Before I write about my Trivia Night, I just want to say thanks to the librarians in Massachusetts who are so awesome about sharing info and ideas about programs. One of the best resources I found was through our youth services listserv and I don’t think I would have found this info without it.

As one of my colleagues put it – “Why reinvent the wheel?” And why should we? All we want is good programs that we don’t have kill ourselves planning. Because we have about a million other things to do. (You know, like read all day at the desk, for instance…..)  ha. Which is also why I write about my programs – to give back.

Anyways, I “borrowed” my Hunger Games Trivia Night from Amity Middle School – Bethany Book Blog. They posted all their trivia questions and a great idea for a Cornucopia Race. Thank you!

I think though, I may have been overly-confident about my preparedness. I had my staff type out the questions and answers and put them on index cards. I probably should have read them over and weeded out ones that I didn’t think would work or that were actually wrong (whether because of typos or what) so that I wasn’t weeding as I read them aloud. Yeah. Also, I should have borrowed some kind of buzzer system. Because we ended up with lots more teens the day of, so I wasn’t really prepared for the 17-or-so kids that came. I looked around for whistles or bells. Nothing. We ended up with 2 teams – boys against girls – yeah, sexist but whatever – and using toy instruments from my baby story time. This worked for all of 10 minutes and then there was slamming tables, arguments over who slammed first, etc. Then I ended up going back and forth with the questions. If a team got one wrong, the other team could steal. This sort of worked. I think if I do it again, I should do a Jeopardy board. Someone remind me of this.

The second was better – the Cornucopia Race! This was really fun. Again, though, I probably should have read through the whole thing. Maybe I could have adapted it ……. or shortened it. But it was still really fun. The general idea is to collect a bunch of items that would have been in the Cornucopia – a tarp, bow & arrows, knife, food, sleeping bag, matches, shoes, blanket, etc. I had everything on the list: some items I had at the library or at home and some I made. I only purchased a couple of items. We kept the same teams for this. When I said “GO”, one person on each team ran to the “Cornucopia” and grabbed one item. They ran back and tagged another member who ran to get another item. Just like the players in The Hunger Games, no one knew what they would need. When everything was gone, I read a little story. In the story, different things happened to the players where they required certain items to survive. If a team happened to have those items, they would get 5 points. The team with the most points at the end of the story wins. Very good idea!

Prizes:

This was tough because while I had a good amount of prizes (Mockingjay Pins, books, posters, etc.) I didn’t have something for everyone. I made it so that the team that one a round of trivia got to put their name in the bucket more times than the other team, or if they won the Cornucopia Race, etc. It actually ended up being pretty even. So, just like the reaping, I pulled names and as I called them, they could come up and pick a prize. They seemed pretty happy with it. I made up certificates for a free k-cup coffee from our cafe for those who didn’t get a real prize.

Final Thoughts:

Fun night, overall. I could have been more prepared, but lesson learned. The kids – even number of boys and girls – were totally into the book and psyched about the movie, which was coming out that night at midnight. Most were there just to win a Mockingjay pin, but they were THERE. So I win 🙂

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but my husband and I have a date to see it on Friday!