Maker Mondays - Cupcake Wars

This year I have started a series of programs for teens and tweens (grades 5+) affectionately dubbed, "Maker Mondays."  Once each month (yes, on a Monday) participants gather to do some sort of hands-on project.   Sometimes we might do craft projects, sometimes we might do something more science based.  No matter what the project may be, each month's activity is very hands-on and often requires some creativity.  I'm also trying hard to make sure that there's a component where the participants are working together and collaborating/sharing as they work.

Our first Maker Mondays program was Cupcake Wars.  This is a program that I've had on my radar for some time, and it seemed to fit in nicely with the theme.  I set out a ton of frostings and toppings, and gave each participant three cupcakes.  The teens were given three challenges for decorating their cupcakes:

1)  One cupcake could be decorated any way desired.  Anything goes!
2)  One cupcake had to be decorated to represent a book.  Any book was fine!  A book display was on hand to provide inspiration.
3)  One cupcake had to use at least one of the ingredients from the "unusual toppings" table.

I decided not to do any actual voting or judging to declare a winner, though I did ask all participants to take turns showing their cupcakes to the group and talking about their inspirations and what ingredients they chose to use.  At the end the kids were allowed to eat their cupcakes and/or take them home.
 

Food-based programs are always hugely popular, and this one was no exception with 16 total participants.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, and it didn't even take too much cajoling to get the teens to share their creations. 

It's a good thing that food-based programs are so popular, because they unfortunately are always a tad expensive.  Let's face it, junk food and candy aren't cheap! 

To save a bit on money, I bought boxed cake mix and made my own cupcakes to use in this program.  This saved us a ton of money compared to the cost of purchasing cupcakes from a bakery, but required a bit more time and effort on my end.  I also suggest that other librarians looking to do this program double check their library's rules regarding serving food before making their own cupcakes to be sure that your policies allow for this.

I purchased several different types of canned frosting for the teens/tweens to use.  I also provided a few containers of easy-squeeze decorating icing.

Toppings for the cupcakes were easily the largest expense.  To put this program together, I suggest first raiding your own cupboards at home to see if there is anything that you can spare a small amount of.  There were tons of leftovers since we really only needed a very small amount of each topping, but we did want to have a wide variety of toppings to choose from.  Many of the leftovers were saved to be used as snacks for upcoming programs.

Some of the toppings that I made available included:

• Oreo Cookies
• Chocolate Chips
• Butterscotch Chips
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Sweedish Fish
• M&Ms
• Pixie Stix
• Snickers Bars
• Reece's Peanut Butter Cups
• Pretzels
• Graham Crackers
• Marshmallows
• Peanuts
• Trail Mix

I also had a table full of "unusual toppings" that you might not normally think to include on a cupcake.  The teens were allowed to use toppings from this table at any time, but were required to use at least one of these for one of their cupcakes:

• Flavor-Blasted Goldfish
• Chex Mix
• Corn Chips
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes
• Crispy Pepper Chips
• Beef Jerkey
• Olives
• Jalapenos
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese

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. 

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.

Cookie Storytime

This week our preschool storytime was all about every kid's favorite snack: Cookies! This was an action-packed storytime filled with activities to make this theme extra special.

We read:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
A classic book! The story covers a circle of cause and effect, beginning and ending with a cookie.

Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington
A baker goes into his shop, makes and decorates cookies, and then sells them to happy children. I used this book as a way of talking about the cookie baking process.

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
Two children have twelve cookies to share between the two of them. But then the doorbell rings and two more friends arrive and the cookies must be shared. Then it rings again and again, and soon there are barely enough cookies to go around.

During storytime we went on a cookie hunt. To prepare for this activity, I printed, cut out, and laminated a few dozen pictures of gingerbread men. After storytime began an aid hid them in the children's area, hiding enough so that each child could find 2-5 (depending on group size). They could be found sticking out of picture books or sitting on tables so they were fairly easy to find. When it was time I briefly told the story of the gingerbread man up to the part where he runs away. I then sent the kids into the library to see if they could find all of the runaway gingerbread men. The kids then returned to the storytime area with their cookies, stuck them on my felt board, and we all sat down and counted the cookies.

We also did another action rhyme all about baking cookies:

Gingerbread

Stir a bowl of gingerbread,
Smooth and spicy brown.
(stir)
Roll it with a rolling pin,
Up and up and down.
(roll out dough)
With a cookie cutter,
Make some little men,
(cut out cookies)
Put them in the oven,
Until half past ten.
(put in oven)

To cap off this special storytime, each child was given a cookie to decorate with frosting and sprinkles (with a grown-up's help, of course). The kids were welcome to eat their treat in the storytime room, or they could get a plastic bag to take their cookie home in.


This is an activity that I can get away with only because I have fairly small storytimes - I imagine that this activity would get a bit more complicated and expensive with large groups.