School-Age: Circuits

This week, as part of the "Build a Better World" Collaborative Summer Library Program, we built circuits!

1. Reading
We read "Weasels" by Elys Dolan. It is a hilarious book about weasels plotting world domination. Their machine to take over the world stops working buuuuut it's because it became unplugged!

2. Discussion
We talked about what circuits were. I explained that they were a complete circle that made electrical things work. Then we talked about insulators and conductors. Conductors allow energy/electricity to go through the circuit and insulators keep electricity from traveling through (or outside of) the circuit.

3. Activity
We used Steve Spangler's energy sticks to create a large circuit. We made one big circuit together with the kids to show how the energy stick worked when we were all connected, holding hands, in a circle.

Then we tested a variety of insulators and conductors. I would hold up an object and ask the kids if it was an insulator or a conductor. Then we would test their guesses by having two members of the circle hold the item between them within our circle circuit. 

Insulators we tested: Popsicle stick, puff ball, paper, Q-tip
Conductors we tested: Aluminum foil, penny, paper clip, binder clip

One of the kids made a great observation that the conductors all were made of metal!

4. Craft
For our craft we made robots out of toilet paper rolls. We set out glue sticks, glue dots, beads, paper, googly eyes, and more for the kids to use to decorate/make their robots. 

Notes:
The energy sticks were SUPER fun to use. And they were easy to use with a really large group. 

For the craft, since both of our programs this week were packed with kids, we used an assembly line for kids to get the materials to make their robots. We set up one long rectangular table with all the materials they could choose from in bowls along the table.

We gave them their toilet paper roll and a paper plate, and they could use the paper plate to put their craft materials on. Then they found a spot on the rug in our program area to make their robots. It worked perfectly with the huge crowds, especially with our large number of kindergartner's who sometimes are not always tall enough to work at our tables. 

All in all, a success!

School-Age: Marble Runs

Since our Summer Reading Theme (CSLP 2017) is "Build a Better World", what better to build with than Legos?! And, on top of that, why not build Marble runs? So that is what we did this week.


1. Reading
We read "Billions of Bricks" by Kurt Cyrus. Not only is it a fun counting book that is about building but it incorporates bricks, which are basically what Legos are. So we tied it nicely together with our activity of the day.

2. Discussion
We had a short discussion about chain reactions and how marble runs can be a chain reaction through a series of obstacles. I brought up Rube Goldberg and the Rube Goldberg machine. I showed the kids some pictures and then began talking about how they can create their own complex Rube Goldberg machine's at home. I gave (and showed) them some examples of using wood, dominoes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, and tape. 

Then I showed some pictures of Lego marble runs using pool noodles, as well as Lego maze marble runs, to give an example of what they were building today. 

3. Activity
We have a weekly program that uses Legos so I borrowed some of the materials that my Library Assistant uses at that program for our Marble Run program this week. She had used pool noodles cut in half with pipe cleaners to help lightly secure the noodles to the Legos.

Here are some pictures of our kids in the midst of building:

 

Same group as the one above but they found a way to use the pipe cleaners to secure their structure:

One of my favorites was a group that made a fairly difficult maze. All of the kids in the group LOVED doing their maze, even the older one.

4. Take Home

The largest take-home is that kids have ideas on how to be creative and BUILD at home. It may not be with Legos if they do not have them at home but I also gave them ways to use toilet paper rolls (which everyone has at home) and other scraps they may find at home. With the creativity and imagination of a child, anything is possible. 

I also allowed the kids to take one marble and one piece of pool noodle home. That way they already had some of the supplies they might need to build their own marble run. And I made a hand-out that the kids could take home that had pictures of different types of chain reaction marble runs or mazes they could build at home.

Notes:

The program went WONDERFULLY! The craziest and busiest time of the year, Summer Reading Program, is in full swing this week so we were packed. We have a registration system we use for sign-ups and we have, unfortunately, had to institute required registrations starting this week. In the past we have only requested registration but, with the numbers we're getting, there is no way my Library Assistant and I can manage many more kids coming to our programs. It is not a bad problem to have but we hate turning kids away. 

As for the program itself, it worked great to create bins of Legos to hand out ahead of the program. We made enough to have 6 groups total. That way, once we started the activity and separated kids into groups, we could call one kid up from each group to get their Legos and the Lego baseplate that they were using that day. It was highly successful and I would contemplate incorporating Legos into other programs in the future every so often to mix it up. 

School-Age: Detectives

This week we talked about detectives and solving mysteries! 

Earlier this spring I had an thought about how neat it would be if we played a life-size detective game. I envisioned a program that was like playing clue or one of those dinner murder mystery games. 

I could not find anything exactly like what I was envisioning online so I made up my own game, peppering it with simple terms like 'evidence' or 'alibi' to give the kids an overview of crime-solving terminology.

1. Reading
We read the book "Who Done It?" by Olivier Tallec. It was a bit of a seek-and-find book where the kids had to figure out which character was the one that 'did it', whether is was the character(s) that didn't get enough sleep or the character who is in love. I had printed blown up pictures of the answers to show them in detail, which was great for larger audiences. 

2. Activity
We played a 'Who Done It?' mystery. It was my life-size version of clue! The mystery we solved was 'Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?' 

Thus began the literary kids version of clue...

A. The Usual Suspects 
We started with a list of suspects. I wanted to use familiar characters from books they may have read. Our suspects were: Fancy Nancy, Curious George, Waldo, Pete the Cat, Clifford, Amelia Bedelia, Madeline, Cat in the Hat, and the Pigeon.

B. Evidence: Tire Tracks

We talked about what 'evidence' is and then used the first piece of evidence to eliminate some of the suspects. For the first program of the week I had laid out all the pieces of evidence on/near a table where the cookies (our library happens to have a prop jar of cookies!) are knocked over. 

For the program today I changed the set-up slightly and had two longer tables where I put the evidence in order for us to go through as a group. There were 3 times as many kids at our Friday morning program as there were on Tuesday so I need to have it more manageable. 

The first piece of evidence was the tire tracks. They compared them to the tire treads on three different types of cars: a truck, a convertible, and a van. Then I had a list of what each suspect drove.

Tire Track Evidence:

Tire Treads for Various Cars:

Suspect's Cars:

For this piece of evidence, the van matches the tire track found at the scene of the crime SO our suspects have been narrowed down to: Pigeon, Madeline, Clifford, Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, and Waldo.

C. Evidence: Alibi's

We defined what 'alibi' means. Some of the kids knew and gave some pretty great answers. Then I read aloud the alibi's of each suspect and then asked them if it was an alibi. Then we discussed why it was or was not an alibi for that suspect.

Obviously, I had a little librarian humor mixed in that went over some (but not ALL) of the kids heads. At least the parents (and my wonderful library assistant) fully appreciated the jokes! 

After the alibi activity, our suspects are now: Madeline, Clifford, Waldo, Pigeon, and Amelia Bedelia.

D. Evidence: Motive

We defined 'motive' and then we worked through the potential motives of each character to see they actually had a motive or whether we could eliminate them as a suspect.

After the motive activity, our suspects are still: Madeline, Clifford, Waldo, Pigeon, and Amelia Bedelia.

E. Evidence: Shoe Prints

Next, we went back to our table of evidence and picked up the shoe prints left at the scene of the crime. We had three different types of shoe/foot prints that we compared them to. This one was pretty easy but still fun (and funny) for the kids.

Shoe Print Evidence:

Shoe/Foot Prints for Various Suspects:

Suspects Shoe/Foot Prints:

So, at this point, our last remaining suspects are: Madeline, Amelia Bedelia, and Waldo. Dun, dun, dun!

F. Evidence: Handwriting Analysis

One of our last pieces of physical evidence was a handwritten note. I used fonts on the computer because I thought that would be the easiest so I found two fonts that looked similar to keep it tricky for the kids. 

Handwritten Note Evidence:

Handwriting Comparisons:

It was a little difficult, but the fonts that are most similar to the note found were Madeline's and Amelia Bedelia's. However, I told the kids that we would wait to eliminate anyone because we had one last major piece of evidence!

G. Evidence: Fingerprint Analysis

Before I got into the actual fingerprint I used at the scene of our crime I showed them a very simple fingerprint typing printable that I found from the Making Friends blog. They were able to look at their fingers and see whether their fingers were loops, whirls, or arches. 

Then I had the kids use the fingerprint left at the scene of the crime to match it to the remaining suspects.

Fingerprint Evidence:

Fingerprints of Suspects:

And, after all that, we officially solved the mystery.

Who done it? Amelia Bedelia! I guess I shouldn't be so surprised!

3. Take Home

Since the kids helped solve our mystery, they earned their detective badges. The badges even had a place for them to stamp their thumbprints too!

Notes:

For the first program of the week we had the kids come up in groups for the physical pieces of evidence (tire tracks, foot prints, hand-writing, and fingerprints). That proved to be a little challenging since each group needed to be walked through the evidence and they all had to take turns. 

For the second program of the week we initially started by doing that but, with the increase in the amount of kids, we ended up looking at the last three pieces of physical evidence as a whole group because we were running out of time and that ended up working perfectly.

Overall the program was tons of fun this week! I think both the kids and the parents really enjoyed it which I love since I put so much time and effort into making this particular one shine. 

School-Age: Bridges

This week is our library's official start to the Summer Reading Program. Since the Collaborative Summer Library Program theme is 'Build a Better World', this week I focused on building - specifically, building BRIDGES!

1. Reading
We read the book "Iggy Peck, Architect" by Andrea Beaty. I LOVED the rhythm of this book. The words flowed and rhymed, and also had many fun humorous parts that adults would enjoy. 

For a few portions of the book, Iggy Peck created actual architectural phenomenons: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sphinx in Egypt, and the St. Louis Arch in Missouri. I printed out pictures of those places and compared them to the structures that Iggy Peck had created. 

2. Discussion
I had also printed pictures of different famous bridges throughout the world. I wanted the kids to get an idea that some bridges are functional and some are pieces of art. I also wanted to demonstrate that some bridges are famous because of how they were built or what they look like. Some of the ones we looked at were the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Brooklyn Bridge, but I showed them about 10 bridges total.

3. Activity
I set almost half of the program time aside this week for our activity. I found a neat STEM building activity on the Frugal Fun 4 Boys blog. Using only a few materials and minimal direction, we had the kids build bridges.

We purchased/used:
*Clothespins
*Jumbo Craft Sticks
*Binder Clips

My teens made 5 kits for the kids to use in groups while in the library. We had the kids break up into groups of 3 or 4 kids to work on building together.

Each kit had:
A. 6 clothespins
B. 12 binder clips
C. 30 craft sticks

The build projects we did, depending on time, were:
A. Build the longest bridge
B. Build the tallest bridge
C. Build the most [architecturally] artistic bridge 

4. Take-Home
If the kids wanted to, we made smaller take-home kits that the kids could use at home. The teen volunteers had bagged them up prior to the program so we could hand them out in the last few minutes of the program. 


Notes:
This was a really fun program to do with the kids. The building aspect being somewhat open-ended was neat and slightly challenging. The older kids could definitely do it but it was difficult for the younger ones. However, having open-ended projects like this are great to challenge the way kids think. With the same materials, we had dozens of different ways of building demonstrated and it was awesome!