Tostitos & Trivia: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'd been itching to do a trivia-type program for a while and, when I told my husband that "I need a snack that starts with T for an alliterate trivia program," he immediately came up "Tostitos and Trivia" for me. I was excited! I worked really hard on Tostitos and Trivia!

I came up with 10 questions in 5 different categories (for a grand total of 50 questions), with multiple choice answers, for grades 1-5. IT WAS HARD. I scoured tons of different kids trivia type websites and even still, wound up mostly creating my own questions and, at the very least, creating my own multiple choice answers.

You can download my 50 questions and answers here! The correct answers are the ones in red. 

I labored over the questions for weeks. Then a few days before the program, I put each question on its own sheet of cardstock, picking a different color for each category: Yellow for "Sports and Games," green for "Animals," orange for "Movies & Books," pink for "The World," and blue for "Science & Math." Then I taped them all up to the wall in rows like this:

I used removable tape so the questions would be easy to rip off, but unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the best cardstock-holder-upper. I wound up taping and retaping the questions up. Anyway, eventually, with enough layers of tape, they all stayed. Then I poured chips and salsa for all the kiddos (didn't even sneak any for myself!) and we were set to go. Bring on the kids...

Or not. I got one...waited...and then eventually got one more. Two kids were enough to run the program but not really enough to make it the super, action-packed, and competitive game that I'd envisioned. Also unfortunately, the kids were 2-years apart, which, apparently is HUGE in the world of trivial facts. So as the older child began to, more or less, "sweep the floor" with the younger one, I favored the younger to try to level the playing field a bit. Luckily, they were both cool and good sports, which was helpful.

Then, to top it all off, neither of the kids even liked the salsa! I'd poured it all out and wasted it for nothin'! 

I'd say the running theme of this program was disappointment. It was a ton of prep work for two kids who, I don't know, I guess mildly enjoyed it. As they are both regulars, I certainly wouldn't call this either of their favorite library programs.

What worked least: I feel like nothing worked particularly great but, in my defense, that it wasn't my fault. Maybe this would be better run as a mid-summer program in the middle of the day, but it certainly didn't draw a crowd in on a Thursday night in June. Bummer.

What worked best: The actual format of this was perfect. Smartly (if I do say so myself), I saved all the printed questions so that if I do ever decided to re-run this program (in the middle of the day in the summer), I'll have the hard work done. Plus, even if I get the same disappointing turnout next time, it'll be a lot less time invested the second time around.

They can't all be the best, right? Oh well.