Yee Haw! Cowboys!

While browsing the Internet for some craft ideas, I came across this great recycled bottle craft to make a cactus.

I like using recycled items for crafts and thought we could do a smaller version with a water bottle. I thought it would eb a great craft to tie in with a cowboy program! I was also a little concerned about the kids painting the outisde of the bottle. So instead, we dropped paint inside the bottle and let the kids shake and roll the bottle around to paint the inside of the bottle.  I also used an Ellison cut to make the cowboy hats for the cactus. Overall, the children really did have a great time making this cactus.

We also read some stories about cowboys and cowgirls! Before we did our craft, each child got to take a chance at trying to lasso one of our meeting room chairs. This was not an easy activity to do, and if you'd like to try lasso-ing with the kids at your library, I would recommend it be an outdoor activity.

Spring Flowers!

Last week I hosted a program called 'Is it Spring Yet?' for our afterschool crowd.  We read the following stories:

How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Oulet
Signs of Spring by Justine Korman Fontes

Before and in between the stories, we did some jokes that related to spring. This was the kids' favorite joke:

When do monkeys fall from the sky?

During Ape-ril showers!

We also did a craft to go along with our stories. Since March is National Noodle month, I decided to do a craft with colored pasta.

It's easy to color pasta. I use the alcohol & food coloring method. I put the pasta in a ziploc bag, add about 1/4 cup of alcohol, about 10 drops of food coloring (depending on what color you'd like), and then lock the bag. I kind of move everything around inside the bag so the pasta gets covered. Then let it sit for about a half hour.

The tough part is getting the pasta out of the bag. I brought in a strainer from home and just strained it over a bowl, then dumped out all of the colored alcholo in the sink. Then I let it dry overnight on a plastic tablecloth.

The kids then made flowers out of the colored pasta and stems out of pipe cleaners. Maybe I'm bias, but I thought they turned out great.

Below are some pictures of the kids' flowers.

Playdoh Chefs

Another program Allyson piloted in 2009 was the Playdoh Chefs program. Our library space doesn't really allow us to do baking or cooking programs, which is hard to do these days with all of the food allergies out there. But playdoh is one way we can 'bake' at the library and we now do this as a regular program several times a year.

Allyson tried at her recipe at home ahead of time. Meanwhile, Linda decided that should could make chef hats for all of the children that were attending the program (2 sessions, 15 children each.) She made the hats out of sheets of crepe paper and cardstock.

I also ordered these cute little aprons that also serve well as smocks. The children looked absolutely adorable as chefs!

As I mentioned, we now host the program several times during the year. The chef hats were cute but very time consuming to make so we no longer make them for the children. We usually set the tables up in a "U" shape with the librarian in the middle. There are five ingredients for playdoh, so we put five children at each table so they each have a chance to add an ingredient and mix! The librarian running the program also makes a batch to show the children which ingredients go in the batch at which time. It also gives the kids a little bit more dough to play with. There's also an extra batch in case for some reason one was a dud. Allyson comes up with many wonderful programs, and this is definitely one of my favorites!

Here is the recipe if you'd like to make playdoh @ your library or...@ home!

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup warm water and food coloring (put food coloring in same container as the water)

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Knead with hands. Add more flour if sticky, add more water if crumbly.Keep refrigerated in ziploc bag when not in use!

Legos!

If you're attending this year's Summer Reading Workshops, you'll most likely stop by my table during our round robin sessions. Lego's are great to tie into programming for this year's Summer Reading theme: One World, Many Stories.  You may be asking what legos have to do with 'One World, Many Stories." Well boys and girls, Legos were invented in Denmark.

In 2009, one of my staff members, Allyson, got crafty and decided to have our preschoolers paint with legos. You can pretty much paint with anything, but painting with legos is pretty cool.  Since MAPL is on Main Street which is very walkable, our director at the time really like hanging things crafted by children in the front window of the library for all to see. We rolled out the large roll of white bulletin board paper and had the kids paint on that, then hung those creations throughout the library.

They also painted a smaller work of art to take home.

This summer we're going to do the program again, but we'll add a surprise at the end with a lego pinata. I found this pinata in the Family Fun magazine. It's a shirt box that's painted. You can cut down paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls and use them as the connectors. The best part is that there is no trying to shove a bunch of stuff into a little hole of a pinata. Open up the shirt box- put all of your goodies inside, and then hot glue the box shut. Based on past experiences with pinatas, I think I'll be adding some strings to the bottom for the children to take turns pulling since that usually lessens the chance of the children accidentally whacking each other when trying to whack the pinata.

Other libraries are now offering a regular lego program for school aged children. Most libraries provide the legos so that everybody has the same amount, and then give them a challenge. For example, during one session they might build a castle and at another they might build a ship. While donations might seem like a great way to go, I've been hearing from a lot of librarians out there that legos are very difficult for people to give up. It might be worth it to just shell out the money and buy a few sets for the library to use.

Fancy Nancy

Little girls love dressing up and what better way to do it at the library than to be Fancy Nancy! We hosted this program twice at our library  in the summer of 2009 for 15 children each and both filled. And while it was clearly a program aimed at drawing in little girls, we did have a few little boys as well. Every child was encouraged to dress "fancy" for the program. We read a few Fancy Nancy stories, then paraded around the library to show just how fancy we were. We were able to purchase tiaras at the dollar store for any child that wanted one. In addition, we also had what I call "Michael Jackson" styled hats in the craft closet that we gave to the little boys to wear. Following our parade, we then created our own accessories- since accessories are a very important part of your outfit, at least according to Fancy Nancy! The girls decorated fans made out of cardstock that were pre-folded and tied at the bottom with a pretty ribbon while the little boys decorated their very own bowtie. Decorations included sequins, jewel colored rhinestones, and foam shapes.

Edible Arrangements: Teen Style

In the summer of 2009, I decided that there needed to be a Teen Summer Reading Club. Not only were there prizes involved, but we hosted about 10 programs for teens that summer including the library's first-ever lock-in. It was a big hit and we had 25 teens attend! One of the activities we offered was for teens to make their own Edible Arrangements. Linda pre-cut pieces of cheese with a flower shaped cookie cutter and teens were then able to make their flowers using strawberries, blueberries, and grapes. Colorful Chinese food containers were used as the 'vase' for these arrangements with a piece of styrofoam in the bottom to hold the skewers in place. It's always nice when we can provide a healthy snack.