On Your Mark, Get Set, Craft!

One of the first programs I do every summer is crafts related to whatever the summer's theme is. It always seems to go well, and provides a fairly low key program for the week of the Fourth of July.  Doing this program relatively early in the summer also means there is time to share the crafts with you all as a source of last minute inspiration!

The "On Your Mark, Get Set, Read!" theme was relatively easy to plan for. The majority of ideas were found by searching Pinterest for "Sports Crafts". As for supplies, the only thing I had to purchase were the visors ($1 each at Michaels before coupon) and the medals (from the CSLP catalog).

As usual, I held two sessions of this program (one for kids in Grades K-2 and another for kids in Grades 3-6). Both were pretty well attended with 8-10 kids. Each had about 4 craft suggestions to choose from, but they could also use the materials to create any other crafts they desired.

K-2nd graders

 

Foam visors      

Supplies: 

Foam visors

Random foam craft pieces and stickers

Cost: Less than $10

My splurge for this session was foam visors for the kids to decorate with some of my extra foam stickers. I had thought of making visors with paper plates and yarn (like the older group did), but figured with the younger ones it would be easier to have premade ones.

Golf ball Painting

Supplies: 

Golf balls

Plastic bins

Paint

Cost: Nothing.

We put some of my old golf balls in a pin with paint and painted by rolling them around. Probably the messiest of all the crafts, but definitely the most fun! One warning, some of these did have to dry overnight before the kids could take them home.

3rd-6th graders

Mini Skateboards

Supplies:
Popsicle sticks

Toothpicks

Beads

Markers or crayons

Glue or tape 

Cost: Nothing

This is an idea I saw a few different places, including PBS Parents. You make a small "skateboard" by decorating a popsicle stick and adding toothpick and bead "wheels". It was easy but did take some tape to make the beads stay on the toothpicks.

Q-Tip Painting Basketballs

 

Supplies:
Q-Tips

Paint

Basketball printout

Cost: Nothing

I found this idea at the Dolen Diaries and I knew when I saw it that it would be perfect for a sports themed craft. I chose to do it with the older kids because I knew they would have the patience and precision to cover the basketballs with small dots of paint.

Both groups

 

Medals

Supplies: 
Medals (from CSLP catalog) or homemade
Markers or crayons

Cost: $7.00

I ordered these medals as a craft for both groups to do. They weren't all that expensive and came in a pack of 24, which was perfect for my purpose. If you wanted to make your own that could probably work too.

Desk wrap

Supplies: 

Butcher paper 

Markers

Crayons

Last year I had the kids decorate paper to wrap my desk in, and figured I would carry on the tradition. It is a fun way to make the kids feel included in our summer decorating.

I hope these ideas are helpful, and that everyone is having a great summer. Feel free to get in touch with any questions via Twitter (@MsKellyTweets), email (marrak@libcoop.net) or in the comments.

Every Hero Has a Story: Superhero Crafts

We officially started our weekly summer kids programs this past Tuesday. Because this is the week of the Fourth of July holiday, I started out with crafts. The good thing about doing crafts during a holiday week is it allows me the option to save materials for any kids who aren't able to attend.

For the summer I do two sessions of each weekly program for Grades K-2 and two sessions for Grades 3-6. I am somewhat flexible with these age ranges, especially in the case of siblings. Breaking it up this way allows me to adapt the programs more specifically to each age range and maintain a registration size of around 12 for each program.

Without further ado, here are the crafts we did:

 

K-2nd graders

 

Superhero Cuffs

 

 

Supplies needed:

Toilet paper tubes
Paint
Brushes

Cost: Nothing

I cut slits into toilet paper tubes and let the kids paint their own cuffs. Word of warning they may stretch a bit as they are painted! I told the kids they could always squeeze them back into shape once they dry.

Superhero Capes

Supplies needed:
White fabric (about a half a yard per child)
Fabric markers

Cost: About $17 for the fabric, $15 for three new packs of fabric markers.

This was my big splurge for the program. I bought the cheapest white fabric I could find at JoAnn Fabrics and new fabric markers. The fabric was cut into cape sized pieces and U shaped hole was cut in the top for the neck. It was definitely worth it, especially when I saw a little boy come into the library the following day wearing the cape he had decorated. FYI: I've also seen capes made out of old t-shirts, which is something I might consider if I did this again.

Superhero Shields

Supplies needed:
Paper plates
Paint
Paintbrushes

Cost: Nothing

To complete their gear, the kids painted paper plate "shields". These were definitely a hit as well.

Desk wrap: 

Supplies:
Large roll of paper
Crayons

Cost: Nothing

Our final craft for this age group was decorating a large piece of paper I will use to wrap my desk this summer. The great thing about this craft is that once it is displayed kids will most likely bring their families by the library to show it off.

3rd-6th graders

Superhero Puzzles

Supplies needed: 
Popsicle sticks (About 5 per puzzle)
Print outs of superheros or old comic pages
Glue
Crayons or Paint

Cost: Nothing

I got the idea for this craft at GeekyKool.com. The basic idea is taping Popsicle sticks together and gluing an image on. The sticks are then cut apart to create a puzzle. I didn't have old comics available, so I used the hero images that have generously been made available at Hafuboti. The kids could color or paint these heroes, a process that kept most kids engaged for close to a half an hour.

Superhero Scratch Offs

Supplies needed: Scratch offs and scratching tools

Cost: $6

I didn't have a chance to get a picture of these, but we broke out the superhero scratch offs I ordered from the CSLP program. They are basically black superhero shapes you can scratch to reveal a variety of colors. The kids seemed to like these, even though some of them just proceeded to scratch off their entire super hero.

Create your own comics

Image from openclipart.org

Supplies needed:
Comic print outs

Crayons

Pencils

Cost: Nothing

I printed out sheets of comic strips for the kids to create their own comics. There are many places you can find these templates online, but I got mine from the blog Sweet Hot Mess. Due to how long they spent on the puzzles, many of these comics ended up being taken home.

I hope that everyone is having a great summer so far, and that these crafts come in handy. If you have any programming or craft ideas to share I'd love to hear them!

Fizz Boom Read!: Science Crafts for School Age Kids

A staple of my summer reading program every year is a program that consists solely of crafts based on the year's theme. This year due to popular demand I did two sessions of crafts for Grades K-2 and two sessions for Grades 3-6. The kids at my library always love to do crafts, but I have to admit I was a little shocked how popular they were this year.

Out of the several crafts we did, here are my favorites.

• Magnet painting: The K-2nd graders loved this one. I had a set of magnetic balls and bar magnets which we used to mix colors on paper plates. After the colors were mixed the kids turned the plates over to create a design on a piece of construction paper. You could pretty much create the same effect by using magnets and metal washers.

• Skeleton Hand Anatomy: I also did this one with the K-2nd graders. The kids traced their hands on black paper and used Q-Tips to fill in bones. Some kids even started to break up the Q-Tips to make smaller "bones". Paint could also be incorporated or you could have kids do their feet instead.

• Candy Chromatography: This was one that I saved for the 3rd-6th graders. They had a blast with it. They didn't even complain that there wasn't much extra candy to eat! To do this project all you do is place Nerds candy on coffee filters and use a straw or dropper to drop water on the candy. This creates cool designs on the coffee filters. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of this one. For an idea of how it turns out head here.

• Salt painting: Of all the crafts the 3rd-6th graders did the salt painting was the messiest. They drew a picture with glue on black paper and sprinkled it with salt. They then added a drop of water mixed with food coloring and watched it spread. I have to say it worked pretty well. I especially loved that one of the kids' project said "I love science!"

This post is part of Thrive Thursday, a blog hop in which librarians share school age program ideas. This month's roundup is hosted by Sara at Bryce Don't Play. Head over and check it out for more great ideas!