Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Teen Program: Page Corner Bookmarks

Even though we don't typically offer weekly programs for teens at my smaller branch library, we had an end-of-session party for the teen volunteers last week.

I happened to have craft left-overs from another librarian that were shark corner bookmarks. 


It's a craft that I had not found an opportunity to use yet and one that I thought the teens would enjoy. ESPECIALLY since there are TONS of ideas online of ways they could make their own version.

Using the template that I had from the shark bookmarks, I made several card stock templates that the teens could use. They could trace the templates on whatever color paper they wanted and add their own flare. 


I also provided pictures of a variety of other ideas that were out there on the internet. There were ones of Pokemon, Ninja Turtles, monsters, Minions, book and movie characters, animals, and the list goes on. I wanted to make it clear to the teens that they could take the supplies and really use their imaginations to create whatever they wanted.

Supplies:
*Templates
*Construction Paper
*Scrap-booking Paper
*Scissors
*Glue Sticks
*Snacks & Drinks

Using inspiration from here, here's a Harry Potter bookmark:

My husband is a fan of Ninja Turtles so I used inspiration from a Ninja Turtle corner bookmark image on Google to make this for him:

And one of my teens found inspiration in the Pokemon ideas and made a Jigglypuff:


Final Notes:
This was a fun program for the teens AND for me. I had fun decompressing after a very hectic Summer Reading Program making a few bookmarks of my own. I guess with any teen program it is helpful to find topics or activities that you, as the host, will also enjoy. 

Attendance: 8 teens

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

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!