Friday, November 17, 2017

School-Age: Dung Beetles

Parents may not appreciate it but I have yet to meet a school-age kid that does not love (or at least find it funny) to talk about POOP. So this week we did just that and talked about the fabulous dung beetle!

1. Reading
For our book we read "Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle" by Cheryl Bardoe



It has age-appropriate facts about different varieties of dung beetles and is the perfect length for a read-aloud!

2. Activity
We had a small discussion to test their listening comprehension during the book. The kids asked so many questions during the read-aloud portion, though, that this was not an issue. The topic this week was a hit!

Our activity was a scat identification game. I shared a North American Mammal Scat identification sheet, if they were curious about identifying scat where they live. Then I shared a variety of different scat pictures to see if they could guess the animal. Some of the animals were also on the North American Mammal Scat sheet and some were not. The scat I showed were from a range of animals, from elephants and cows to foxes and owls. 

The kids LOVED this game even if it was a little gross.

3. Craft
I had the kids name another well-known insect that loves poop = the fly! Our craft was to make a fly out of Popsicle sticks, clothespins, and googly eyes. Ms. Carol found a similar craft on the Simply Crafty blog.  

Here are some of our examples: 


Notes:
As I said - the topic was a hit. The parents were amused (and a little grossed out) but all the kids were engaged and loved it! I would definitely do something similar again with scat identification, even if I changed the topic slightly, because it was fun!

Saturday, November 11, 2017

School-Age Special Event: Messy Art Party

Some colleagues of mine had their own messy art parties in the last year or so, and they seemed to be a big hit. SO, of course, I decided to host my own messy art party!

Messy art can be a little intimidating at the library. I mean, we have books! We can't get messy...right? 

I am one of those libraries that does not have its own program rooms. This might be easier if I did, but we still take over the library (or at least parts of it) for programs on occasion. 

I had planned on doing a lot of the activities outside but we got hit with an early cold front so I definitely did not want to be outside today. The only exception was, since it was still sunny out, we had the chalk art outside for kids to drop in and do. For the other activities, we took over some of the study tables close to our storytime area for the program and set up a few folding tables as well to have several stations. I also saved some of our back-dated newspapers to use to cover the tables to make clean up easier.


STATIONS:

1. Ice Cube Painting:
A peer of mine had huge success with ice cube painting. You take ice cube trays, put food coloring in them, fill them with water, and, when the water starting to solidify, put Popsicle sticks in them.




2. Anything but a paint brush:
We have a bunch of left-over tempura paint. To make the station fun and challenging, I had a few items I created to be used in place of a paint brush. 

Bubble Wrap:

Yarn-Wrapped Paper-Towel Rolls:

Pipe Cleaners:

Q-Tips:


3. Coffee Filter Art:
This is a super simple 'messy' art project. You color a coffee filter with markers and then drip water on it to create a tie-dye effect when the colors run. 

4. Bleeding Art Tissue Paper:
I have a ton of bleeding art tissue paper left over from the Name Art craft when we discussing "Thunder Boy, Jr.". I decided it would be a perfect craft to round-out our indoor activities. 

5. Sidewalk Chalk
We have a sidewalk outside of our library. I put out cones to signify where the kids could color with chalk. Then we let them go at it on the sidewalk. 


Notes:
This was so much fun and the kids loved getting messy. Most of the part projects I kept to a minimal messy level, which helped. And all of the activities were easy for the preschool and early elementary kids but still fun and engaging for older elementary kids!

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

School-Age: Clara the Rhino

On occasion we have to be observed during our programs to make sure everything is going swell. This week I observed my Library Assistant, Ms. Carol, present a program about Clara the Rhino that I had planned.

1. Reading
She read the book "Clara: The (Mostly) True Story of the Rhinoceros who Dazzled Kings, Inspired Artists, and Won the Hearts of Everyone...While She Ate Her Way Up and Down a Continent" by Emily Arnold McCully. Yes, it is an incredibly exhaustive title, but it is a lovely tale about Clara.



I knew nothing about Clara but Emily McCully's book and another book about Clara, "Clara: The True Story of Clara the Rhino" by Sarah Hewitt, both came out in 2016 and piqued my interest in this little-known animal that was famed in her time.

The book by Emily McCully is quite long. It can be shortened by paper-clipping pages, depending on the age of the audience and what your history is with your attendees (whether or not they have sat through long books before). Ms. Carol read the whole book, which took about 20 minutes, and our kids were fascinated the entire time!

2. Discussion/Activity
I had prepared some trivia facts about Clara, and rhino's in general, for Ms. Carol to ask the kids. It tested their listening skills, since some of the questions came directly from the book. For example, one of the questions was about what Clara's favorite food was - the answer is oranges! Other trivia questions were rhino facts such as how big rhinos can get. 

3. Craft
For the craft, we made rhinos of our own. I found a printable rhino on the Learn, Create, Love blog. We printed them out on grey paper, cut them prior to the program, and handed the rhino parts out in bag kits for the craft. The kids glued their rhino parts to a piece of card stock and were able to add flair with markers as they wished.


Notes:
It was a fun program and a fascinating history to share. We only had one program this week, since we are closed for the Veteran's Day Holiday, but it was well attended and all the kids loved the topic!

Friday, November 3, 2017

School-Age: Monsters

To get into the spirit of the holiday, we learned about monsters this week!

1. Reading
This week we read "Quit Calling Me a Monster" by Jory John. This was another of those books that I did not quite enjoy when I read it the first time BUT when I read it to the kids they loved it. Sooo, I have re-evaluated my opinion of it and bumped it up a star on Goodreads.




I loved that the monster in the book preferred to be called "Floyd Peterson". It was hilarious and reminded Ms. Carol and I about the book we read at our Halloween party last week - "Monster Museum". One of the poems in that book talked about how Frankenstein hated being called by the name of the doctor who created him and he wanted his own name. 

2. Discussion
We talked about different 'monsters' from pop culture and literature. I created a flash card game and tested their knowledge of different monsters. We had monsters ranging from the Cookie Monster to zombies and Big Foot. 

3. Activity
We played another form of BINGO again this week. It was vastly different than last week's BINGO so I didn't feel bad about a repeat activity so soon after the last BINGO game. 

I found a Monster BINGO on Grandma Ideas and used that during the program.

4. Craft
Everyone got to make their own monster's this week! Somewhat Simple had a printable build-a-monster kit. It was the perfect craft this week and the kids LOVED coming up with their very on 'Floyd Peterson's' to take home with them this week.