Activities
Below you will find several online activities that have been created for you. If you are looking for something to do, this is a great place to start!
KCU & the CARTER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY (CCPL)
VIRTUAL SUMMER READING PROGRAM
Kentucky Christian University’s Young Library and the Carter County Public Library (CCPL) are working together to be sure that youth in the county will be able to participate in a summer reading program. KCU’s part of the Summer Reading Program – Adventure@Your Library will be virtual. Look here every week beginning June 9, 2024 for 9 weeks and find a virtual guide to explore a continent, transportation, and your backyard! Some of the ideas, books, movies, and virtual field trips will be able to be shared with the entire family. We look forward to having you join us on our trip around the world!
Welcome to Week 1 of the virtual portion of the Carter County Public Library Summer Reading Program! We encourage you to participate in person at both of the Carter County Public Library Branches for Summer Reading. Summer Reading programs will be held every Wednesday, beginning June 5th, at noon at both branches. If you cannot make the in-person sessions or you just want the fun to last all week, try our weekly Virtual Summer Reading program! We will look at books designed for independent readers and explore each continent through books, videos, tours, and food.
To kick off Week 1, we focused on how are we going to get where we are going. What is your favorite way to travel? Do you like to drive in fast cars or slow ones? Do you like to fly in airplanes or hot air balloons? Do you like to ride a horse or climb onto a train? Be sure to take the virtual tour of Kentucky Horse Park, fold your best paper airplane, and eat some of our travel food suggestions. Just click on the link above to get started! Bon Voyage!
Jambo! Welcome to Africa. Thank you for joining us on our literary safari through the continent’s 5 unique subregions. Throughout our journey, we will explore books, movies, music, and other cultural artifacts unique to each.
- Northern Africa (Features the Sahara desert, Atlas mountains, and the Nile river)
- Eastern Africa (Features mounts Kilimanjaro and Kenya, Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, and large concentrations of wildlife)
- Central/Middle Africa (Features the Congo river basin, tropical rainforests, and the Cameroon Highlands – which have active volcanoes such as Mt. Cameroon)
- Southern Africa (Boasting the most diverse terrain and climate, this subregion features the Zambezi river and one of the largest waterfalls in the world – Victoria Falls)
- Western Africa (This is a transitional zone which goes from the Sahara desert, to the savanna, then into the tropics)
Welcome to Antarctica, the only continent in the world with no permanent residents and no native peoples! Having been sighted for the first time in recorded history just over 200 years ago, and having been explored for just over 100 years ago, this continent is one of the most fascinating places on your summer reading journey. As you work through the week, look for Walter Dean Myers’ book, Antarctica, listen to Jules Verne’s An Antarctic Mystery, learn about penguins in the animal section, and watch what is happening on the live webcams that are linked on the Museum page! This is a great way to think cool in this hot week of summer, but never have to get cold!
Welcome to Asia! This is the largest of our 7 continents, home to 48 countries and over 4.5 billion people…that’s over half the people in the WORLD!!!
The United Nations has divided Asia into 6 distinct subregions:
Northern: Russia/Siberia
Central: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Eastern: China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and the Republic of Korea.
Southeastern: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
Southern: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Western: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, State of Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
As you explore this continent, be sure to watch for the live panda cam, Komodo dragons, and K-pop!
![The regional division of the Asian continent [34]. | Download Scientific Diagram](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344418744/figure/fig2/AS:941201402368005@1601411309494/The-regional-division-of-the-Asian-continent-34.png)
Welcome to the continent of Australia…wait, is that right?
Fun Fact: The first thing to learn about Australia. It is, technically speaking, not a continent.
Question: Why do we have a continent named “Australia” then?
Answer: Australia is often referred to as a continent. However, Australia (the country) is the main continental landmass of the continent Oceania
Continue to explore all of Australia but particularly watch for their unique animals. Also, we encourage you to look at the movies and crafts! We will be looking for you “down under” this week!
Welcome to Europe for the next part of your adventure!
Europe consists of 44 countries! You can divide them directionally into Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Europe or by language families – Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, and Romanic. Through this week, you will be exploring Europe using these language families and Folk Tales – think King Arthur’s knights type of stories. Be sure and try the papercutting craft called Scherenschnitte (like summertime paper snowflakes!). Explore the 3 botanical gardens, particularly the one in Italy that has an entire garden of insectivores plants! Finally, sustain yourself throughout with fillings for crescent rolls that reflect each language family. Let’s get started!
Welcome to North America! Since we live on this continent it is probably the one that we are most familiar with. However, it is easy to think that the United States makes up the entire continent. In reality, North America consists of Greenland, Canada, the United States of America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Have fun this week exploring the diversity of cultures, languages, geography, and climate that exist in this continent. Watch particularly for virtual trips through part of the Columbus zoo, Mammoth Caves, and the Grand Canyon! In the evening, enjoy watching a few Westerns. Let’s get started!
Welcome to South America! Did you know that South America is the 4th largest continent? Only Asia, Africa, and North America are larger. Through this next to the last week of Summer Reading, you will be exploring many aspects of this continent. Be sure to try the craft with clay to make a pencil/pen holder before you had back to school next month. Pottery is a major craft in South America. Try making different fillings for empanadas which are like hand pies that can be sweet or savory. Finally, be sure to explore Machu Pichu, a pre-Columbian site. You will get to see all of the cool stuff without having to do all of that walking!
WEEK 9 – Your Backyard / Appalachia
Our final adventure this summer is our backyard – Appalachia! The Appalachian region is made up of 423 counties across 13 states. The Appalachian region has a diversity of people, climate, and food, but what they all have in common is living in the Appalachian mountains. As you spend the week in the Appalachians, be sure to observe the adventure around you, including your family, friends, and neighbors. Visit with grandparents and older people in your community and see what they remember of the Appalachian region in the past. Look at the state governor pages for this region to see what leaders are planning into the future. Are you ready?! Let’s get started on this close to home adventure!
KCU SUMMER READING CHALLENGE
Young Library sponsors an annual Summer Reading Program from the beginning of May until the beginning of September each year. All incoming Freshmen, current KCU Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni may participate.
There are many benefits to reading. It is fun, it gives you something to do, and this summer you can earn the opportunity to have your name in a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift certificates.
The more you read, the faster you read. This is beneficial to all of our students. It will help you complete reading assignments in less time in the Fall semester.
We encourage you to read over the instructions and the process for this opportunity.
Hope you have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you in the fall!
VIRTUAL VACATIONS
Our virtual vacations are designed to help you relax, explore other areas and times of the world, and provide reading materials for you as you visit different places. Try going through the vacations with family and friends who live far away or put them on a TV screen and experience it with those who live near you. Let us know what things you like to do the best! Even though we are not as restricted by Covid-19 as we have been, this is still a great way to take an inexpensive vacation, especially with the price of gas!
June 2022
Welcome to our June Virtual Vacation to New Orleans, Louisiana! Explore this city through many virtual tours. You will visit the National World War II Museum, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the Audubon Zoo. You will take a virtual tour on the Natchez, and listen to many styles of music that originated in this city. Food is a wonderful experience in New Orleans and you will get to try recipes of iconic foods as well as walk through Cafe du Monde to watch beignets being made! There are many books available by Louisiana authors and movie double features for each day. So let’s get started……!
June 2022 – New Orleans, Louisiana Vacation
VACATIONS 2021-2022
June 2021 – Summer Forever Equatorial Vacation
July 2021 – Superhero Virtual Vacation
August 2021 – A Virtual Pirate Vacation
October 2021 – New York City Vacation
January 2022 – Leavenworth, Washington Vacation
March 2022 – Epic Fantasy Vacation
VACATIONS 2020 – 2021
If you enjoyed our most recent vacation or are just looking for a different place to go, try some of vacation spots that we have visited in the past!
June 2020 – Florida/Beach Vacation
July 2020 – Walt Disney World Vacation
August 2020 – Kentucky Outdoors Vacation
September 2020 – Great Lakes Lighthouses
October 2020 – New England Vacation
November 2020 – The Great River Road Vacation
December 2020 – The 12 Towns of Christmas Virtual Vacation
January 2021 – Hawaii Virtual Vacation
February 2021 – Paris, France Virtual Vacation
April 2021 – Washington, D.C. Virtual Vacation
May 2021 – St. Louis Missouri Virtual Vacation
ESCAPE ROOMS
Our first Virtual Escape Room was created based on Disney characters. It is a fun way to spend a Saturday night and you can work at it for a fun but inexpensive date! Grab a partner and begin The Magical Escape!
February 2021 – The Magical Escape
For Welcome Weekend, we have created a Library Skills Virtual Escape Room. All new students can participate during the weekend until 7pm on Monday, August 7th. Test your knowledge and see how much you know about the library! You could win a $50 Amazon gift card and your RA could win a $25 gift card!
August 2023 – The First Trials of Knighthood!
Are you worried about your paper containing plagiarism? Defeat Plagiarism on all 10 of KCU’s sports fields to be sure that you never have an issue with plagiarism on your assignments!
KCU Young Library’s Plagiarism Decathlon!
BANNED BOOKS WEEK
Come and explore some of our favorite books that have been banned in schools and libraries! This event is sponsored by our School of Distance and General Education. Books unite us and expose us to different cultures, places, and ideas. Take a look at our reviews of Banned Books and let us know on Social Media what your favorite Banned Book is!
Well Prepared
“Thank you so much, Dr. Brickey! I was well prepared, both educationally and most importantly, spiritually. I will forever remember this experience. I pray I can continue to make Yancey School of Nursing proud as I practice my career.”
Nephtalie Fleur, Class of 2022
