School Age Steam

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Our guest today is Kelsey Bates, a Youth Services Librarian in Fort Myers Florida. She shared a program series on STEAM that had kids really excited.

STEAM into Learning - K- 5th graders

3…2…1… Blast Off Into Space

Book talk: How Do You Burp in Space? : and Tips Every Space Tourist Needs to Know by Susan Goodman. Discuss why you would never want to burp in space (spoiler, without gravity it’s just puking).

Video: astronauts sleeping in space from NASA’s website.

Stations:

• Create aliens – I designed a sheet where the kids would decide what planet they are visiting (hot, cold, gas, water, etc) and then draw the aliens based on those specifications.
• Design a satellite – after discussing what satellites do, I had the kids build one out of random craft materials that we had lying around. This station was so popular that I had to remind the kids that they should move on to other activities.
• Make paper rockets – using paper and straws, the kids created paper rockets that they could launch.
• Constellation Tubes – using pushpins, the kids punched out holes in a paper depicting a constellation and then placed it on a toilet paper roll. Looking back, I would have donewithout this station because the most effort on the kids’ parts went into for what was very little payoff.

Tech Tear Down

Video:  Bill Nye the Science Guy discussed electrical circuits. We then looked at a quick slide show I made that had pictures of electrical components that we would be seeing.

Stations:

The children and their parents (it was very focused on parent involvement) then went to the stations where we had everything from a laptop to beepers to VHS tapes. The kids had a great time taking apart each electronic and the parents enjoyed explaining to their kids why anyone would ever need a beeper.

I originally had a lot of push back from my administration about this program as it was deemed “unsafe” which added a lot of time on my part to really research the safety of each item. The kids had an amazing time though and I heard a lot mothers mention that they wish their husbands had come as well, which is always exciting as we don’t get a lot of fathers in our programs.

Engineer an Attack on the Fort!

This was a program that I pulled from the Show Me Librarian, which made it super easy to reproduce although I did switch the focus from the Trojan War to the castles of the Middle Ages.

Book talk:  books in our collection about castles and sieges.

Video: Trebuchet Siege Artillery from the Discovery channel that shows the children what catapults in the Middle Ages really looked like.

Stations:

Laying out a lot of random craft materials, I had the children build their forts, making sure to discuss the importance of engineering strong walls and foundations. We then built catapults out of rubber bands and popsicle sticks with bottle caps on the end to hold the pom-poms.

The last 10 minutes of the program was the battle where the kids created a circle and started attacking each other. I was actually surprised by how many almost didn’t want to compete because they were afraid that their forts would become destroyed (they seriously overestimated the power of a pom-pom).

This was the program that I had the most trouble finding an educational opening to. There is very few interesting educational videos for children about castles for some reason. The kids did find the Discovery video very engaging though and really loved creating their own (much safer) version of a catapult.

Mad Scientist Artist

This was the program that I was most proud of since I came up with the idea myself: Creating art using Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It was also my most expensive program in the series, using the previous 3 programs’ budgets of $10 plus its own for a total of $40. Also, although I did not book talk any books, I pointed out after each station that there was an entire display of art books to check out.

Science – We started the program outside in our storytime garden (a rare occurrence for our programs) and created exploding rocket art. Using film canisters, paint water and seltzer tabs, the kids popped in a tablet, closed the lid tight and turned it upside down so that when it exploded, it would leave splattered paint behind on the canvas. This was a huge success, even when the rockets didn’t launch.

Technology – This was the most expensive part of the program since I had to buy Dollar Tree electric toothbrushes for every child. They inserted the toothbrush into a decorated pool noodle that had three markers as legs. When the brush was turned on, it would cause the Art Bots to vibrate, creating interesting art work with their markers.

Engineering – This was just a simple sculpture project using marshmallows and toothpicks. I was still really excited to see what interesting things the kids came up with, like a brother duo who created a water pipeline that was a few feet long.

Math – For math, we discussed symmetry and had the children paint only one side of a piece of paper and then fold it in half to create symmetrical artwork.

I think art is always very engaging for children and the parents in the room really like the STEM slant to the program as well.

Game On

The idea for this also originally came from the Show Me Librarian’s Blog to do a life-size version of Chutes and Ladders. I made it my own though, and more math minded, by having the children spend half of the program creating their own game boards.

Chutes and Ladders – A fun game that took about 20 or so minutes to play. Towards the end, I sped it up but overall the kids did an amazing job at waiting their turn and staying engaged.

Game Board – this was my favorite part of the program. I had purchased some Dungeons and Dragons styled dice for the kids so we discussed what different dice would do to the game play (the dice that goes by 10s would need a different board than the regular 1-6 dice). One little girl used her two dice to work on rounding numbers up and down, which was amazing!

This was the only program that I didn’t really push the theme on, as I felt it would be too hard of a sell to get people excited about a Math program. However, we still had good attendance and the kids left very happy with their games, many coming back to tell me later that they played them at home.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this program series and how I was able to incorporate so much of our non-fiction collection into the programs. My coworkers ran a Pre-K version of this STEAM series congruently with mine, which allowed us to get almost all the ages actively involved in fun and educational programming.

Winter Olympics Program

Librarian-students all had a chance to create/report out a program they developed as a final project. Each considered the goals of the program, format (active, passive), how much time/money it might take and described how it was or would be done. Amanda from IN shared this idea.

The "Library Winter Olympics 2014" is active program that was part of a once a month series called "Kid Connection".  The series is held at both branches once each month.  This program is geared for school aged children, and is held at 4:00 at in the afternoon on a Thursday at one branch. We used to hold this program in the evening at 6:30, but we slowly started losing families. 

In this community, families evenings are too busy with the activities they are involved in, such as scouts, sports, dance, etc.  We changed the time to after school, but before the evening events get started.  This has appeared to be helpful for families.  At the other branch we hold it at 6:00.  This seems to work well there.  It is a very isolated community with not much to do.  The library tends to be similar to a community center.

This program usually lasts about 45 minutes.  In addition to the books I was reading, I pulled books about winter sports for them to look at and check out if they wanted to.  This program probably took a total of 20 minutes to plan.  I read a magazine article that gave me the idea for the program, so some of the activity ideas and books ideas were "borrowed" from this.  I also had a couple of book ideas in my "arsenal".  I was the only staff member working this program and I might have spent $3 on paper plate $5 on a snack and drink  We had all the other supplies on hand. 

As families began to arrive there were three activity stations set up.  There was a "snowball toss" where they were to toss cotton balls into rings set up at different distances.  There was an Olympic Ring craft where the kids made their own "Olympic Rings" out of pipe cleaners of the according colors.  Finally there was "Ice" skating races.  We used paper plates as our ice skates and kids (and adults) raced each other around our "track" by scooting on the paper plates.  This was definitely their favorite activity.  There were parents racing their kids, siblings racing each other and kids who had never met each other racing each other.  Even kids who didn't seem interested in the program were drawn to this activity!  They really enjoyed the snow ball toss too. 

After about 20-25 minutes of activity stations, we moved to the carpet to read.  I also had (non-fiction) books about winter sports such as curling, ice skating, snow boarding, down hill skiing, etc. on display.  I read "Dream Big, Little Pig" by Kristi Yamaguchi, "Ten on the Sled" by Kim Norman, and "Mice on Ice" by Rebecca Emberley.  These books were definitely geared more for the younger school aged crowd (Kindergarten and first grade with some preschool siblings thrown in), which is what I tend to get at this program.  After we were done reading, we ate our snack and talked about the different type Olympic events that we had been watching on T.V. and which were our favorites and which ones we would like to try.  This program is was a very hands on program, the kids were able to move from station to station as they would like.  

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

YOU Are the Illustrator!

Librarian-students all had a chance to create/report out a program they developed as a final project. Each considered the goals of the program, format (active, passive), how much time/money it might take and described how it was or would be done. Lori from IN shared this idea.

Type:              Active

Location:        In-house or on-site (for this assignment, it is on-site at an elementary school)

Audience:       4-5th grade (possibly 3rd grade.  I’ve used this book with high schoolers)

Length:           Approximately 45 minutes per session/number of sessions depends on book length (for this assignment, I am using “The Velveteen Rabbit,” so it will take three total sessions)

Scheduling  Strategy:         After school to partner with the local Safe Harbor after school program

Staff Time:     Dependent on book length – read prior to program

Budget:           Supplies on-hand – crayons, paper, glue, discarded magazines, scissors

Collection Connection:   Books from the collection

Estimated Prep time:      See “Staff Time,” plus amount of time to collect supplies and learn information about the author and/or illustrator

NOTE:           Use the William Nicholson illustrated book (original illustrations), not a different edition of the book.

Program description and plan:

Begin by talking about favorite toys, such as stuffed animals or dolls.  These can be toys the children have now, or had in the past.  Discuss what they mean to the children.  Do they talk to them?  Act like they are real?  Have feelings?  Make clothes for them?  Special bedding?  Take them places?  Sleep with them?  You can even tie this in with the “Toy Story” movies.  Let the children freely discuss their “friends.”  Ask them to bring their favorite toy with them next week.

Now, bring out the book, with the cover hidden.  Explain a bit about the author (Margery Winifred Williams [1881 – 1944] born in London, moved to the United States in 1890), and when the book was originally written (1922).  I have more information to share with the children, but I’ll omit it here.

Now the fun begins!  Begin by having the children imagine what the Velveteen Rabbit looks like.  Do not show them the cover of the book. Once you are reading aloud the story to the children, do not show any of the illustrations.  There will be time for that at the end of the book and activity.  Read up to page 16.

Now it is the next week, so begin with the children sharing their favorite toys with the rest of the group.  Have them share a story or two about their friend.  Now, discuss the book so far, sort of refresh their memories.  Continue reading the book, beginning where you left off, at page 17.  There should be time to finish the entire book.

Once the book is completed, discuss the childrens’ feelings and reactions to the story.  Ask them questions such as, “What would you do…” in various situations in the book.  Discuss what they think the toys in the book look like and discuss each toy.  For the next week, ask each child to think of their favorite toy(s) from the book (any toy is fine, it doesn’t have to be the rabbit).  And, again, imagine what the toy(s) looks like.

The third week now begins.  Take the supplies with you and each child can make a picture, or collage, of  their favorite toy(s) from the book.  Now, show them the book’s illustrations.

I have stretched this over three sessions, however, depending on the time you have with your group, this can be done over two sessions.  Plus, it depends on the book.  Additionally, any craft you can come up with to go along with the book would work well.  For example, years ago I had a “gifted” group of students (8th grade) at a local parochial school. We read “The Hobbit” over several weeks. The library supplied paperback copies of the book (over the $10.00 limit for this assignment).  The students designed a variety of crafts, games, dioramas, etc.  They used their own supplies.  I displayed the finished products at the library.

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Library Treasure Hunt: Scat and Tracks

Librarian-students all had a chance to create/report out a program they developed as a final project. Each considered the goals of the program, format (active, passive), how much time/money it might take and described how it was or would be done. Suzanne from WI shared this idea.

This program is an active program designed to help new library users become familiar with the library, as well as learn how much fun the library can be!  The program will be a one time program held on site, for children grades kindergarten through third grade.  The actual program will last approximately 1 hour and will be held after school during the timeframe that the after school program is held.  This is from 4-5:30.  The program will be held in cooperation with the school staff running the after school program.  Holding it during the after school program guarantees an audience as well as built in helpers.  Program preparation time should be around 2-3 hours for set up, craft preparation, instructions for the groups to follow and finding books in the collection to use in our library treasure hunt and shopping for snacks. 

Program Detail: 

The kids will be divided up into 5 groups, each with a student or adult leader.  There are typically around 25 kids in this age group, so the groups will be ideally about 5 kids.  We are affiliated with a historical Museum, and they have a wildlife case with around 40 animals and birds in.  The program will start in the museum with a focus on the wildlife case.  Each group will be told to pick an animal from the case that they are familiar with or are interested in.   After they have their animal picked out, they will be told to find both a fiction and nonfiction book with this animal in.  The leaders of the groups will be familiar with how and where to find these materials.  The groups will be shown the online card catalog for assistance in finding their books.  After the groups have all found their books, they will be asked to “present” their books to the other groups, giving a bit of detail about what the book is about and why they chose the ones they did.  The group as a whole will pick which ones they would like to have read aloud.  This can be done by me or one of the group leaders.  How many books will be read will depend on the length of the books that they choose. 

Snack: 

A snack will be served of nuts, fruits, seeds and juice while talking about how and what animals in the woods eat. 

Craft Project:

Materials:  10 foot piece off of a roll of paper, markers, crayons, ink pads and animal foot stamps.  A nearby Natural History Museum has animal foot stamps that they loan out for projects.  The stamps are of a bear, beaver, rabbit, squirrel and raccoon.  These stamps are awesome and very realistic.  (kind of creepy in that they almost look and feel like a real animal foot!)  We have used them before and the kids love them! 

Prior to the program animal habitat and animals will be drawn on the 10 foot piece of paper to match the animals that we have tracks for.  During the craft project the kids will match the appropriate track up with the animals on the paper, which will be laid out on the floor for them to work on.  They will use the stamps to show their travels in the “woods” of the scene leading up to the animals in their habitat.  They will also draw food and additional habitat that they learned about in the books we read.  The finished mural will be hung on the wall at the library.  The kids will be given a copy of the wildlife identifier that is in the museum to assist in identifying the animals in the case, and those that don’t already have library cards will be sent home with a form to fill out to get one. 

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

School Age Outreach

In discussions of preschool outreach, the class also had some great ideas to liven up school age outreach opportunities.

Energy and Laughs! - We get  evening calls to do Parent Nights, Family Outreach Center Nights, Headstart Nights, etc. Most successful:  space in a room to ourselves, if it is an Open House type event.  

If it is simply a "Featuring the Public Library" type of thing, the most successful times I ever have are the ones in which I pretty much show them the basics: We have a giant version of our children's library card, which I take, as well as a giant poster showing the upcoming (or last summer's!) version of SRP clip art.  I jump around, I ask them questions about the library ("Who knows how much a library card COSTS?"  "What color are the kids' cards?"  "What BORING color are the grown-ups cards?"), the same way I do with their children, and I get immediate interaction, laughter, and cooperation.  

Prize Wheel - For our school aged kids, we have a prize wheel (spin the wheel and win one of our many leftover SRP prizes from past years or a book or a movie poster or something) and it's a huge hit.

I Spy Poster - The most successful thing we did was paste a bunch of magazine pictures and cut-out stuff on poster board. Then we had slips of paper that named different objects on the board. Kids picked a slip and tried to spot the thing. Gave us time to give info to parents (clever and tricky, thanks to my smart staffers!!). Successful kids got a hand stamp. They could play twice if they missed the first time.

What fun activities do you incorporate into school outreach?

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Year of the Dragon Party

Melendra shares a great program for all ages:

I created a program celebrating Chinese New Year for the Year of the Dragon. 

I started out by sharing some basic information about Chinese New Year, such as things that are done to celebrate it and the Chinese Zodiac. I used a PowerPoint to show some images of Chinese dragons, and we watched a Youtube video of dragon dances. I brought all the library's books about Lunar New Year for display and check out as well.

After the "intro," we split up into stations. I had 5 craft stations:

• Writing a good luck Kanji using a template; 
• Folding lucky red envelopes; 
• Making paper lanterns; 
• Scratch board dragons; 
• Decorate the dragon table. (The dragon was made of a large head that I'd made out of papermache and painted red attached to a long body made of red, gold, and purple plastic tablecloths taped together.)

Kids rotated through the craft centers and a sweeping out the bad luck game. I also made a large Chinese Zodiac spinner that had birth years associated with specific animals. I talked about how each year aligned with an animal, and let them spin the wheel just for fun.

I happen to own 2 giant carp windsocks from when I lived in Japan, so I used those to help decorate (carp signify fame and fortune).

We had fortune cookies and orange juice for snacks. To finish off the party, we had a dragon dance of our own where we paraded through the library with the decorated dragon. Kids held on to the table cloth as we marched around together. We ended up back in the original room and everyone got to pop a popper to scare away any evil spirits.

We had a huge turnout for the party, and many of the Chinese students who attend KSU brought their kids. It was fun to have this demographic mix more with our more traditional patrons. 

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Meeting Parents Where They Are

In our discussion of balance in school age programming, we also talked about the value of what we do and how parents are vital advocates in how their kids view/use the library. This is what Erin wrote:

I'm working on a presentation I'll be giving to parents of first graders at one of our Title I schools in the area on the importance of reading with your children and the actual nuts and bolts of HOW to read with your children. My first approach was "you all know why this is critically important," but after having a meeting with the woman who will be translating the presentation into Spanish, I completely revamped the presentation. The focus is now on empowering parents to claim their role as the first and most important teachers of their children-a point I drive home every single week in my infant storytime. 

Forget about the transportation part for a minute. Forget about the 9000 things some kids are involved in. Parents are absolutely critical when it comes to how their children will value and view the public library. If they value the library, their children will value the library. 

On the flip side, we have a fair number of school-aged kids whose parents I've never met. We're located on the edge of our downtown in a residential area. There are kids who come just about every single day after school to use our computers and check out books. These are kids who won't sign up for a program if we offered it, but if we had something going on that they could do independently or with little staff intervention? They'd do it.

I also never want to think of the library competing with other activities. Should we be mindful of the myriad of afterschool activities many of our school aged kids are engaged in? Yes. Should we be mindful of the fact most K-2nd graders are still just trying to get through the school day and are exhausted by the end? Yes. But we also need to remember not every kid is involved in 10000 other activities. We should be conceiving of and executing programs that fit within our organization's or department's goals and objectives (I know, I know, I bring this up a lot, but it's because I really believe it helps focus planning and keeps us mindful of why we're doing what we're doing!) and scheduling them accordingly while also taking into account what programs KIDS want-not what adults think they should do, but programs that challenge and support the interests of kids. 

I love working with school-aged kids. They are just as much a patron as an adult (something some librarians who aren't fortunate enough to work with kids sometimes forget!). I have a unique opportunity as a non-teacher, non-parent adult in their lives to be a positive influence and meet them where they are. 

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Consider the Parents. Please!

In our discussions of school age programming, the class wrestled with ways to program during the school year in a way that didn't put added pressure on already busy families. One thread of the discussion dealt with the pressure parents feel and whether afterschool programs can work in every community. Michelle shared her own experience as a working parent:

As a full-time working parent of a kindergartener, I honestly have no desire to pick my child up from school and haul him to the library for an after-school program.

Before you have my head on a pole, hear me out. I drop my child off at school around 7:45 am. I then get my youngest child to Grandma's house by 8, next stop work. I'm working from 8:30-5, then make the drive again to get the kids. My kindergartener is in after school care until 5:45 pm. He's hungry (eats lunch at 11am!, crappy snack after school), he's tired of following directions, tired of using his inside voice, and just plain tired.

Even if I was gung-ho about bringing him to a wonderful program (I'm tired too!), he would not be up for it. I can't imagine adding extracurriculars into the mix...I think my head will explode.

However, we love coming to the library. He loves to play on the computers, to check out giant stacks of books, and to do DIY activities that are in the children's room for the taking. He loved coming to the "big kid" programs during the summer, since he was energetic and not schooled-out, so to speak. I think this is where the "balance" in stealth/DIY/passive programming becomes really important. K-6 is the sweet spot to branch out and allow activities for every walk of life.

I think school age programs are important, but we have to be realistic about the parent's role. Just because parents can't get their kids to a program, doesn't mean that they don't value the library. I freaking LOVE the library, as do my kids. I think the parents' attitude towards the library is key. If the library is just a place for parents to pick up tax forms, the library isn't going to mean squat to their kids.

Image: 'High-Octane Villain' http://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00/12287919576  Found on flickrcc.net

Parents - Keys to Programming Success

In discussion what role parents played in their children's participation in school-age programs, the class had lots of thoughts.

Parents are:

Supportive - Transport them to and from the library, encourage them to attend programs, "talk up" the programs, model the importance of libraries by using the library, make sure the child has a library card - and uses it, and actively seek out programs at the library.

Role Models - Parents play a very important role in school age programming in the sense of bringing their children to programs but most importantly, emphasizing to their children that the library is an important place in any community. By having parents establishing that the library and all it has to offer is important, children will associate libraries as a welcoming, focal point in their community.

Advocates -I am happy with a parent who sees his role as one of vocalizing the importance of the library to the community, of getting to it as regularly as he can, of always being VOCALLY supportive, even when he can't be GEOGRAPHICALLY supportive.

Partners - I love having parental participation.  Because I am on my own with everything that I do, I long for others to share and enjoy activities with the kids.  I have had some great parents over the years.  Some of them make better leaders than I do!  I often have had to solicit help from parents if we are going to leave the building in the course of our program.  I am only one person!  

More than means of transportation - They are (at our library) the transportation for the kiddos for the most part.  A program needs to be "worthwhile" in their eyes to come to (we have a very rural community so for many people it has to be worth the time and gas for them to come into the library).  But most importantly, I try to talk to parents when they are in the library with their kids.  I know lots of the families that are regulars so it is nice to chat with them and remind them of programs, but also introduce myself to new faces and let them know what we have going on. 

BUSY!!!! - being aware of the many pressures on parents who may be working and transporting their kids helps us focus on what we want to do for programs. More DIY and stealth programs let us serve kids without narrowing times we like to see kids in the library with an active program that has a specific time and day.

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Schools - Howdy Pardner!

Schools are a vital part of great service to school age children. By partnering and working with school colleagues, public libraries can find wonderful ways to reach out to kids in school and make the library connection.  Some of the ideas - both tested and blue-skyed  - that the class shared:

Pie the principal: I reached out to 5 principals at our local elementary schools to see if they are game to enhance participation in our Summer Reading Program  by introducing a friendly wager. We'll track which school participants are from and the winning school will receive a special activity in their media center/library (this element, offered to everyone) but the winning school will receive a special bonus of their Principal getting a pie in the face (or some other silly memorable thing). Some of my principals are game, one was not excited to get pied, so we are going to frame it up as the Cat in the Hat will play a trick at the school  and customize the silly prize at each school.(thus, we don't exclude any schools from participating and put the principals at ease)

Adopt a Grade Currently our elementary schools send every 3rd grade class to the art museum that is on the block next door. I'd like to adopt a grade and them come for a field trip adventure. Still a work in progress.

Literary Awards Our school media specialists/ librarians have been promoting the Maud Hart Lovelace award in March so we have been holding a Voting Gala prior to the award announcing the winner. We have book marks with the nominees listed and ask for readers to read at least 3 before voting for their favorites. We have had a steady hold list for these items (and the nominees are excellent). The school Media specialists help lead a discussion, serve snacks, and set up a voting box  with a big reveal of the local winner. Last year, we only had 1 school participating, this year we are working with 4!

Building Blocks Through perserverence on my part we now have a great relationship with teachers, principals, media specialists, ciriculum directors, PTA's, etc.  It took cultivation and time but it was all worth it!  I do need to find the balance of time between in house and outreach. I don't hesitate to ask for assistance from the experts in our schools to help with Library programming which includes Technology Workshops, science help for the upcoming SLP theme, supply needs from Art and PhyEd teachers, etc.

Balancing ALL.THE.THINGS.

Programming work for kids is usually an on-going balancing act. Almost all libraries offer storytimes. Beyond that, no matter how small or large a library, figuring out how to fit in outreach, programs beyond storytime, school age programs, stealth and DIY programs is a constant challenge. In terms of doing service to school-agers, the class tackled that balance and came at it from a couple of different ways.

Schools are key - outreach visits, collaborations or partnerships or in-services for the teachers are just a few of the ways we create quality school age services with schools and kids.

Program frequency - not all programs (in house and outreach) need to be weekly or even monthly. Finding a balance and creating a schedule that balances ages, program types, breaks and other work can help serve many without creating burn-out.

Unique communities - knowing your community and the unique needs really helps to suggest where to create emphasis in program plans

Open communication - keeping parents and families up to date with what's happening helps keep the information flowing and provides great feedback.

Big breaks - if you have a huge demand for school visits or outreach requests during a certain month, consider suspending all other programs that month (or setting u a monthlong passive program) and concentrating on the outreach to avoid split shifts, overlong shifts and staff burn-out.

Know your goals - being aware of where you want to be and how you want to represent the library helps in deciding what outreach events to attend that make sense for the library.

Meet people where they are - instead of forcing people to choose between active programs or nothing at all during the school year, consider active and DIY programs to engage school age kids.  

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Perking Up School Age Programs

One thing we all face as busy youth librarians is keeping programs lively and interesting for the kids - and you!  In our discussion area we shared strategies we use to keep programs perked up and lively for our sometimes picky and always busy school-aged patrons.

Among the ideas:
Music! During library tours for first graders I turn to Pete the Cat. Normally I read/play Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin. Harper Collins has the Pete sing-alongs (http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/petethecat/)

Pizza! I have a book club at the high school.  I secured funding to offer pizza for the kids on the day we finish each book.  I advertised as such, but still only five interested kids.  Well, after the first pizzas arrived, the book club doubled in size.  We continue to gain/lose members, but I have my core group intact.

Humor! For class visits, I pick hilarious and interactive books/stories, make the kids all be a part of it, and take Q and A.  The Q and A always leads to more hilarity.  I also award bookmarks (the cool ones!  Scratch and sniff!) for asking a Q.  Everyone who asks gets one.  I make sure that by the end, everyone HAS asked, so that no one leaves empty-handed. We have fun, because I like to be a stand-up comedian with kids.

Secrets! We practice checking items out on our self check on the storytime card and then the highlight of tours for younger kids is seeing books come from the outside drop attached to our building. Lots of ohhs and ahhs, I just grab a coworker to take our items and slowly drop them in. OHH! AHH!

Partners! We first started out by asking the elementary principal if we could take just 15 minutes of the teachers time on inservice day before school started. We presented to the teachers what we had at the library and that we would like to partner with them for the benefit of the kids. We then started school visits - we now have monthy class visits with 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades which lead into higher numbers in our SRP. Which lead into other activities that were very successful. We had a safety program in which  a local police officer came talked about summer safety  and we almost ran out of room in the kids room ( it was packed) We also have the fire department come with a fire engine and talked about fire safety. These programs were promoted by the school.

DIY! The biggest success we had recently was the cardboard creations party, and it was probably one of the simplest. We collected cardboard of all kinds (boxes, sheets, scraps). We also provided markers, crayons, glue, tape, scissors, and then the participants just got to build whatever they wanted. It was very low stress for the department, had a big turn out, and was easy to clean up.

Outdoors! I like using the outdoors when I can.  One of the favorite things we have done was making dioramas using items from outdoors.  We got big boxes and decorated them as teams using a specific theme for the day.  We did rocks, trees, flowers etc, and linked that to stories that we read before sending them off to collect their items.  In the end some of the groups had very interesting displays...some had basically a mess.  

Water Guns! One summer it was particularly hot and almost every program ended with water gun fights.  I tried to link that to stories with some success.  The kids really didn't care though because after all, they got to have a water fun fight! 

Super Heroes!  We had Super Hero skill training- X-ray vision (figure out what's in the bag by reaching in), Leap over Tall Buildings- obviously, and a Super Hero Encapsulator Toss- a basic bean bag tossing game.  We also decorated a mask, everyone got a cape cut from a plastic table cloth, and we had a Web-blaster where we sat in a circle and made a spider web by tossing the yarn from person to person.  We also read some hero books.  

Bang!  It's super simple and kindergarten through teens enjoy it. Best of all, it can go 5 to 30 minutes. You decorate a Pringles can and write something on small cards. Also put in several cards that say BANG! Kids pass the can around, draw out one card to answer. If the child answers it correctly, he or she keeps the card. If not, the card goes back in the can. If a card that says BANG! is drawn, it goes back in the can along with all the player's other cards. And it goes on and on and on, until you put a stop to it and declare the player with the most cards the winner.

Lively Librarian! I think the best thing I do when I'm either giving a tour or at an outreach event or really any time I interact with school aged kids in the library is be myself. Kids can tell when you're faking it: either faking interest in what they're saying or faking enthusiasm for what you're doing. I need to be authentic. It doesn't matter how spectacular a program might be. If you don't believe in it, it won't be successful. 

Take off Limits!  We do a Dr. Seuss birthday party. This yearwe have changed it do drop in format, wheras in the past we have allowed only 30 kids to participate. This was the best move ever. We get around 100+ kids for these events now!

Dogs!  I bring my yellow lab Layla to work everyday, and the patrons-adults and kids-love her.  She walks around the stacks, visits the computer station and greats everybody that comes in the door.  So when her birthday comes around in October I think I'll have a party for her :)  I can display her "recommended reads"  (hopefully some will circulate), her favorite movies, build the whole day around her personality.  Through in some cake and punch and who can resist, right?!

Formula for School-Age Programming Success?

We started looking at how to create balance in the many types of program offerings for school age kids (active, passive, DIY, outreach) and what strategies we might pursue. Luci Bledsoe of Johnsom Creek (WI) Library shared her thought process.

Strategies = time x staff + money ÷ students x program types - stress = balance

No, it doesn't  make sense. I was just trying to put all the components of school age programming together and this is the equivalent of doodling with a pen and paper. Can you tell I have writer's block? However, strategies for creating balance with school age programming would include: 

Staff time...for brainstorming...setting goals...organizing...assigning prep work…publicizing, etc.

Money...what will each program cost? Is there money in the budget? Is there a budget? Divide the cost of the program by the number of potential participants.  Will this be viable, worth doing again?

Theme... would we be more effective if we kept the theme but did the program at the local park...community center....Boys and Girls Club?

Passive...can we get our message across by doing passive programming? If we build it, will they come? Or should we put out all the cardboard, paper towel tubes, markers, glue, scissors, and paper, and let the kids build it?

Schools...if we contact the school in September, could we get permission to visit each classroom? Or have September as our Take a Tour of the Library Month, invite all teachers to bring their classes to the library.  Set up a tour day for home schooling families. Contact Scout leaders and 4-H leaders and extend the same invitation.  During that month, we would not have any regularly scheduled programs like preschool story hour.  What would we say to a request for a tour in February?

Partners...should I talk with the school media specialist or librarian and see if we could do some joint programming:  such as a celebration for Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

Early Literacy...contact the school principal.  Could I attend their early childhood screening or their kindergarten screening and hand out information about the library and our “1000 Books Before Kindergarten” program?

Staffing...is there more than one library staff member? Could one of us plan the passive programs? Could another be in charge of the active programs such as the LEGO club? Would this reduce stress if we all take responsibility?

Balance..will strategies like this help achieve a balance in school age programming so that we offer different types of programs and thereby reach more families? 

I think so!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

March Madness Programs!

While discussing DIY and passive/stealth programs, students shared some of the ways they hook into basketball frenzy during March!

• To coincide with the NCAA's March Madness,  both Youth Services (YS) and Adult Services (AS) are having "Sweet 16" brackets.  In YS, we have chosen 16 books to go head-to-head to play for the "March Madness of Books" title.  I made a bracket using 2" x 15" strips of construction paper and taping them to the big wall.  It is now up, sans the books - too early for them - and is 8.5' tall and 12' wide.
• I downloaded the covers of the books the YS staff chose (there's eight of us, so I had each person choose two titles).  I printed them out, trimmed them, and mounted them on 8" x 10" pieces of yellow construction paper. Patrons and staff will vote each week for the winner of each game.  After 4 weeks, we'll have our champ.
• We're doing a Junior Fiction Tournament of Books, as well.  We use the 16 most popular JFic books checked out over the past year according to our ILS and let kids vote on them over the month either at the library or online.  Ours is bracketed out on our wall with painter's tape and photocopies of the covers.  I think it'll be really interesting to find out what book wins.
• We do a March Madness book program as well. During February, kids nominate titles to compete. Then we select from nominations which ones will actually compete (and add a few of our own) and have kids vote each week. The best thing about it is how many kids will request and read titles off of the brackets. This program is very easy to run - just be prepared with read-alikes for each title.  We didn't give any prizes or collect any predictions - just votes at each stage. And kids could choose to just vote on a single contest - which they often did. The fact that there was no prize meant that we could roll with however a kid approached it. Our community can get very PRIZE FOCUSED. This was a nice change. 
• I'm doing a March Madness Teen Books tournaments. It is super easy. We started planning it in the beginning of February and started mid-February. My two month old Teen Advisory Board helped select the initial 32 titles. The tournament runs 6 weeks with 5 rounds and Round 2 starts tomorrow. Each round we narrow the field down until we have one champ. We use the lingo (Sweet 16, Elite 8...) Teen books are huge with adults too so I opened the tournament up to everyone. I'm just giving out a $25 Amazon gift card at the end of tournament.