through a section of the library. They often find the books they want to check out while on their letter or sight word searches.
Dewey Decimal Scavenger Hunt
This scavenger hunt is one I like to use with 4th and 5th grade students. Give students several topics. Have them look the book up in the online catalog and search for the nonfiction call numbers. Students go to the shelves to find that book. I like to have the students take a picture of the book once they find it and insert that into the digital version of the dewey scavenger hunt.
Displaying these nonfiction library labels and Dewey Decimal Posters makes it easier for students to find the books/section they need while they are completing these scavenger hunts or playing the games.
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[…] Games are a great way to engage learners and motivate them to want to learn. When playing a game, students will ask questions they often don’t ask in a normal lesson. They want to know how to win or finish the task. Using movement and scavenger hunts engages students and minimizes the classroom distractions. […]