Teen Passive Ideas-Summer Reading

Do you do passives with teens at your library?

We do. In fact, our passive numbers are higher than the number of teens that participate in our programs! Because we don't have a teen room and low attendance at our programs, I'm forever trying to catch the "kids in the stacks". In the past we've had opinion polls, library bingo and trivia. During the summer I try to do a new passive every week.

I'm sharing some of my ideas for this summer. Our theme is Fizz Boom Read. Feel free to borrow anything you might be interested in using at your library!

Post it Note Art Show

We've had varying success with art share walls for teens in the past. On the scale of a wall full of lovely artwork as good to chasing off two punk boys defacing others artwork as horrible. I got so mad at them I swore off teen art walls forever.
I lied. I can't help it. I love art.

Quiz: Guess the Symbol

I have a sheet of symbols of the nine planets and the signs of the zodiac for teens to fill out and drop in out box to earn a prize. I've included the Dewey decimal numbers of books on astronomy and astrology so they can research and find the answers. That's not cheating in my opinion. Begging the librarian to look up the answers for you, is.

Periodic Word Generator

I saw a graphic on the internet were nerdy was spelled out with periodic elements Nerdy. I made colorful slips of paper with 3-4 boxes as well as a mini table of elements. I'm pretty horrible about word games like Boggle and Scrabble so I'm curious to see what the teens come up with.

Binary Code Messages
Similar to the word generator. I'm giving them the option of posting messages on the wall or taking them home. If you have the Collaborative Summer Reading Program manual for "Fizz Boom Read" there is a section in the kids' program that has the binary code and fun activities you can try with it.

Quiz: Robot Roll Call
For this quiz, I printed out pictures of famous robots from big and little screen. Fill out a sheet with your guesses of who's who and bonus points if you can tell were they are from. Using books and the internet is allowed because I threw in some tough ones. There is Robo-cop, EVE, R2-D2. But do you remember these guys?

Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo of MST3K

I'm pairing each passive with a display. Sticking with our science theme, I'll have book displays featuring  the Science Fiction genre:

Time Travel books/Doctor Who, Mad Scientist books, Steampunk and Dystopian.