School-Age: Winter Water Cycle

It's a little weird not doing storytimes. Not just because I'm not presenting them but, when you work with the little ones, most of the programs are earlier in the day. When you work with school-agers and teens the programs are typically in the afternoons and evenings. It'll take some adjusting for sure.

As for our first program of the Spring 2017 session, I chose the Winter Water Cycle! It may not be snowing in our part of the world but, with snow in the forecast, who knows what might happen! It always seems to snow right around when I've planned a snow-themed program...

1. Reading:
We read a book I've been looking forward to sharing called "Best in Snow" by April Pulley Sayre.

2. Discussion

We had a discussion while reading the book about the different parts of the water cycle and what happens in the water cycle in winter. I referred to the "Secrets of Snow" in the back of the book to explain what was happening in each picture in the book.

3. Demonstration
I demonstrated the water cycle with an activity I found from the Gift of Curiosity. The kids were excited because we made it 'rain inside'.

What you need:
a. Glass Bowl (I brought in a glass Pyrex bowl from home)
b. Plastic Wrap
c. Salt
d. Hot/Warm Water (I used an electric kettle we have in our staff room)
e. Ice

I had my teen helpers on my Tuesday afternoon program get the demonstration together and the kids gathered close as we watched the water condense on the top of the plastic wrap and begin raining inside the bowl. It was neat, even for us adults. 

I used a simple water cycle drawing to go over what we saw in the demonstration and how the water cycle works in our world. I also showed pictures of real world examples of the water cycle and asked them what part of the water cycle each of the pictures demonstrated. Then we discussed the how and why if the picture required some discussion (like one on water vapor or condensation -- it's impossible to show condensation inside of an actual cloud). 

4. Craft
Last, it was time for our craft. We made umbrellas out of paper plates.

What you need:
a. Paper plates (cut in half)
b. Umbrella rods (cut out of paper)
c. Rain drops (cut out of blue paper)
d. Yarn (cut in strips)  


Notes:
As for things that we would change?...

We had a ton of people at our Friday morning program -- way more than we had planned for -- so my Library Assistant and I are brainstorming ways for crowd management in regards to the craft part of the program. Our afternoon program earlier in the week had a smaller number of attendees. It was easier for us to work one-on-one with kids that needed it. We also have teen volunteers on the Tuesday afternoon program. 

But, despite how popular our school-age morning program is for attendees in our community, it is incredibly difficult to find teens that are also free each week on a morning. So, between not have teen helpers AND having a ton more school-agers in attendance, we were a little overwhelmed. I think the craft was fine for earlier in the week but we need crafts that require a little less help from adults. We will have to see what that looks like for our future programs this spring and going forward. 

Also...maybe we ran out of supplies. We had JUST one extra kid beyond what I had made beforehand. Luckily, with this craft, all we needed to do was cut a paper plate in half and cut another umbrella rod. So we'll make even more supplies so we can be sure to have extras on hand for future weeks.

All in all, though, is was a hugely successful event! I can't wait to see how the rest of the spring session shapes up!