ATLAS: Halloween Crafts

In the spirit of the season, we made Halloween themed crafts at this month's ATLAS (At The Library After School). Craft programs are some of my favorites to do, and definitely make a great go to theme for my monthly programs ATLAS (3rd-6th grade) and Kidding Around (K-2nd grade). I do them often and highly recommend them.

For this program I came up with a few suggestions by searching Pinterest and let the kids take the reins from there. These ideas are probably too late for use in library programs this year, but hopefully will come in handy in the future.

Popsicle stick art:

This is a Frankenstein version, but it could also be done as a pumpkin, ghost, etc. I've done popsicle stick crafts like these before, but was also inspired by the pumpkins found here. I love the simplicity of taping several sticks together and applying paint, pipe cleaners, etc. It is fun, easy and allows for a great deal of flexibility.

Coffee filter spider webs:

I was originally thinking that the kids would cut these in a manner similar to paper snowflakes, but this was definitely a fun approach too. Hooray for creativity!

Pipe cleaner pumpkins:

I've learned over the years that pipe cleaners are one of the most versatile and useful craft supplies in a children's librarian's arsenal. Orange and green ones make a pretty cute little pumpkin that will stick around even after Halloween is over.

Marshmallow ghosts/pumpkins

After seeing the ghosts stamped with marshmallows at Coffee Cups and Crayons I thought marshmallows would be a good addition to our program. Kids can dip them in paint to stamp out the shapes of ghosts, pumpkins, etc. They can also just cover them in paint as this young artist has done to create a pumpkin patch.

As always I'm happy to answer any questions about these crafts you may have. You can reach me here, on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets) or by email (marrak at libcoop dot net). Happy Halloween!

ATLAS: Tape Games

For my most recent ATLAS (At The Library After School) program, I was inspired by this post on the ALSC Blog. It was an easy, fun and inexpensive program and I wanted to make sure I shared my take on it. So grab a roll of tape and get ready to have a good time with your chosen group of tweens.

The basic format of the program was that we spent about a half hour doing stations related to tape, followed by a half hour doing assorted duct tape crafts. The crafts included making duct tape bows, bookmarks and anything else the kids could come up with.

The crafts were pretty self explanatory, so I thought I'd focus on the stations we did:

• Skee-ball: This was an idea I took directly from the ALSC post. It was a little more difficult than the kids expected, but overall their favorite station.

 

• Straw races: The goal of this station was to blow a puff ball from one end of the line to the other  using a straw. After everyone had tried that, we did the same thing with a marble. In comparing how easy it was to move these two objects with their breath the kids got to learn a little about the science of weight and friction.

  

• Tic Tac Toe: This was a simple twist on the classic game that the kids definitely enjoyed. It would be a great addition to any program focusing on life sized games.

As always I'm happy to answer any questions about these games you may have. You can reach me here, on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets) or by email (marrak at libcoop dot net). Thanks for sticking around and reading (pun intended)!

ATLAS: ArtBot Tips and Tricks

For February's ATLAS we did something I've seen done on many blogs before: ArtBots. In case you aren't familiar with them, they are robots that make art. I've a few different types of ArtBots and they primarily vary in the type of materials used to make them. The most common materials I've seen used are cups and pool noodles. One thing most ArtBots seem to have in common is that an electric toothbrush serves as the power source. The ones we made looked like this:

I decided to model my ArtBots after Anne's at Sotomorrow. The basic idea is you push an electric toothbrush into the hole of shortened pool noodle. Next you secure markers to the sides with rubber bands to balance them so they hang just past the end of the noodle. Once they are balanced you tape the markers on with duct tape or masking tape. The final step is decorating your creation. When you turn on the toothbrush the ArtBot should move in a circle and create a Spirograph-like picture.

Since the basics of ArtBots are covered in detail by Anne and others, I figured I'd share a few new tips and tricks I discovered through my own experience.

• The Luminant toothbrushes do fit pretty perfectly, as Anne mentioned. In my case I was lucky that they were very easy to find with a few calls to my local Dollar Tree. I didn't even have any duds in the 15 toothbrushes I bought.
• If you are doing this activity in the winter make sure you have pool noodles ready and available because as seasonal items you will not be able to find them anywhere cheaply or easily. I had to rely on a children's librarian from my cooperative who happened to have some extra on hand to give me. Thanks to her kindness our program was able to go on as scheduled!
• To make this a group art experience I covered our tables with butcher paper and used that as our drawing surface. It had the added benefit of keeping any marker from getting on the tables.
• Balancing was definitely one of the most difficult parts of getting the ArtBots to work. Other blogs have mentioned balancing too well, but a couple of my kids had trouble getting theirs to balance at all. It may just be trial and error. 
• 12 kids seems like a good sized group to do this project with. A larger group would most likely have made me feel spread thin when it came to providing the help some of the kids needed.
• Precutting the noodles into the necessary smaller pieces was definitely a smart move. We filled the entire hour of the program making and decorating our ArtBots and would not have had time for this extra step.

I hope these tips come in handy if you choose to make ArtBots with kids. As an easy and fun maker activity I highly recommend it!

ATLAS: Chocolate Olympics

If I've learned one thing in my five years as a children's librarian, it's that if snacks work to get kids into the library chocolate works even better. When I held a Chocolate Olympics as a part of our monthly ATLAS (At The Library After School) program about 3 years ago, it was one of my favorite programs I had ever done with 3rd-6th graders. Now that enough time has passed I was able to repeat this program recently, which gave me a great reason to share it here.

A little visual for you chocoholics out there. 

Program Overview:

This program involved a few simple games related to chocolate. Some were physical, others were just for fun. The "winner" of each game received a Hershey's Kiss. 12 3rd-6th graders signed up and 11 attended. The program lasted about an hour from start to finish. The only supplies I had to purchase were a large pack of Hershey's Kisses, three boxes of Oreos and one box of chocolate chip cookies.

What we did: 

 

Chocolate Toss

Each child was given a plate and a Hershey's Kiss. The goal was to place the plate on the floor and throw the Kiss onto the plate. Once they got it on the plate, they were instructed to take one large step back and try to do it again. The child that ended up the farthest away after about 2-3 minutes was the winner. This ended up being one of the more difficult games as it was surprising how much the candy would bounce.

Hershey Kiss "Tennis"  

I made "tennis rackets" out of paper plates and craft sticks. We broke into pairs, and the goal was to hit a Hershey Kiss back and forth as many times as possible. The kids quickly realized that gently tossing worked a lot better than powerful hits. Definite points for building the kids' physics knowledge!

Hershey Kiss Relay Race

The kids were divided into two teams and had a relay race where each team member had to cross the room while balancing a Hershey Kiss on a spoon. This was probably the most active of the events and the kids seemed to have a great time with it.

Stack the Oreos

The object of this activity was for the kids to work in teams to see who could create the highest tower of Oreos. I like to incorporate group work whenever possible, so this was a great way to do it. Word of warning, you will have to buy a separate stash of Oreos purely for eating purposes.

Cookie Face

Any one who has done a Minute to Win It program for kids is probably familiar with this one. Each participant puts a cookie on their forehead and must move it from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. A crowd favorite, and a great way to end the program.

Tips and Tricks: 

• Plastic baggies to bring home leftovers are a great addition. The kids definitely appreciated going home with their own "goodie bags". One child had big plans to take her baggie to school as the next day's snack. 

• Chocolate fondue is a great addition to the end of this program. I was definitely bummed that this year the chocolate chips I purchased didn't melt well enough and we had to skip that part.

• Adapting Minute to Win It games is a great place to start to come up with games for a program like this. Many of these games can also be adapted to work with other foods. In the past I've done a Popcorn Olympics and a Marshmallow Madness program that were fairly similar to this one.

I hope these ideas will be useful to anyone working with kids, and that they haven't stimulated your sweet tooth too much! Excuse me while I go and find some chocolate to eat...

ATLAS: Diary of a Wimpy Kid "Old School" Release Party

Wimpy Kid fans are still plenty at my library, so of course we had to celebrate the release of the newest book. The "Old School" theme was easy to work with and definitely lent itself to a variety of fun activities. I had 12 3rd-6th graders attend, and they all seemed to enjoy the experience.

 

Here is what we did: 

Group discussion:
We started out with a discussion of what "Old School" is all about. The major theme of the book is that Greg's mom wants the people in their community to "unplug" from electronic activities and interact. As you'd suspect he'd be, Greg is against this. Because he is Greg Heffley he winds up in trouble and ends up having to do it against his will on a class camping trip.

Next I did a brief reading from the book. This was a great opportunity to fit books into the program, and show all attendees that reading aloud can be enjoyable with older kids. I probably only read about the first 10 pages, but it definitely was enough to give a taste of what the book was about.

After that I showed the kids some "old school" technology. I printed pictures of an old devices and asked the kids to identify them. This wound up being a hilarious addition. The 8 track player and pager had them particularly stumped.

Games and activities:
Our first game tied into the camping aspect of the book, and was called "bug bite" tag. I had sheets of circular stickers that I called "bugs". Each "it" had to place a "bug" onto the other players to tag them out. This was a game I found awhile back, so I'm not sure of the source. A great version of tag, one I will definitely use again in the future.

Also to fit in with the outdoorsy theme I decided to have the kids build "shelters" out of boxes. In order to challenge them to work together on this activity I broke them into two teams. I have to say I was impressed with both teams. What they came up with turned out really well!

For our craft I decided to have them make their own "diaries" out of construction paper and computer paper. This is a common craft that I've read about many other libraries doing at their "Wimpy Kid" parties, but I had yet to do it here. I like that it encourages writing and creativity!

As we were creating our diaries we had snack. To fit with the camping theme, I provided s'mores granola bars and chips. For our drink we had lemonade, because Greg has a lemonade stand in the story. While eating, kids could also do a wordsearch I created. I also asked a few Wimpy Kid trivia questions as they ate and worked.

I think the kids enjoyed themselves at this program and learned a little too. Most importantly they got to engage with one of their favorite books. Hopefully this will help them see how fun books can be, and encourage them to keep reading in the future!

Next month's ATLAS will be a DIY gift making party so if you have any suggestions feel free to share them!

ATLAS: Spooky Science

Science programs are always a huge hit with my 3rd-6th graders, so this month we combined science with a Halloween theme to do Spooky Science.

I had five experiments planned, including making slime. As usual, I registered 12 kids for this one hour program. The biggest issue I ran into was that slime making was way more time intensive than I remembered from doing it a few years ago. We didn't have time to go through all five experiments, but the kids seemed to have a fun time anyways. My handout of instructions for each experiment is linked to in the title of each.

Experiment #1: Wiggly worms

Picture from openclipart.org

For this experiment you soak gummy worms in baking soda water then transferred them to a cup of vinegar. The chemical reaction is supposed to make the worms move. Word of warning, it only works if you slice the worms very thinly. This is also a good experiment to do first and come back to, because the worms do take a significant amount of time to soak.

Experiment #2: Magic Pumpkin

Image from openclipart.org

This is an optical illusion I found on Steve Spangler's website. There is a template of a pumpkin that you attach to skewer so that when you spin it you get a moving jack o lantern face. The explanation on the website was slightly confusing so I simplified it on my handout. The basic idea is that you glue two of the four pieces together, glue the others in half, and tape them on the skewer in a "plus sign" formation. For my skewers I used some leftover chopsticks I had in my storage cabinet.

Experiment #3: Slime

As I mentioned, this was the most time intensive part of this program. It still was messy, fun and definitely worth doing. There are many recipes online, and many variations you can make. One of my favorite variations is using clear glue, adding a paint called GlowAway and making your slime glow in the dark.

Experiment  #4: Ghost cup

Image from openclipart.org

This was one of the experiments I sent home because we didn't have time to do it. I found it on the website "Science Bob" listed as a chicken cup. It is a lesson in friction, as well as sound amplification. I don't remember how I figured this out, but if you pull the paper towel in a longer stroke, it sounds like a ghost. My tip for this experiment is to make sure to cut holes in each cup ahead of time.

Experiment #5: Dancing ghost

Image from openclipart.org

This is a simply activity done with a tissue and a balloon. You cut a ghost out of the tissue, rub the balloon in your hair, and use the static energy to lift the ghost. This was definitely the easiest and most simple experiment we did. It was another one I first found on Science Bob.

How it went
We accomplished three experiments in the program, and I sent two of them home. The slime seemed to be the most popular activity, followed by the magic pumpkin. Overall, this was a fun program that was relatively inexpensive. It cost about $20, but only because I had to buy new containers of glue and Borax for slime making.

Feel free to use these experiments and handouts at library programs or any other opportunity you may have. I would love to hear about how they have been used! You can comment here, email me at marrak at libcoop dot net, or find me on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets). 

ATLAS: Marble Mania

For my most recent ATLAS (At The Library After School) I was inspired by this Maze Maker program done by Anne at sotomorow. It sounded like a fun and easy way for my 3rd-6th graders to have a little fun (and do a little learning at the same time). I threw in a few of my own additions to the straw mazes Anne's tweens created and called the program Marble Mania.

Marbles courtesy of openclipart.org

Toilet Paper Tube Marble Run

Supplies needed:
Toilet paper tubes (cut in half)
Paper towel tubes (cut in half)
Marbles

I instructed the kids to work together as a group. Their goal: Use toilet paper tubes to transfer a marble across the room. This was harder than they expected. We experimented with paper towel tubes as well. Most of the kids found the longer tubes a little easier to use because it gave them more time to move before the marble fell out. Side benefit: Figuring this out provided the tweens with a sneaky science lesson involving gravity and velocity.

Paper towel and toilet paper tubes, all ready to go.

Marble Mazes

Supplies needed:
Marbles
Cardboard
Straws
Tape

Cost: 
About $5 for three bags of marbles and two bags of straws (purchased at my local Dollar Store).

This was the activity that took up the majority of the program time. Like in Anne's program, we used tape and straws to make a maze to blow marbles through. I provided several different kinds of tape in order to introduce the element of friction to the mazes. The masking tape seemed to be the most commonly used.

One of our maze makers at work.

Another maze maker decided to use my camo Duck Tape.

Marble Painting

Supplies needed:
Magnetic marbles (similar to these on Amazon)
Bar magnets
Paper plates
Paint
Paper

The kids put two colors of paint on a paper plate, and used a magnet to move a marble through it to mix the paint from underneath. Then they took the plate and turned it upside down onto a piece of construction paper to create their artwork.

A piece of our marble artwork.

Tips and Tricks:

• The Dollar Store is a great place to buy supplies for this program. I spent all of $5 on marbles and straws, and that was pretty much the whole cost of this program.
• If I were to do this program again, I might do the painting portion first, in order to give the artwork time to dry.
• Some of the kids were a little confused about the Marble Run activity at first. Practice is definitely in order before any group competition!

All in all this program went pretty well. The kids seemed to have fun and were glad to take their mazes home to show off. I also think they learned a few valuable science related lessons along the way. 

Our next ATLAS (the last of the school year!) is an origami program. Any suggestions for easy origami creations?

ATLAS: Marshmallow Peep Science

My tweens love science programs, so when I saw this program Lisa had done, I knew I had to try it. It seemed like common sense that sugar based treats and science would make a winning combination (see my previous "Candy Science" program). I figured Peep Science would be the perfect theme for this month's ATLAS (At The Library After School).

I registered twelve 3rd through 6th graders for this program. We did all experiments simultaneously, but they could also be done as a series of stations.

Here is what we did:

Step 1: Initial Observation

Supplies needed: 
One Peep per person 
Observation sheet
Rulers
Crayons

Like Lisa, I started out having the kids make some simple observations about their Peeps. I provided them with an observation sheet that they could use throughout the program. They were told to measure their Peep, draw their Peep, and make any other relevant observations. I explained that once these observations were made the Peeps would be facing harrowing conditions throughout the program. Kind of like the Hunger Games for Peeps!

Step 2: Harrowing conditions

Cold Peep

Supplies needed:
One frozen Peep per person
Rulers

I asked the kids what would happen if Peeps were kept in the freezer overnight. After they made their predictions I gave them each a frozen Peep to repeat our observation process on.  The Peeps really don't freeze very much, so it was interesting to see how the kids' predictions differed from what really happened. When I told them I had only kept the Peeps in the freezer overnight, several said they wanted to see what would happen if they were kept frozen longer. Hooray for extending the experiment even further!

Sinkable (?) Peep

Supplies needed:
Previous passed out unfrozen Peeps
Water
Pennies

Our kid scientists were next asked to predict if the Peeps would sink or float. SPOILER ALERT: They floated. This led to a discussion about how we could get them to sink. We talked about density, and tried two different methods to make the Peeps more dense. The first was squishing them, and the second was sticking pennies in them. Using the pennies several kids got their Peeps to sink!

Color Mixing Peeps

Supplies needed:
Peeps in a variety of colors
Sprite
Bowls

Next we used Sprite to dissolve the color off two differently colored Peeps. This was another idea I got from Lisa's program. Tip: If you slice the Peeps in half it works just as well and spares additional Peeps from this particular harrowing condition.

Exploding Peep

Supplies needed:
Peeps
Microwave

I just had to use this opportunity to show the kids how Peeps expand when heated in the microwave. Since I didn't get any video, here is a representation of exactly what happens:

We also used the microwave to create Peeps playdough. I did a demonstration batch and sent the kids home with the recipe.

Step 3: Eating Peeps

In addition to learning a lot from the experiments, the scientists enjoyed eating their research subjects.

Next month's ATLAS will be Marble Madness! If you have any marble related activity ideas please let me know.

ATLAS: Harry Potter Party

I have wanted to do a Harry Potter Party at my library for a long time, mainly because I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Big surprise, right? I tried to plan one last fall, but the beginning of the school year meant not many kids could come, and my plans were foiled. I've been waiting for an excuse to use my ideas, and the recent Harry Potter Book Night worked perfectly. In this post I will take you through each part of the event, and share tips and tricks I learned.

Part 1: Sorting Ceremony

Supplies needed: 
Witch's hat
Printout of house emblems (available in the Harry Potter Book Night Event Kit)
Background music (optional)

First order of business for any new Hogwarts term is the sorting ceremony. Each of the 13 3rd-6th graders that attended got to sit in front of the group and pick a house emblem out of our sorting hat. The house they picked would be the one they would belong to for the rest of the program.There were an equal number of emblems from each house in the hat, so I knew I'd have the same number of kids in each house. The events that followed would be a competition to see which house could obtain the most house points. 

Part 2: Trivia

Supplies needed:
Trivia questions and answers
Method to record points

The event kit also has some great trivia questions. Of course, you could also make up your own. I used our dry erase board to record 10 house points for each correct answer.

Part 3: Potions Class 

Supplies needed:
Baking soda
Vinegar
Plastic bottles
Balloons

We did the classic kids' science experiment of blowing up a balloon using baking soda and vinegar. The kids loved it! I had prepared the balloons ahead of time by filling them with a few spoonfuls of baking soda. I figured this would make things go a little more smoothly, and it seemed to work really well. Each child who successful made the "potion with inflative properties" earned 10 house points.

Part 4: Spell practice

Supplies:
Wands (optional)

This was just another one of my fancy ways to work in one of my kids' favorite games: Freeze Tag. They used the 'petrificus totalus" and "enervate" spells to freeze and unfreeze each other.

Part 5: Guess the Harry Potter character

Supplies:
Post It Notes

I wrote the name of Harry Potter characters on Post It notes and stuck one to each child's back. They needed to guess who they were by asking each other yes or no questions.

Part 6: Snack Time

A highlight of many of my programs is snack time. This time we had pumpkin juice (orange Hawaiian punch), butterbeer cupcakes and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans (Kroger brand jelly beans). We also made "pretzel core wands' aka chocolate covered pretzels.

Part 7: Printables

I sent home coloring sheets of each house crest, as well as a Harry Potter wordsearch that was part of the event kit.

Tips and Tricks: 

• Have kids wear the house crests they pick out of the sorting hat. I had my kids tape them to their shirts. This made it a lot easier to correctly award house points.
• Awarding 10 house points for all accomplishments seemed to work well. It was straightforward and easy to add at the end.
• Small prizes definitely suffice for the winners. All the kids that attended got to pick from a bowl of candy, fruit snacks, and temporary tattoos. 

Hopefully these ideas are helpful to my fellow Potter fans. If you have any great Harry Potter related programming ideas, or just want to fangirl over Harry and his world with me, let me know!

ATLAS: Cooking with Chocolate

One of my favorite regular programs I do for my 3rd-6th graders is cooking class. It is a challenge because we have no stove, but through experience (and with a little help from Pinterest) I've been able to find some easy recipes that seem to work. I've also come up with a few tips that seem to make things go relatively smoothly.

For this month's ATLAS (At The Library After School), I decided to once again focus our recipes around a guaranteed crowd pleaser: Chocolate!

Here's what we made (recipe title links to my handouts for each recipe):

Chocolate dip:

This was the most complicated recipe we made at this program, so I made sure it came first. It basically involves mixing equal parts melted chocolate and whipped topping. For individual servings I had the kids use a 1/4 cup of each. The final addition is vanilla. My cooking tip to the kids: A little extra vanilla is never a bad thing! 

Chocolate Pudding in a bag: 

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with the idea of having kids make pudding in a bag. In case you aren't, the idea is to follow the directions for making instant pudding but mix it in a (well-sealed!) plastic baggie. I chose chocolate pudding and used half a small box per child. For 12 kids, the amount of milk needed was almost exactly one gallon.

Hot Chocolate Stirrer:

This recipe was a seasonal addition that I thought tied in well with our chocolate theme. The kids placed a marshmallow on a candy cane and covered it with melted chocolate and sprinkles. I  had extra candy canes left over from the holidays so this worked out perfectly! As an alternate option I brought graham cracker crumbs for them to make Smore's Pops.

Microwave Chocolate Fudge:

I've saved the best for last. This is the easiest and most delicious fudge recipe I have ever seen. All you need to do is microwave three cups of chocolate chips and a can of condensed milk. I did it as a demo for the kids and let each take a small bowl  home to refrigerate. This recipe is definitely becoming one of my new go to dessert recipes!

Tips and tricks:

• 12 kids works perfectly for this program. Any more and I think time to fit in recipes would be an issue. Keeping it to 12 also limits the cost of ingredients (this program cost about $20).
• It is a good idea to do any recipe demos first. It is hard to keep kids' attention once they've ingested a certain level of sugar!
• Sometimes the simpler the recipe the more kids like it. Case in point: The kids at my program almost unanimously agreed that the Hot Chocolate Stirrer was their favorite recipe.

If you have any of your own tips or ideas for cooking with kids I'd love to hear them. Recipe suggestions are always welcome too :)

ATLAS: Brushbots

At this month's ATLAS (At The Library After School) we made Brushbots. In case you aren't familiar with them, Brushbots are robots made out of a toothbrush head. They are created by attaching a motor and battery to the toothbrush head and connecting the two to create a circuit. 

A Brushbot looks like this:

And moves kind of like this:

I got this idea from Anne Clark's blog Sotomorrow. Like Anne, I purchased a kit from Makershed.com. The Party Pack came with all required materials to create 12 Brushbots. This worked perfectly with my typical registration of 12 3rd-6th graders for my ATLAS (At The Library After School) programs. I did factor the possibility of getting a few duds into my registration, but thankfully we didn't receive any.

We started out the program by putting together our Brushbots, all except for the final step of tying the wires. At this point I also passed out a handout I found on how a Brushbot works. This took about 10-15 minutes. After that I set out Legos for the kids to build individual Brushbot courses. I also set out toilet paper tubes and scissors in case tunnels or ramps were in order. 

Once the Lego building seemed to have progressed a bit I showed the kids how to wind the wires to start their Brushbot. This is where they needed the most help. The battery wires are relatively fragile, and some were too long. Because of this, even though I had prestripped all the battery wires I ended up cutting and restripping many wires during the program. Despite this, we did eventually get all the Brushbots to work!

To close out the hour long program I had the kids do one final race with all the Brushbots. We used rows of books as bumpers (working with what is readily available!). This seemed to be a highlight of the program.

Here are some tips and tricks:

• With this size group, get a volunteer to help if possible. Although it didn't get too crazy, things would have gone a little more smoothly if I had remembered Anne's advice of trying for a 5 kids to 1 adult ratio!
• Make sure you trim the battery wires short enough beforehand. I had left a little length because I wanted to leave room for wire breakage, but this meant the battery and motor wires didn't meet closely enough.
• The "stickers" the kit includes to decorate the Brushbots apparently needed to be cut out. I didn't have the chance to do this during the program, so we skipped the decorating step. Definitely something to keep in mind if you purchase the same kit.

Overall I was glad with how this program turned out. If you have also done Brushbots at your library I would love to hear about your experience. I'm also always open to any other creative STEM program suggestions!

ATLAS: Halloween Minute to Win It Games

Minute to Win It is a big hit with the tweens at my library. It is also a fun and inexpensive program, which means it is a big hit with me as well. I've done it in a regular format, and in versions tweaked to suit a theme. For instance I've adapted it into Chocolate Olympics and Marshmallow Madness programs. This is the first time I've done a seasonal Minute to Win It. The total cost this time was under $10.

To plan this program, I found this link on Pinterest, and used it as a starting point. I also got some great ideas here. These two links gave me most of the games I needed to fill an hour long program with 10 kids.

I structured the program by setting up a station for each game. Two kids could play a game at one time. We went through the stations as a group, but they would also work as self directed centers.

Here are the six games we played: 

Silly Spider: 

Source: Adaptation of spider/straw game here. 

Description:  Kids had to pick up spiders rings by sucking through a straw.  

Supplies: A straw per child and about 50 spider rings. 

Cost: Free (The straws were leftover from a previous program and the rings were from our stash of Halloween decorations/giveaways.)

Seperation Anxiety:

Source: Direct from the same site.

Description: The object of the game was to separate a bowl of M&Ms by color.

Supplies: Two bags of M&Ms, only one was used to play the game. The second was for a treat at the end. I also used two sets of six cups and one bowl, both of which I already had.

Cost: $5.00 for the M&Ms.

Candy Catastrophe:

Source: I came up with this one myself.

Description: The kids had to use chopsticks to pick up the candy corn and put it in a bowl. I stressed that they could be "creative" about how they went about this.

Supplies: A pair of chopsticks per child, two bowls and one bag of candy corn.

Cost: $2.00 for the candy corn. I already had the chopsticks from a previous program.

Cup Tower of Terror:

Source: A combination idea inspired by the cups used here, and the tower building done here.

Description: The goal is to stack as many cups as tall as possible without them falling over.

Supplies: One pack of 50 plastic cups.

Cost: $2.99

Dice It Up:

Source: Buzzle

Description: You must balance a die on a Popsicle stick held in your mouth. Then you must proceed to stack as many die on top of that die as possible.

Supplies: One Popsicle stick per child, as many die as possible.

Cost: Free. I used popsicle sticks leftover from this summer's catapult program, and took the die from various board games the library owns.

Dizzy Mummy:

Source: Taken directly from here.

Description: The idea is to wrap your partner in as much toilet paper as possible. To extend the fun I gave them five minutes each for this one.

Supplies: About a roll of toilet paper per pair of kids.

Cost: Free. I took toilet paper from the library's supply closet.

The kids had a great time at this program. The hit of the day was obviously the mummy wrapping. Definitely planning on using this one again.

If you have any questions or program ideas to share I would love to hear them. You can comment hear, email me at marrak at libcoop dot net, or talk with me on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets). Thanks for reading!