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.

Money Smart Week: Money Madness for Grades K-6

Like a lot of other libraries, my library recently participated in the national Money Smart Week initiative. One new addition to this year's money themed programming is a program for Grades K-6 that I called "Money Madness". It gave us an opportunity to collaborate with our local bank, teach a little about money, and shower the kids with some money related swag (from the Money Smart Week people and our local bank).

The format of this program was simple: A brief discussion of money and saving (led by representatives of our local bank), followed by a series of money related stations. I tried to include a variety of activities to suit the children's interests and age range. We had 20 kids come, which is pretty good attendance for us.

Bank on It

One of the stations we did was a game I found at Oceans of First Grade Fun. The idea is to roll dice and fill in coins on the piggy bank corresponding to each dice roll. Very easy because the only prep I had to do was print off the provided printable and take some dice from our library's collection of board games.

Coin rubbings

I provided the kids with paper, pencils, crayons and coins and instructed them to make coin rubbings. I also gave them some aluminum foil to create 3D coin rubbings. This is a great way to get the kids familiar with the different coins in a fun way. It also has the side benefit of adding a little art to program as well.

Aluminum Foil Boats

This classic activity has always been well received any time I've done it with kids in the past. It is a great way to teach kids a little about bouyancy, weight and other scientific concepts. The twist this time was that instead of real coins we used fake plastic money I bought at my local dollar store. The real money probably would have been the better choice, because the fake money was pretty light and floated just a little too easily.

Heads or Tails

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

The idea for this activity came from a compilation of ideas given to me by the Money Smart Week coordinators. The way it worked is to put a group of different type coins into a cup and have the kids use the cups to do a coin toss. They must then determine how many heads came up, how many tails came up, and the value of each. To record I made up this sheet. As they played the game the kids has the opportunity to practice counting, coin value, and addition.

In addition to these stations I had printables available. A color by coin worksheet was definitely a hit with the older attendees, while a design your own money template was a little less popular.

All in all, this program seemed to go pretty well. Any opportunity to work with another local organization is a win in my book. I hope to find other ways to collaborate with this bank in the future. Any ideas you can suggest are always greatly appreciated!

Frozen Family Fun Night

The idea for this recent program began from two separate goals I had. The first was to include more evening programs for working families. The second was to find a high appeal program that would draw large crowds and combat the beginning of the school year attendance dip. I figured I might as well take advantage of  the kids' remaining Frozen fever and kick of the school year with a bang.

To add to the draw of the program I hired a performer to be our Elsa for the night. I think it worked pretty well, because we had about 70 children come! We started our program by having Elsa read a story to the kids. The book I chose was called "An Amazing Snowman" by Barbara Hicks.

After the story we broke into six different stations. In choosing the stations I did my best to accommodate a wide variety of activities and age levels.

Snowball Toss

Supplies needed:
Foam balls (found at craft stores)
Plastic bins (purchased at our Dollar Store)

This was a simple activity where kids had to throw the foam balls into the bins. The younger kids stayed occupied throwing the balls, while some of the older kids liked the challenge of getting the balls into the farthest bin.

Pin the Nose on Olaf

Supplies needed:
Printable template (found here)
Tape

Kids used tape to give Olaf back his nose. A fun addition, but I think more kids would have done it if I had an adult available to consistently help them.

Make an Olaf puppet

Supplies needed:
Paper plates
Cut out noses
Stickers
Popsicle sticks
Tape

I had the kids add a noses, eye stickers and black circular stickers to create an Olaf face. A popsicle stick taped to the back and you've got a pretty cute little puppet. This also creates a great opportunity to encourage developing literacy skills through imaginative play!

Build a Marshmallow Castle

Supplies needed:
Marshmallows
Toothpicks

I've done marshmallow building with school age kids several times. It is pretty inexpensive and is always a big hit. I wanted to include something that appealed to older kids, so I figured this would work well. The only problem was that the ten bags of marshmallows I bought didn't appear to be quite enough.

Craft station

Supplies needed:

Frozen coloring pages

Foam snowflakes

Stickers

Construction paper

I happened to have extra foam snowflakes and stickers in my craft cabinet so I figured I'd put them out to be used up. I supplied glitter glue, crayons and construction paper for the kids to create as they wish. I also printed out some Frozen themed coloring pages.

Pictures with Elsa

I wasn't going to let the kids leave without a picture with our Elsa. She was multi-talented and also made balloon animals for us. The backdrop was a last minute addition, made by painting over some large foam snowflakes I had on hand.

To complete the party, I also provided snacks, including carrots (Olaf noses), pretzels (Sven's Antlers), and Frozen fruit snacks.

Overall, I think this party was a success. It was fun and definitely brought in the large crowds I was looking for. If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to answer them. I'd also love to hear about what programs have been big draws at other libraries!

Fizz, Boom, Read!: Catapult Science

Next on my list of SRP programs to catch readers up on is the Catapult Science program I did for Grades 3-6. I originally got the idea for this program from Lisa Mulvenna of Lisa's Libraryland. I knew it would be a fun and easy program to do for this summer's theme and definitely wanted to give it a try.

For the first half of the program I followed Lisa's plan, with a few minor changes. I set out popsicle sticks, plastic spoons, rubber bands, and Lisa's handout and talked to the kids about what a catapult is and how they were used. They especially loved the gross tidbit that sometimes catapults were used to launch diseased corpses.

After that, I guided the kids in building their catapults. Most of them did pretty well, although a few did need some extra help. Here's what the finished product looked like:

After building the catapults the kids got the chance to fire them. Here's where the few minor changes come in. I provided printed out targets for the kids to tape on the wall with scotch tape. After reading that Lisa's director wasn't a fan of masking tape on the wall I didn't want to risk it with mine!

I also provided paper and markers for the kids to design their own targets. I figured this could add a little artistic element into this STEAM program. The kids came up with some great stuff!

Sorry Beliebers!

Some even created mock castle walls after hearing how catapults used to be used in warfare.

The second half of this program I changed course and had the kids make a different kind of projectile device: a marshmallow shooter. I've had the kids make these before at a Marshmallow Madness program I did. They are super simple. They consist of a cup with the bottom cut out, which is covered with the tied end of a balloon. You place the marshmallow in the cup, pull the balloon back and launch it.

I wanted to include the Marshmallow shooters so that the kids would have the chance to try more than one device and compare. I was glad I did because they made some great comparisons. One boy said that in both devices the farther you pull back the farther you can launch something. Others compared how the marshmallows launched to how the pompoms launched.

This was a fun program and a great way to end our school age programming for the summer. Thanks so much for sharing Lisa!

Fizz, Boom, Read!: The Science of Force

Our second program for Grades 3-6 for the summer was all about forces. There are a lot of cool activities out there related to forces, and I figured that the kids would not be able to resist the fun of balloon rockets and paper airplanes.

I, on the other hand, cannot resist the fun of a Star Wars gif:

Definitely heard this a few times during this program.

After a quick discussion on what a force is we started out by learning about the idea of thrust with balloon rockets. The idea behind these is super simple. The first thing you do is tie a string to a support. Next you blow up a balloon and tape a straw on it. The string goes through the straw. When you let the air out of the balloon it shoots up the string.

I also added an element of friction to this activity by using both yarn and fishing line instead of string. The idea was that the balloons would travel more quickly up the fishing line than the yarn, and this seemed to be the case for most that tried it.

The kids enjoyed doing this, but it was a little more time intensive then I anticipated.

For the majority of the second half of the program we learned about gravity and wind resistance with paper airplanes. I had set out supplies such as construction paper, regular paper and paper airplane directions. During the program I allowed the kids time to create their airplanes and test them for distance/accuracy.

Here are some kids hard at work practicing their accuracy.:

Our last activity was Freeze Tag. This ties into forces because an "An object in motion must stay in motion, and an object at rest must stay at rest, unless acted upon by a force." The tagging was the force that caused the players to rest or move. In case you haven't realized by now, I will use any excuse to let kids run around and burn off energy.

Overall I think this program went well and both groups that participated enjoyed it. I still did learn a few things I would do differently if I did this program again.

Tips and Tricks:

• The website suggested for paper airplane directions in the SRP manual has designs that were way to complicated for this age group. I would definitely find some more simple design suggestions if I were to do paper airplanes with this age again.
• Balloon rockets were fun, but definitely require several helpers to string, tape and possibly blow up balloons. The more kids who can launch their rockets at one time the better.
• For balloon rockets the shorter you cut the straw the easier it is to get the string through it. 
• You definitely need a relatively big space to fly paper airplanes. Some will fly much farther than anticipated.

As usual, let me know if you have any questions or comments about this program. Next week's programming is all about water, so I'd definitely appreciate any suggestions about that topic as well.

We Like to Move It, Move It: Favorite Playground Games to Play at the Library

I like to include active elements all my children's programming, but especially in my after school programs for school age kids. By the time the programs roll around kids have been sitting in school a good majority of their day, and like this kid, they are ready to move.

In honor of National Backyard Games Week, we spent this month's ATLAS (At The Library After School) playing playground games. Here are some of my favorite games I've used in this program and others. Many of these games come from other countries and can be found in the book Multicultural Games by Lorraine Barbarash. Others have come from Games Kids Play.

• Loo K'bah Zee (from Burma): To play this game all players stand in a circle with their hands behind their backs. One person is "It" and walks around the circle with a ball. They leave the ball in one of the other player's hands and that player has to try to escape the circle. Neighboring players try to stop the escape. If they successfully escape they are the next "It".
• El Gato Y El Raton (The Cat and the Mouse, from Puerto Rico): One player is the mouse, another is the cat. The remaining players hold hands in a circle around the mouse. The goal of the cat is to get into the circle and catch the mouse. The players in the circle must stop the cat from ducking under or breaking the circle.
• Catch Your Tail (from Nigeria): Each player has a partner and a handkerchief. One player of each pair tucks the handkerchief in the back of their pants. The partners hold onto each other by the shoulders and try to steal the other's handkerchiefs. The winner is the last pair that still has a handkerchief.
• Boa Constrictor (from Ghana and Togo): A version of tag where the tagged players join with "It" to make a giant snake. The last free player wins.
• Ladder Jump (from Australia): Two teams compete against each other to see who can jump the farthest. The first player of each team jumps, then the second must jump from where they land. The third jumps from where the second landed and so on. The team that jumps the farthest collectively wins.
• Catch or Don't Catch: Players stand in a circle and must instruct other players to catch or ball or not to catch it.
• Prisoner's Base: Kids divide into two teams and must try to rescue a team member held "prisoner" by the other team. The rescuer must avoid getting captured by the opposing team.
• Freeze Tag: Had to include this one because it is a huge crowd-pleaser any time I've ever used it in a program.

Do you use playground games with kids? I'd love to hear any other suggestions you may have.

For more information about school age programming, check out the monthly blog hop Thrive Thursday for a schedule and ways to participate.

Kidding Around: Spiderman Party

This month's theme for Kidding Around (my monthly program for Grades K-2) was Spiderman. I chose this theme in honor of the release of the new movie, and because superhero programs are always a big hit. I wanted to share this program in particular with you all because it fits the 2015 CSLP theme.

We started out with a brief discussion of Spiderman, his story and the villains he faces. In addition to getting the kids excited, this discussion served as a stalling tactic as late arrivals came.

As late arrivals continued to trickle in, we started our first game: creating a web out of yarn. This was definitely one that would have better to save till the end of the program, just because more of the kids could have participated. It would have also been really cool to involve some action figures or cutouts to trap in the web.

Our next game was bowling for bad guys.  I taped pictures of Spiderman villains to two liter bottles and the kids had to knock them down. This is a simple and fun game and I think the kids enjoyed it.

For our third activity we danced to the Freeze song on "Kids in Motion" by Greg and Steve. My rationale for doing this was that Mr. Freeze had transferred over from the Batman universe and was trying to attack Spiderman. Not sure the kids bought this logic, but they had fun anyhow.

Finally, we got to the best part of the whole program: SILLY STRING!!!

We used this wonderful product to play "Spiderman Tag". The game goes about how you would imagine: instead of tagging you "it" sprays you with silly string. If you get hit, you are out. The kids had a blast with this. It was definitely messy, but nothing our vacuum couldn't handle.

NOTE: A can of dollar store silly string doesn't last as long as you would expect, so if you are going to do this with a large group you will need quite a bit of it. One can per child would not be overkill.

As usual I closed out the program with our snack and craft. For our craft we had a Spiderman coloring page. Snack was cupcakes and cherry web strings (Twizzlers).

If you have any additional superhero program suggestions please let me know. Next summer will be here before we know it!

Why Kids Should Come to School Age Library Programs

I saw this post about why kids should go to library storytimes awhile back and thought I would adapt the idea and discuss why school age kids should go to library programs. I want to explain to the world why despite being busy with homework and after school activities, bringing your child to library programs is worth it!

10. Better Social Skills: Interacting with the other children in unstructured environments like the library help children build valuable social skills. The games played at programs help them learn to communicate with others and work together.

9. Building the Library Habit: If you bring your child to the library for programs, you are developing a habit of library use. They will grow up feeling comfortable in libraries and be more likely to visit throughout their lives.

8. Content Area Knowledge: Kids learn valuable information from performers who speak on various topics. I've had science and animal speakers that imparted their knowledge to attendees. I also try to include information on various content areas in my own in house programming.

7. Building Relationships With Library Staff: If a child feels comfortable with their local librarian, they are more likely to ask them for help when they need help using the library for a school assignment.

6. Keeping Busy: Library programs are a great way to keep kids busy in that time period after school and before dinner.

5. Can't beat free: Most library programs are free! You definitely can't say the same thing for most other after school activities kids participate in. In addition to the free fun activities, there will often be free snacks as well.

4. Summer Reading Prizes: A big portion of the programming for kids at most libraries involves the yearly Summer Reading Program. Not only do kids get the prizes for participating, but the reading they do helps them maintain reading skills over the summer. A win win!

3. Encourages literacy and reading: Many library programs for school age kids include literacy building activities. Going to the library regularly also helps show your child that books and reading are a valuable use of free time.

2. Introduces new games and activities: Many library programs include games, crafts and other fun ideas that kids can do at home as well.

1. They are fun!: These programs are just as much fun for school age kids as storytime is for the little guys! They get to play games, do crafts and learn at the same time. What's not to love?

Does anyone else have any great reasons to add to this list?

Benefits of Lego Club

Lego Club is one of my most popular programs here at the library. It is also one of the easiest to plan and prepare for. It is basically a 45 minute period where the kids can enjoy our collection of Legos. I put out our Lego books and our large bin of Legos and let the kids have fun. It is geared towards Grades K-6 and is held at 5 pm on the first Thursday of every month. All our Legos were donated by a family member of one of our librarians.

There are a few reasons that I keep my Lego Club so unstructured. The first is that as our only Children's Librarian I would rather focus my time and energy in other areas. The second is that I think that the kids enjoy it and gain a great deal from participation as it is.

Here are some of the benefits of Lego Club:

1. Math skills are being learned. For instance, kids will have to do a little math to figure out how many smaller pieces they need to cover a larger one. I've also seen kids counting the number of how many of a certain piece they have.

2. Science concepts are being tested. Such as: How high can I build this before it falls down?

3. Literacy skills are being developed. I make sure to ask the children what they are building. There is always a story behind it that they are happy to explain. This kind of oral storytelling is actually an important literacy practice. It helps with a child's narrative skills, vocabulary and creative thinking.

4. Cooperation and other social skills are strengthened. The kids often work together to create elaborate scenes such as battles. They must communicate their thoughts to their peers and come to an understanding about what they want to accomplish.

One such cooperative venture made at our most recent Lego Club meeting.

5. The children and their families get to experience the library and see all we have to offer. The Lego books provided at Lego Club get checked out. Many kids and families also stay after to use our computers, play checkers or use our computers.

6. Legos are engaging enough that even the younger kids on this age spectrum will be engrossed the whole time period. Over time this may help them develop longer attention spans.

7. Kids get to practice problem solving skills. They may need to substitute a piece for another to make something fit, or come up with a new plan when their original idea doesn't work. Problem solving skills are needed in so many facets of life so it is great to develop them early.

It seems pretty clear that having this Lego Club benefits both my library and my community. If you don't have a Lego Club at your library I definitely suggest you start one. For another perspective on how to do this you can check out this blog post.

Kidding Around: St Patrick's Day Party

We call our monthly programs for Grades K-2nd "Kidding Around", and our theme this month was a St. Patrick's Day Party. Despite the snow on the ground and the winter weather not showing signs of letting up, it is that time of year.

For all "Kidding Around" programs I require registration, mainly because I serve snacks and need to know how much to purchase. I usually set registration for 12 kids, which seems to work well in our small town. At our St. Patrick's Day Party we ended up with 10 showing up. I have many regular attendees and most are good about showing up as planned.

Here are our tables before the event:

I always make sure one table has books on the topic for the kids to check out.

Crafts supplies and snacks.

We started out with a quick discussion of what St. Patrick's Day is. With this age group the talk basically centered on leprechauns, green and Ireland. I wanted to include a few fun facts here, but had trouble finding any that I felt would hold the kid's interest.

Our first game was a relay race. The kids had to perform the actions written on shamrocks I had cut out. Actions included walking backwards, skipping, spinning and quacking like a duck. First team to each perform their action and run back to the finish line was the winner. The sneaky literacy component to this game was reading the instructions.

Our shamrocks before the relay race

Next we played "Hide the Gold" with a penny. Instructions can be found here. The kids got a kick out of trying to keep poker faces to hide when they had the coin. I also quickly showed them this trick.

Our final game was musical chairs with Irish themed music. Once a child was out of the game I allowed them to be in charge of stopping the music, which they seemed to enjoy. 

We finished the program with a craft and snack as usual. Our craft was painting shamrock hats. I found the idea here.

All ready to wear for St. Patrick's Day.

Our snack was cupcakes, green Hawaiian Punch, Lucky Charms, and St. Patrick's Day cookies.

A before shot of the cupcakes.

Overall, this program went well. I got some positive feedback from a parent afterwards, which is always nice. Working at a small library, I think it is important to provide some "just for fun" programs in order to bring kids in. I want them to see the library as a fun place to be. At this program in particular, books on the topic got checked out, and kids got reading logs for my March Reading Program, so I consider those positives as well.

As always, feel free to use these ideas or let me know if you have any questions :)

American Girl Club: Meet Isabelle

For my first post on this new blog, I will share a little bit about our most popular school age kid's program: American Girl Club. The basic idea of the program is that we learn about a different American Girl each month during the school year. It is geared towards 3rd-6th graders. It is one of the few programs where I have to be pretty strict about the age limit, mainly because it fills up so fast.

The girls often bring their dolls, but it is definitely not required. The dolls usually end up sitting to the side and watching the rest of the festivities.

We start each meeting by talking about the girl's time period and books. I always ask who has read the books, and what they know about the time period. Reading the books is not a requirement by any means, but I usually have a least one girl who has.

At this month's we talked about the Girl of the Year, Isabelle, who is from 2014, so this part was a little shorter than usual. For the historical girls, I will usually fill in historical events and context. I try to keep it as fun as possible. For instance, I might throw out ideas of few objects or inventions and ask if they existed in that time period.

After that brief discussion, we move on to the fun and games. Isabelle is a dancer, so that meant I had the girls doing several dance themed games. I always try to include at least one active game in my school age programs, to get the kids up and moving, so this tie in worked well.

We played "Pass the Dance" first. In this game, one girl game up with a dance move, which the next girl had to remember. She would then add her own move. It continued in succession with each girl adding her own move while remembering the moves that came before.

Our second game was a simple freeze dance game. I chose two girls to be the "dancemasters", and they were in charge of stopping the music and catching the girls that didn't "freeze" fast enough. I think the girl's favorite part of this game was that I had them dancing to the "Hamster Dance" song.

The highlight of this program was creating our own fashion designs out of aluminum foil. In addition to being a dancer, Isabelle wants to be a fashion designer, so this tied in perfectly.

Here is one of my favorite designs the girls came up with:

As always, we ended with a craft and snack. With the historical girls, I try to come up with snacks from their time period, or food mentioned in their books, but this time I got off easy.We ate cookies, chips and pink lemonade. I figured a ballet dance themed program needed something pink :)

For our craft I printed out some blank tutu and dress patterns for them to color and design. As a take home I printed out some word searches and activities from the American Girl website. For many of the dolls this site has teaching guides, which have come in handy many times for this program.

When it comes to planning, I've also used the "American Girls Party Book" and the "American Girl Club Handbook". They have game ideas, recipes and a lot of other great information about several of the earliest American Girl characters. Both books are both older, but still seem to be available on Amazon.

Feel free to ask questions about this program, or borrow these ideas for your own use :)