Another Tween Club hit! I ran this program as one of my weekly events for grades 5 – 8 and they loved it. It’s easy enough that anyone can create a cool looking piece of art in under an hour – even with no painting experience. The goals of this program were: attendees will build… Read More Stencil Art – Program Outline
If I had the time, I would LOVE to start a whole new blog devoted only to serving tweens in the library. Instead I will work towards presenting at a conference on the topic (!!!), and in the meantime I will continue writing about it here. Tween Club, for grades 5 – 8, is all… Read More Tween Club: Zombie Barbies
I have been on a roll lately with YA Lit! Since I order all the books for the children’s and teen sections, I’m always looking forward to the next great thing, and this month I found a bunch. Check these out if you love YA, and be ready to talk about them if you work… Read More What I Loved #19 New YA edition: Caraval, The Thousandth Floor, Queens of Geek, The One Memory of Flora Banks, Holding Up the Universe
Class visits are an amazing opportunity for the library to set the tone for kids’ experience with us. I view my outreach trips as an extremely valuable chance to give high energy interactive presentations about why the library is so awesome! Generally my presentations happen in the school library to up to 3 grades, approximately… Read More Interactive School Outreach: aka Class Visit Magic
Stop Motion Factory is a great way to introduce kids to the concept of animation! I ran this as a 4 week series for about 15 kids during the summer, and it was a ton of fun. Icebreaker Activity – Monster Factory On the first session, I had an ice breaker to help them get… Read More Stop Motion Factory in the Library
I guess you could say, this blog is kind of obsessed with Bad Art Night. Only kind of. Last year I planned TWO Bad Art Night programs: one for teens and tweens at one library, and one for 20 and 30somethings at my other library. And right before both Bad Art Night programs happened, I… Read More Bad Art Night 2.0
We do a big, all ages, pop-culture themed party once every 2 months, and March Break seemed like the perfect time to try a Superhero Party! This station based party was even zanier than the previous ones. Over 100 people trekked through a blizzard – most of them in little superhero costumes! Here’s how we… Read More Superhero Party in the Library – Program Outline
Superheroes and supervillians are having a moment in the world of kids pop culture…and I couldn’t be happier! I modelled this scavenger hunt after the popular Pokemon Hunt that we ran in the summer. Kids can pick up the hunt sheet from the desk with the silhouettes and “secret identity” of each hero. They follow… Read More Superhero Scavenger Hunt in the Library
In my mind, makerspace has two sides: the tangible creation and the design work. Tangible creations draw from DIY/mechanical skills, and design work draws from digital skills. Most makerspace activities are a combination of both: in 3D printing you use digital skills to design a 3D model. Then you use mechanical skills to load the… Read More How to Run a Robot Club in your Library
Sarcasm, pizza, candy, and cutting toys apart to glue them back together…is there any better was for teens to celebrate Anti-Valentines Day? This was a super fun and unique event for our teens – I had 14 participants. Almost all high school aged, and an even mix of boys and girls. FrankenToy This was easily… Read More Anti Valentines Day Frankentoy Program
Ontarian Librarian 