Teen Event: Life Size Clue

For Teen Read Week (TRW) I planned and hosted a Life Size Clue event for the teens at one of my library branches. I was lucky enough to receive one of the ten TRW grants through YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to fund this event.

The TRW theme this year was "Seek the Unknown." That paired with several of my regular teens' interest in crime and mystery TV shows, prompted me to plan the Life Size Clue event. I found inspiration online from GreenBean TeenQueen, Abby the Librarian, Wandering Through Words, eHow, and Wikipedia.

Following the advice of several librarians who had put on this event in the past, I only included six of the nine rooms (kitchen, dining room, conservatory, lounge, billiard room, & library) on the game board in my life size version. With the help of my intern and work study student, we put down the game board in a little over an hour. I printed up the room signs and indicated any secret passages on them. The players' starting squares were indicated by colored paper. Both these and the room signs were taped down with masking tape.

For the weapons, we used a toy knife, a toy gun, a glass candlestick holder from the Dollar Tree, a small wrench from my car's toolkit, an aluminum foil covered paper towel tube for the lead pipe, and rope from a plant hanger.

For the player props, we found bandanas that suited their names except for Mr. Green. That prop was oversized green glasses from the Dollar Tree.

 

Before we began playing, we fed the teens pizza, goldfish crackers, cookies, and soda.

After eating they picked teams. We had 12 attend so we had six teams of two. One person was the game piece. The other kept track of the cards, the dice, and the case sheet.

In the middle of the game board (the hall on the actual game board), we had the murder scene, the confidential case file and a bloody handkerchief...proof that Mr. Boddy was indeed murdered.

We followed the board game rules. We managed to play three and a half times in two hours. Winners got to choose a prize (DVDs, duct tape, candy bars).

I used part of the grant funds to add new mystery titles to the YA collection. These were displayed in the meeting room along with a book list.

I also did a blind date with a book display to further encourage teens to "Seek the Unknown."

Before leaving the teens all filled out a short survey for me. I asked questions about their enjoyment of the program, how likely they would be to come to another event, when was the best time for them to attend programs, and for any program suggestions.