August activity ideas, week by week

August gives you National Coloring Book Day, National Watermelon Day, Farmers Market Week, and National Lighthouse Day, all in the first week, then three long summer weeks to fill. Here is a plan for each week of August: one coloring page with its Story Starter, plus two or three low-cost ideas, each with a seated version.

August is also when September gets planned. The last week below gets you ready for Grandparents Day, so the invitations go out in time.

The month at a glance

• National Coloring Book Day: Monday, August 2
• National Farmers Market Week: starts Sunday, August 1 and runs seven days
• National Watermelon Day: August 3
• National Lighthouse Day: Saturday, August 7, for the 1789 law that put the country's lighthouses under federal care
• Women's Equality Day: August 26, for the 19th Amendment and women's right to vote
• Coming next month: Grandparents Day, Sunday, September 12

The holiday dates above are always this year's, so the list can go on the bulletin board and stay there.

Week by week

Week 1: Coloring Book Day and watermelon

A day named for coloring books is a good excuse for a coloring morning. Color Picnic by the sea, from Water and Shore: a seaside picnic with watermelon, a sun hat, and a sailboat. Print it in Regular and Bold. Bold has thicker lines and fewer tiny details, easier to see and easier to finish.

Hand out a page or two, then read the Story Starter once, aloud: "Watermelon: did you eat it with a fork, or spit the seeds?" It's a question that tends to get a laugh before it gets an answer. Wait for both.

Also this week:

• A coloring morning. Put pages and pencils out on every table and invite staff and visitors to sit down and color for twenty minutes. Seated version: carry a clipboard, a page, and a cup of pencils to anyone who'd rather color in their own room.
• Watermelon on the patio. Serve cold watermelon outside on Watermelon Day, with plenty of napkins. Check diet lists with the kitchen first. Seated version: cut it into small cubes in cups and bring them to the table with forks.
• A market basket. Farmers Market Week starts this week. If a market stand is close by, walk over together. Seated version: bring the market in. Fill a basket with peaches, corn, and green beans and pass it hand to hand. Feel, smell, and guess what each one costs.

Week 2: The lighthouse and the shore

Lighthouse Day comes at the end of the first week, so carry the shore into the second.

Color the Sailboat, the cover drawing of the Water and Shore pack: one boat, big on the page, with waves and clouds. Its Story Starter is "Would you rather be out on a boat or watching from shore?" There's no wrong side to pick. Some people want the wind in their face. Some want a bench, a sandwich, and a good view.

Also this week:

• A lighthouse gallery. Print photos of a dozen lighthouses from different coasts and hang them down a hallway. Walk the gallery and let everyone vote for the one they'd most like to live in. Seated version: print the same photos as cards, pass them around the table, and vote by a show of hands.
• Paper boats. Fold boats from scrap paper and float them in a tub of water on the patio. Seated version: set a shallow tub on the table and blow the boats across with straws.

Week 3: The market

Farmers Market Week is over, but the tomatoes aren't. This is the week to bring the garden inside.

Color Tomatoes in the garden, from The Kitchen Garden. Its Story Starter starts a friendly argument: "What's the best way to eat a ripe tomato: sliced, sandwich, or cooked?" Salt or no salt, white bread or toast, and whose garden grew the best ones: let it run.

Also this week:

• A tomato sandwich counter. Set out bread, sliced tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and let people come up and build their own. Seated version: bring a plate to each place and pass the tomatoes, so everyone builds a sandwich without leaving the table.
• A dream garden. Walk the garden beds with a notepad and make a list of what to plant next spring. Seated version: pass a handful of seed packets around the table, read the backs aloud, and draw the dream garden on one big sheet of paper.
• Basil on the windowsill. Walk out to the garden beds and snip basil or mint. Seated version: bring the cuttings to the table in a bowl, put each one in a small cup of water, and line the cups up on the windowsill to root.

Week 4: A vote, and getting ready for Grandparents Day

August 26 is Women's Equality Day, for the amendment that gave women the vote. It's a good week for a ballot of your own.

Color the Garden tote: a tote bag with flowers and a butterfly. Its Story Starter is "Purse, wallet, or lunch pail: what did you carry every day?" It opens stories about work, school, and the things people never left home without.

Also this week:

• A table vote. Hold a real vote on something the group cares about: next month's movie, or the flavor for the next ice cream social. Set a ballot box by the door and let people come and cast a vote. Seated version: carry the ballot box from chair to chair.
• Grandparents Day invitations. Grandparents Day is early next month. Write invitations to families together, and suggest a coloring hour on the day: the same drawing twice, Regular for the visitor and Bold for the person they came to see. Hand the invitations out at the front desk. Seated version: address them at the table, and a staff member mails them.

Ten questions for the month

Read one at a time, to the whole table, and wait. None of them has a wrong answer, and each one asks about a story or a preference, never about whether someone remembers.

1. Which fruit tasted the most like summer where you grew up?
2. How do you like corn on the cob: buttered, salted, or plain?
3. Who in your family could fold a paper boat or a paper hat?
4. What's the best beach, lake, or river you ever spent a day at?
5. Who did the grocery shopping in your house, and where did they go?
6. What went into a packed lunch at your house?
7. What did you wear on the first day of school?
8. Who was the first woman you knew who ran something: a store, a classroom, a farm, or the family budget?
9. What's a summer smell that takes you right back?
10. Who was the oldest person you knew as a child, and what did they teach you?

New in the library this month

New pages arrive on the 1st of each month, in time for next month's calendar, and that morning's email lists what's new. Already in the library for August:

• Water and Shore: Lotus pond, Palm, wave, and hibiscus, A cool drink at the beach, Ocean waves, Palm island, Sailboat, and Picnic by the sea.
• From The Kitchen Garden: Strawberries on the fence, Tomatoes in the garden, and Peppers by the fence.

Every drawing comes in Regular and Bold, with a Story Starter on the page. See the whole Water and Shore pack, and look ahead to the Grandparents Day page for next month.

If you'd like to try it first, the First Pack is six drawings with a Story Starter on each, free, with your organization's name on the cover.