"Campfire Stories" Program

A couple of weeks ago I got to do another one of our school-age Stargazers & Dreamers programs, this time dealing with the topic of camping. Just as described in my post about the nocturnal animals program, we did this program twice, once for kids in grades 2-3, and again for kids entering grades 4-6. This week our theme was "Campfire Stories," and we did lots of activities related to camping.

The first thing that we did was talk about different ways that we could figure out which way is North if we were outside. Of course we could use a compass, but we also talked about how to find Polaris (the North Star) in the night sky, how the sun moves from East to West as the day continues, and how moss usually grows on the North side of a tree. We then did our first science project of the day, in which we made our own compass using a sewing needle, a bowl of water, a small scrap of paper, and a magnet:


All you need to do is fill a bowl with water. Then float a small piece of paper in the water in the middle of the bowl. The next step is to magnetize your needle. Just about any magnet should do - I used a particularly strong refrigerator magnet. Drag your needle across the magnet, always moving in the same direction on the same pole of the magnet. Do this 10-20 times, though more is just fine too. Carefully place your needle on top of the floating piece of paper. The needle should turn to point North! To do this activity I broke the kids into groups. One person from each group filled the bowl with water, another floated the paper in the water, and everyone had a chance to magnetize the needle.

After making our compasses we prepared to "spend the night in the woods" by building shelters to protect us from the wind, rain, and cold. I set out some supplies including sticks, blankets, die-cut leaves, and boxes (you could in theory use just about any scrap materials you have lying around if you do this activity indoors like we did) and asked each group to use the materials to build a shelter where they could in theory sleep. This was a great exercise for fostering team-building skills as it forced the kids to work cooperatively as a group. I did find it helpful, especially with the younger group, to have one grown-up staff person or volunteer helping each group to help them brainstorm and organize their ideas.


Next on the agenda was a craft project where we made something that would be useful while camping: Sit-upons! This craft is a common Girl Scout project, but is really useful for kids and adults of all kinds. The idea is to make a cushion to sit on while camping to protect your bottom from the dirt and moisture on the ground. To make the sit-upons I first purchased several vinyl tablecloths (two of the three patterns I purchased are pictured below) and cut them into 15x25" rectangles. I folded each rectangle in half and punched holes around the outside edges ahead of time. Then I gave each kid a section of tablecloth, a small stack of newspapers, and a long piece of yarn. The kids would then stuff their tablecloth with the newspaper and use the yarn to lace it shut. Most of the kids had an easy time with the lacing but I found, especially with the younger group, that this was also a really good opportunity to teach kids how to tie a good, strong double knot.


After completing the sit-upons we made a quick snack for the kids to take home. And what better camping snack is there than s'mores! Obviously we couldn't build a fire and roast marshmallows inside the library, but we made s'mores trail mix by combining Golden Grahams cereal, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. I found that using a Dixie Cup as a scoop worked very well for serving individual portions. I gave each kid slighly less than a full scoop of cereal, slighly less than half a scoop of chocolate chips and half a scoop of marshmallows in a plastic baggie and asked them to shake the bag to mix up the ingredients.

Create a Constalation

Last week at our Activity Table we had the coolest project for the kids to do. I can't take credit for the idea - that credit goes to one of my co-workers - but the idea worked out so well that I have to share it.

We decided to have the kids create constellations using black construction paper, foil star stickers, and metallic crayons. We copied diagrams of a few constellations (Orion, Hercules, Cassiopeia, and Cygnus) from a book to help them learn a bit about our night sky. Kids could then use the star stickers to copy one of these constellations onto the black paper. The metallic crayons could then be used to connect the stars and draw out the full image that the stars created.


We asked the kids to try to copy constellations that they would really find up in the sky, but several kids got creative and designed their own constellations. We hung pictures of ladybugs, ice cream cones, dragons, cars, and more!


I loved this project for a lot of reasons, but one of my favorite parts of the project was being able to use these metallic crayons. Have you seen these before? We ordered several boxes of Crayola Metallic FX Crayons out of an art supply catalog and they are super fun to color with. The metallic finish really helps you to imagine that these created constellations are shining up in the night sky. The black paper really shows off the crayons' sheen, and it was very nice to actually be able use our black construction paper for a project!

Just as with the dream drawings activity that I posted about a few weeks ago, kids who completed this activity and showed their picture to the librarian at the desk earned an extra raffle ticket for the big prize drawings. Many kids wanted to take their completed constellations home, but we kept about half of the finished projects to hang in the library.

Voice Mail

Monday mornings at the library during the summer are usually a little hectic. Registration for that week's programs begins at this time, so there's usually a rush of phone calls and people at the desk trying to sign up for these events. Admittedly, sometimes we can't answer the phone during this busy time so many patrons will leave us a message with the name, phone number, and the program that they want to register for.

This morning I listened to these voice mails and heard a message from a girl, entering 6th grade, who wanted to sign up for our school-age Stargazers & Dreamers program. Mom or Dad clearly wanted this girl to get some practice doing this sort of thing herself and had her make the phone call and leave the message. Here's what the message said:

"Umm, hello, my name is XXX and I wanted to sign up for this week's, um, Stargazers & Dreamers program on Thursday...Oh, this would be so much better if I could talk to a real person!"

At this point the girl hung up, clearly anxious about leaving a voice mail. Too bad, because she was actually doing a pretty good job!

Even though the girl didn't leave a phone number or any of the other information we needed to get her registered for the program, I did recognize the girl's name and was able to look up her phone number in our summer records. I called her back and we got her program registration all straighed out. But that voice mail sure did make me laugh!

Summer Detox

Summer can be a stressful time for children's librarians thanks to the chaos that is the Summer Library Program. I've been so busy this summer that I haven't had much time or energy to devote to sharing my library adventures in this blog. Oops! Don't worry, I have several blog posts planned and I'll have them published as soon as I have the time to put them together.

In the meantime, here are some of the things that this librarian has been doing to keep calm this summer when things get crazy in the children's area:

Chocolate. It is amazing what one mini Recess' Peanut Butter Cup can do to your energy level when you're dragging at 2:00 pm. Chocolate has also been shown to help our body fight stress by reducing the levels of stress-causing hormones in our system.

Ice Cream. Often times I spend a good chunk of my workday talking as I explain the reading program, register kids for special programs, and give kids their prizes. By the end of a busy day my throat is raw and dry, and nothing soothes the throat quite like a cold scoop of ice cream.

Exercise. After a day at the library I like to go for a run or a walk if I can. The fresh air can be refreshing after being inside all day, and the exercise helps your body produce stress-relieving endorphins. Exercise is also important since it helps to burn the calories from the previously-mentioned comfort food.

To-Do Lists. With so much going on at the library, it is very helpful to make myself a to-do list so that I can make sure that everything that needs to be done is actually getting done. It's also very satisfying to cross completed tasks off the list. The sense of accomplishment is important for maintaining the motivation to keep going when the list of things to do seems never-ending.

Hang Out with Grown-Ups. I absolutely love working with children and teens, but at the end of my work day it's nice to go out and have a conversation with an adult. Some sort of activity - going out to dinner, watching a baseball game, etc. - can also provide a much needed mental break and relieves stress much better than vegging on the couch.

Remember. It is very important when things get crazy at the library to pause for a moment and remember why we do what we do during the summer. We're trying to promote literacy for kids during the summer when they aren't in school. We're doing a good thing for these kids, and we want them to come to the library. And not only do we get to promote literacy by encouraging reading, but we also get to have fun doing art projects, hosting cool performers, and playing video games with our patrons. I have the best job ever, so in the end all of the crazy is worth it!

Nocturnal Animals Program

One of my new library's regular summer programs is a hands-on, educational event for school-age kids. The name of this program changes every year depending on the summer theme, and this year we are calling the program Stargazers & Dreamers. Each week we choose a different topic relating to the summer theme and we spend 75 minutes doing art projects, science projects, and other fun activities that help us learn about the subject.

We offer the program twice each week: Once for kids entering grades 2-3, and again for kids entering grades 4-6. The topic and contents for both versions of the program are more or less the same, but we may adjust activities to make them more age-appropriate for each age group. We also require advance registration and generally limit the program to 20 kids - more than that and the group gets to be a bit too large and unmanageable as we cannot provide enough individual attention during these focused activities. The program lasts a total of 75 minutes.

Last week was my first opportunity to lead the program. Our topic for the week was nocturnal animals. We started out with a discussion about the owl and how this animal is specially equipped to hunt at night with it's sharp hearing, keen eyesight, and sharp claws. This then lead into a talk about what kinds of animals owls like to eat, as well as a talk about owl digestion.

Did you know that owls swallow their prey whole? They then digest the fleshy bits and spit up everything that they cannot digest - fur, bones, etc. - in a matted ball that we refer to as a pellet. Our first hands-on activity was to actually dissect one of these pellets and find the bones of whatever creature the barn owl in question might have eaten. I assigned each kid a partner to work with and before we even touched a pellet I asked them to guess how many bones they would find inside their pellet. I had them write out their answers and then post them on the wall so we could remember our guesses later. The picture below shows the guesses made by the 4th-6th graders. The younger group's guesses were much, much lower.


Then I passed out pellets and the groups got straight to work. Some might be interested to know that we purchased the pellets for this program from Copernicus Toys. The pellets came from barn owls and were sterilized to remove the threat of any bacteria. Even with this precaution most of the kids - even those few who had done this activity elsewhere before - were a little grossed out by the pellets. But the feeling passed and most got over the ick factor after a few minutes. We provided toothpicks and tweezers to help the kids pull the matted fur from the bones and I found a chart online that we used to identify what exactly each bone was, though not what kind of animal it came from.



Next we moved on to a very simple craft project: Clothespin Bats. We purchased an Ellison Die which was used to cut out the wing and body shapes. The kids then glued the pieces to a clothespin. Voila! After the craft we moved tables and chairs to clear an open space in the middle of the room to prepare for our final activities.











The activity described next was done with the older group only. The older kids had an easier time getting focused during the owl pellet dissection so they finished more quickly and had time for an activity that we couldn't do with the younger kids. We spent a little bit of time talking about bats and how they are adapted to hunt and otherwise function at night. Naturally, we talked about echolocation. Using this technique, bats send out an ultrasonic signal. They wait for the sound to hit and object and bounce back. The bat can then interpret this echo to identify what the object is and how far away it is.

To demonstrate this unique ability, we played a game that I have dubbed Bats and Moths. The rules of the game are similar to Marco Polo. One child was assigned to be the bat and was blindfolded. Four or five other kids got to be moths and were given shaker eggs with which they could make noise. All of the other kids got to be trees in the forest, forming a ring around the play space. The bat was allowed to clap his/her hands, which represents the bat's ability to send out an ultrasonic signal. In response, the moths had to shake their shakers. The bat's goal is to use this noise to find and "catch" (ie, tag) at least one of the moths. Should a bat wander too close to the edge of the play space, the nearby trees needed to say "tree" (a signal different from the one sent by the moths) to help the bat maneuver in its environment. I also insisted that this be a walking game for safety's sake since we weren't in a huge room. We played several rounds of this game so that each kid had a chance to be either a bat or a moth, and they would have been happy to continue playing for much longer if I had let them!


To conclude the program, we recapped some of the information we had learned and also learned a bit about some other nocturnal animals with a trivia game. The format of the game was identical to the one used in my Titanic program a few months ago. Just like before, I divided the kids up into teams and gave each team colored cards with the answers to all of the questions I might ask. When I asked a question, each team had to search for the correct answer and send it along with a runner across the room to sit in a chair. Each chair was assigned a different number of points. If a team answered correctly they gained the points assigned to that chair. If they answered incorrectly, however, they lost that many points. The great thing about this game is its flexibility. It doesn't require players to have any previous knowledge about the subject at hand, it can be cut short quickly if we run out of time, and we could also use many of the questions as springboards to even more discussion about nocturnal animals.

This was a jam-packed program, but the kids all seemed to have a lot of fun. And I got to learn quite a bit about nocturnal animals myself in the process! Did you know that owls can't roll their eyes in their sockets? That's why their necks are adapted to spin almost all the way around. And did you know that bats have a skeletal structure nearly identical to that of humans? The bones in their wings are actually just like humans' finger bones. It's fun when you can share fun facts like this with a group of kids eager to get their hands dirty.

Tell Me About Your Picture

When I was a kid, I was really into the Baby-Sitters Club books. I read them obsessively. Maybe my reading horizons weren't exactly broad as a child, but I've recently been able to apply a valuable lesson in childcare learned from these books to my work at the library.

Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and company were always very careful in their phrasing when taking care of their baby-sitting charges. When a kid drew a picture that, to the baby-sitter, just looked like a bunch of scribbles they would always ask the child to "tell me about your picture" rather than asking what the picture was. Author Ann M. Martin explained that asking a child what their picture is could be potentially offensive. After all, it's probably obvious to the artist what he/she has drawn, so why can't everyone else see it? "Tell me about your picture" can be a gentler, more productive way of talking about artwork that doesn't imply that the artist isn't good at drawing, and in my mind it is also a better frame for opening an extended dialogue about the picture's subject.

How does this relate to what I do at the library? During the summer months we have an activity table with different small projects available for kids to try. This week we are asking kids to draw a picture showing a dream that they have had. When the child brings their artwork to the children's desk and shows it to us, they earn an extra raffle ticket that they can use to enter our big end-of-summer drawing for prizes. This week I've looked at about 200 drawings - many of which are easily interpreted, but many more of which make a lot more sense with a little explanation. Needless to say, I've been putting Ann M. Martin's advice to good use this week!


The interesting thing that I have noticed is that it's even beneficial to use use the phrase "tell me about your picture" with older children who draw very well. This week I have often found that the story behind the finished picture is actually a lot more complicated than the image implies. It's great to hear kids of all ages talking about their inspiration and to hear the details of their sleeping and waking dreams.

So thank you, Ann M. Martin, for your sound advice. It's amazing what little details from books will stick with you!

Ninja Training

My first teen event of the summer took place a few days ago, it was a success! The teens were invited to sign up for Ninja Training, where they would do a series of physical challenges designed to test their endurance, accuracy, balance, agility, and speed. Several of the activities (though not all of them) were taken from a similar program idea posted by the California Library Association. The rest of the activities were of my own design.

I asked teens to sign up ahead of time (that's kind of our policy for summer events), but I was willing to be flexible regarding sign-up with this program. I ended up with twelve teens in attendance, which actually turned out to be the perfect number. I divided the teens into four teams of three. Everyone would receive points for completing the physical challenges and the team with the most points at the end of the program went home with a small prize.

As the teens arrived, I directed them to a table where they could make name tags. I had also found a chart online with a chart for creating your "ninja name" and asked that the teens give that a try (do a Google Image search for "ninja name" to find the chart that I based mine off of - I just basically reformatted it and added some instructions to the top).


Next I gave the teens about 15 minutes to try their hand at making origami ninja stars. I had printed off some written instructions and walked around to help as needed. Click here to see my favorite set of instructions for making the paper shuriken. Be warned that it doesn't print out well - the pictures take up a ton of space, and the website formatting adds several pages of sidebar to the beginning that aren't necessary. But the number of pictures makes it easy for a beginner to follow the instructions.


After folding the ninja stars, I challenged the teens to test their accuracy. I gave them each five paper ninja stars (I pre-folded several so I would not have to rely exclusively on the ones the teens made) and had them stand ten feet away from a box placed on a table. Each teen would receive one point for each shuriken what made it in the box. I set up two tables and two boxes, so I could have two teens competing at once. If I could do this again, I'd have them stand a bit closer to the target so that they would have an easier time with this activity - it's really hard to be accurate when throwing paper objects.

Next on the agenda was a test of endurance - hula hooping. The teens earned more points the longer they were able to keep the hoop up and moving - five points if they lasted 15 seconds, 10 points if they lasted 30 seconds, and 15 points if they lasted a whole minute. I had four hula hoops, so one person from each team was able to try it at once.

After hula hooping we tested our balance by walking with books on our heads. Just as with the shuriken, I had two teens trying this activity at once. I used masking tape to create start and finish lines spanning the short length of the room (roughly 25 feet). Teens earned 10 points if they were able to make it all the way across the finish line, and a bonus five points if they could turn around and come back.

To finish off the program we constructed an obstacle course. This was the part of the program everyone had been waiting for! To complete the course the teens had to hop through the hula hoops...


...crawl under two tables...


...climb over two step stools...


...and finally walk across a balance beam made of 2x4s.


This was a fairly short course, but in the room we were in we didn't have space for anything bigger. I timed each teen as they ran through the course and gave them points based on their speed - 25 points for finishing in less than 15 seconds, 20 points for finishing in 15-30 seconds, etc. The teens generally finished faster than I expected, and if I could do this program again I think I'd give points in 10-second intervals instead of 15-second intervals. They had lots of fun running the course, and this proved to be the most popular part of the program.

Overall I'd consider this program a great success. The teens seemed to have fun with the challenges and it sparked a little friendly competition. All told the program took about an hour.

Variations of this program that I considered but did not (for various reasons) implement:

1) Do it outside! Take advantage of nice weather. The extra space also allows for a longer obstacle course, and if supplies are available two courses could be set up and run competitively. Makes doing the origami rather difficult though on account of the wind.
2) Get a local martial arts teacher to do a demonstration. This eats up time that could be spent doing physical challenges, but I think it would be an appealing presentation.
3) Talk a bit about the role of the ninja in Japanese culture/history. Show off some weapons. Would take a bit to research to get this information right, but could be cool. It's possible that a martial artist/instructor might be able to do something with this as well.

I might use this program idea again in the future. There was also a bit of interest in the program from younger kids as well, and I think it would be easy to addapt some of these activities for kids.

Perfection

Said by a father, who was apparently impressed that I knew exactly where to find the book his daughter was seeking (So Totally Emily Ebers by Lisa Yang) without even needing to look it up in the catalog:

"You're perfect!"

I don't know that I can really call myself perfect, but I'll certainly take the compliment!

Sneak Peak - Summer Programs

The Summer Library Program is here! This year the theme for the kids' reading program is "Dream Big: Read" while the teens have the theme of "Own the Night". Both themes focus our efforts on nighttime, nocturnal animals, outer space, dreams, and other evening activities.


Things have been a touch chaotic here in my corner of library land thanks to retirements, new hires, and general crazy as we prep for our busiest time of year, and to be honest no one around here is feeling as prepared as we could be for summer reading. But despite the insanity I'm so excited about the special events we have planned for this summer! I'll have lots of fun programs to blog about in the coming weeks. Be prepared for posts regarding ninjas, bat pellets, making sit-upons, and more!

How to Survive Anything - Gender Inequality

Last week I cataloged two items for the children's graphic novel collection. These two books made me very angry:

They seem innocent enough when you first glance at them. They are yet another installment in the "survival guide" genre, telling kids how to deal with various circumstances. These titles stand out with their graphic novel approach to the genre.

A closer look, however, shows that apparently boys and girls need to be prepared to survive very different circumstances. The boys' book give useful advice on how to handle shark attacks, how to navigate using the stars, and how to escape from quicksand. The girls' book, on the other hand, deals with more social elements: How to throw a great sleepover, how to handle a fight with your BFF, and how to get ready for soccer try-outs.

Seriously? According to these books, all boys are outdoorsmen in exotic lands, while girls have nothing at all to worry about except for parents, zits, and friends. This is so insulting to members of both genders. Boys need a guide to social situations just as much as girls do since I'm pretty sure that boys need to interact with their peers too. And there is absolutely no reason why a girl won't need advice on how to prevent a polar bear from attacking you. Pretty sure that the polar bear doesn't care what your gender is.

There is a single survival tip that can be found in both the boys' and girls' volumes: How to Survive a Zombie Attack. Clearly Scholastic's editors know what's really important. But even this piece of advice is presented on unequal footing. The girls' book encourages girls to use their brains and suggests evasion tactics. The boys' book includes some instruction on evasion, but also suggests creating a shelter and bonking zombies on the head with a baseball bat as a way of stopping them. So while girls get to run away, boys get to kick some zombie butt.

What's especially irritating is that on the cover of the girls' book we see a girl harnessed up on a zip line, seemingly ready for adventure. But there is no adventure advice to be found in this graphic novel. Of course, the fact that the girl is also holding her cell phone should probably have been a hint.

Overall Grade: D