School-Age: Skyscrapers

Last week I took another break from planning and presenting my school-age program to let another of my Library Assistants, Ms. Carol, who is currently in Library School, have an opportunity to do so. 

Ms. Carol chose the topic of Composting last week. She read the book "EIEIO: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm With a Little Help From a Hen" by Judy Sierra. It was PERFECT for the topic of composting since it actually was demonstrating composting first-hand. 

After the book Ms. Carol led a discussion about how to make compost and had a true/false activity of what items go in the compost bin. Then we made Seed Bombs as our craft. We used air dry clay, dirt from Ms. Carol's own compost bin, and seeds.

THIS week, for the LAST week of the Summer 2017 session, we learned about Skyscrapers.

1. Reading
We read "Into the Sky" by Ryan Ann Hunter. The book was a great introduction into the topic of skyscrapers because it discussed how they are made and how normal building materials cannot be used. It also discusses when the first skyscrapers were built and why. It is a little outdated but it was a good nonfiction read-aloud for the topic.

2. Discussion
I asked if any of the kids, or their parents, had even been inside of a skyscraper. Or, if any of them had been to a big city where they had a lot of famous skyscrapers. 

Then we talked about well-known skyscrapers and some of the tallest buildings in the world. We used the book "Spectacular Skyscrapers" by Meish Goldish. It had great information about, and pictures of, world-famous skyscrapers!

3. Activity
We used Legos and had a build challenge. We handed out 5 buckets of Legos and 5 Lego plates, and we separated the kids into 5 groups. We told them their challenge was the build the tallest structure in 5 minutes. I set the clock and let them go!

Some of the younger kids were just building small structures but one of the groups really took off. 

4. Craft
For our craft the kids made their own city skylines with skyscrapers. I found an architecture shape collage craft that Kinder Art had on their site and we made our own version of it.

Notes:

The was a perfect end to a busy and hectic summer! The kids had a great time and I really enjoyed closing it on a high note!