Thrive Thursday Roundup for 9/4/14

I am the lucky host of September's Thrive Thursday blog hop!

The idea behind Thrive Thursday is to compile great ideas from children's librarians who work with school age kids. It was dreamed up by Lisa Shaia of Thrive After Three. For more information you can check out the Thrive Thursday website, Pinterest page and Facebook group.

I am so happy to share the awesome ideas of my colleagues who work with school age kids. There are so many terrific ideas here. Thank you all so much for sharing! A special shout out to Bryce for providing some of her favorites and introducing me to some great new blogs :)

Here are just a few of the great things going on in school age programming during the past month:

Lisa at Thrive After Three shared her Library Lend a Friend program. Kids get to pick a "flat friend" from a variety of popular characters and chronicle their adventures together. I love that it includes so many character options and would appeal to a wide range of ages. She also shared her Diary of a Wimpy Kid Scavenger Hunt (in time to use for the release of the new book). Definitely using both of these at my library in the future!

Here at Ms. Kelly at the Library I wrote about our yearly Backpack Raffle, and a Guessing Game I came up with in honor of Library Card Signup Month.

Bryce at Bryce Don't Play did a fun program based on Lauren Tarshis's book "I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916". This series is super popular and sharks are a perennial kid favorite, so I'm sure this one was a hit. Plus, anytime you get to throw pool noodles and balance ping pong balls on your head it's a good time! Bryce also shared the game cards they used for their newly prizeless SRP. Revamping SRP has been on many librarian's agendas, so this is definiely one to check out!

Over at the new blog Tweenbrarian, Amy wrote about her Tween Book to Movie Book Club. I was happy to see this one because I would love to start up a tween book club at my library someday. She has great ideas for activities related to the popular tween reads the "Lightning Thief" and "How to Train Your Dragon". Amy also wrote about a Mythbusters event she held at her library. Love the idea of testing the combination of pop rocks and Coke!

At the Neighborhood Librarian, Brytani pulled together and last minute Muppet Sing Along. Fun movie time plus a great opportunity to connect with patrons is a win win.

Tales from the Nerdy includes a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party. Major kudos for including instruction on ninja moves!

Stephanie at Storytime Steph shared her Bedtime Math, Sharpie Tie Dye, and Scratch Programming events. We can always use more STEAM programming, and these all sound like great options!

Carol at Program Palooza did a messy and funny series of science programs about "Gizmos, Gadgets and Goo". She includes a diaper polymer activity and so many great recipes and resources for making Oobleck! Carol also has many wonderful vehicle related ideas she used at her Wheel Away program.

Abby at Abby the Librarian has some sage advice about getting into schools to do booktalks. If you would like to do more collaboration with local schools, this post is a must read.

Thanks again so much for sharing!

And before we go, a round of applause for all these wonderful librarians working with school age kids.

The October Roundup will be hosted by Jean Little Library, so check there for updates.