SLP Artwork

If you haven't figured this out yet from my posts, this year our summer library program theme is all about being underground - dirt, rocks, tunnels, etc.  Every year our theme - and some corresponding artwork - is provided by the Collaborative Summer Library Program.  The overall theme is given a different tag line and a separate set of artwork for each major age group - kids, teens and adults - and the CSLP also provides program suggestions and other materials that might be useful to librarians as they plan their own summer programs.  

This year, however, I had a bit of a dilemma when it came to materials provided for the teens.  The tagline for the teens, "Beneath the Surface" was just fine.  The tagline evokes the idea that things are more complex than they first appear, which is in my mind a great way for teens to approach this topic.  But the artwork that was intended to be used for the teen program...  Well, it didn't exactly correspond with the theme.  Here's an example:

You know what I see when I look at this poster?  I see a who lot of "up" and not a lot of "beneath the surface."  There's a flying machine!  And a Pegasus!  Something at this just doesn't add up with the theme to me.

After talking these issues out with my Teen Advisory Group (who agreed that the artwork was a tad lame), we made the decision to use the tagline and artwork intended for the adult program instead.  The adult tagline this summer is "Groundbreaking Reads," which was something that all of us could get behind.  More importantly, we loved the artwork created to go with this tagline.  I'll let it speak for itself:

Yup.  Definitely made the right decision there.  

"In the Grand Scheme of Things"

Today a nanny was telling me about how the 2-year-old girl she cares for, one of our regular storytime attendees, loves Mo Willems' pigeon books (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, etc.)  She told us that the girl actually had the book Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late completely memorized!

At one point in this book, the pigeon tried to rationalize his desire to stay up a bit later by saying, "What's five more minutes in the grand scheme of things?"  The girl's nanny told me that at one point the child's mother had told the girl that she needed to wait five more minutes for something.  The girl proceeded to respond by quoting this line from the book.  Of course a 2-year-old doesn't really understand exactly what this phrase means, which makes it all the funnier for the rest of us.  So cute.

Candy Carrot Cupcakes

I'm giving full credit for these adorable little cupcakes to one of my co-workers, who has a way of always going above and beyond what we expect when it comes to the summer book clubs that she runs.

Today our youngest book club met to read and do activities that go along with Candace Fleming's marvelous book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!  After reading and discussing the book as a group, the kids played Garden BINGO, made rabbit masks, and ate these masterful cupcakes.  Too much cute!

Want to learn how to make these tasty treats?  Check out the recipe here. 

Soil Science

Last week I was responsible for another school-age summer event.  Our topic for the week was soil, so I chose to focus our activities not only on dirt, but also on all of the good things that grow in the dirt.

Our first activity was actually a cooking project.  We made dirt cake!  I shared a recipe for this tasty treat in my last post, and while this recipe is decadent it uses more dishes and has a few more preparation steps than I wanted for this program.  Fortunately, there are many different ways to make dirt cake and I was able to track down this simplified recipe.  This version has the added bonus of being served in individual cups, so everyone could easily pick out their own servings.  Everyone took turns with the steps by adding ingredients, stirring, and crushing Oreos for the group.  Everyone spooned the pudding mixture into their own cups and topped it with the crushed Oreos and gummy worms.  We then put all of the dirt cups in the refrigerator to set while we did our other activities.  Everyone got to eat their treats at the end of the program.

Next came our biggest project of the day:  Soil Testing.  Before we got to the testing itself, I took a few minutes to talk about soil pH and the nutrients nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium and why they are important for gardens.  I also explained that I had used a special soil testing kit to check to see if these minerals were found in potting soil that I had purchased at a garden store.  As a group we made predictions and everyone correctly guessed that the specially-formulated potting soil had a fairly low pH and had more than enough of the essential nutrients.

Then it was the kids' job to run the test themselves on a sample of soil from a co-worker's garden.  The kids divided themselves into four groups, and each group was responsible for testing a sample of soil from the garden for a different nutrient.  My co-worker had actually mentioned that her garden was not producing as well this year as it had in the past, so we expected to find that the garden was deficient in at least one resource.

To do this project, I purchased a simple soil testing kit.  We bought ours at Nasco a couple of months ago when we bought the supplies for my geode program, but these kits are readily available at a variety of other locations as well, including Amazon.  Each group was lead by a teen or adult volunteer, who helped keep everyone on task.  Each group was assigned a different test (one group tested the soil's pH, one tested for nitrogen, etc.) and a corresponding set of instructions on how to test the soil.  As a group we also made a chart that we used to compare the results of their tests with the results of my test on the potting soil.  (If anyone is curious, my co-worker's soil was severely lacking in nitrogen and potassium.)  The kids really loved this project, and I think it really helped that the experiment had actual real-life applications that they could readily understand.

My group of 2nd and 3rd graders took quite a bit longer than expected to complete both of these activities, but the group of 4th-6th graders had time for one last project.  We got some bean seeds started on damp paper towels.  I borrowed my plan for this activity from similar project I had seen on Pinterest (check it out here).  Each kid actually set up two bags (four seeds in each bag).  They were able to take one bag of seeds home to observe directly, and the second bag was left here at the library.  We taped these seeds up in one of our windows and have invited patrons to visit them daily to watch them grow.  It's kind of a nice bonus to have something here at the library that patrons can watch grow and change over the course of the next week or two.

All in all, this was a very successful program.  The kids had a great time, and they got very excited about all three of our projects.  I was very glad to have four good volunteer helpers to guide the kids directly while I floated between groups to help where needed.  I definitely couldn't have made this program the success it was without them!

Dig In, Read In

When I was planning this year's Teen Summer Reading Program, I soon realized that I was going to run out of money in my summer budget.  I found myself looking at the summer calendar with one more day of programming to fill and almost no money for special supplies or a presenter.  I needed a program that would grab attention, but not cost much money.  And given the intensity of a few other programs I had planned, it wouldn't hurt if the program was super easy to plan and put together.  What to do?

Desperate for inspiration, I thought back to other programs that I had seen done and other libraries.  My mind wandered to a previous job and some of the programs I had seen done there.  One program in particular seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.  I'm not ashamed to say that I borrowed this program plan (which had been originally been done with school-age kids in mind) and adapted it for my teen audience.

The idea behind this program is actually pretty simple:  Everyone comes to the program with a book.  Everyone reads silently for a set time (I settled on 45 minutes).  Afterwards, everyone is given a tasty treat as a reward for their effort.  Easy!

One component that I decided to add to this program was a show and tell.  Before we started reading, I gathered everyone in a circle and asked them to each say just a few quick words about whatever the book was they were planning to read.  This way everyone was able to hear about new titles that other teens were enjoying that they might not have otherwise have heard about.  I was actually very impressed with how well my group of teens handled this part of the program.  They did a good job of giving us succinct summaries of their books, and they got excited about talking about books with each other as we moved around the circle.  At one point we actually had a mostly thoughtful discussion about the merits and flaws of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.  This discussion added about 20 minutes to the program time - admittedly, more time than I'd anticipated thanks to the depth of the discussion and the number of teens in attendance - but it was totally worth it.  After all, it's the library's job to get teens excited about books and reading.  I'd say mission accomplished!

When I first told my supervisor about this program idea, she was skeptical.  She cautioned me that I might not see the attendance numbers I'd prefer in a low-key program like this.  In the end, however, there was no need at all to worry as I had a whopping 19 teens in attendance.  Wow!  I was confident that there would be a market for a program like this in my community, but I truthfully wasn't quite expecting to have this many teens.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm thrilled that so many people were willing to come to the library simply to hang out and read.

Everyone was also invited to bring pillows, blankets, or whatever else they wanted to get comfortable while they read.  They were also invited to sit anywhere they wanted while they read.  I was pretty impressed that so many teens were excited about curling up underneath one of the many tables that are always present in the programming room.  Who knew?

As far as the tasty treat promised as a reward for reading, I decided that given this year's underground theme I would make some dirt cake.  It was a big hit!  The dirt cake was also the only expense for the program.

I've seen a few different dirt cake recipes floating around, but this is the one I used:

2 (20 oz.) pkgs. Oreo cookies
1/2  stick butter
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
3 1/2 c. milk
2 sm. French vanilla instant pudding boxes
1 (12 oz.) Cool Whip

Cream the butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together in a bowl, and then set aside.

In another LARGE bowl, mix pudding together with the milk, add the Cool Whip to pudding mixture. (Don’t follow the directions on the pudding, just use the 3 ½ cups of milk).  Then blend in with the cream cheese mixture.

To crush the Oreos, put the packages of Oreos in a large Ziploc bag.  Then, in case of a tear in the bag, just put your Ziploc bag inside another large Ziploc bag for protection, then crush.

Then, in a large bowl, layer the cream and the Oreos.  Start with the Oreos on the bottom of the bowl, then end with Oreos to top it off.  Don't be afraid to go a bit heavy on the cream (or you'll have lots left over) and use a thin layer of Oreos (or you won't have enough).  Chill at least one hour before serving.  Top with gummy worms or other goodies as desired.