My favourite program ideas come directly from kids. After completing a class trip to the library where they learned about 3D printing and completed a zombie themed escape room, a girl came up to me. She said “next time you should do a 3D printer themed escape room.” After thinking about it for approximately 0.5… Read More 3D Printer Escape Room at the Library
Tiny pancakes, tiny pizza, tiny cheesecakes, tiny icecream sundaes, tiny juice, tiny spaghetti and TWEENS?! How can you go wrong? Tiny Food has been a huge trend for about a year according to youtubers and instagram. I loved Teen Services Underground’s post about a Tiny Food Party, and I decided to give it a try… Read More Tiny Food Party for Tweens: Program Outline
UPDATE: School Library Journal asked me to create an instructional craft video, so you can now find video instructions here: Slime + glitter + ombre + mason jars? Let’s just add all the trendiest things together and see what happens! The slime trend is still as strong as ever at my library, but I imagine… Read More Homemade Layered Slime Jars with Ombre Effect
I am always experimenting with new workshops at the library. I love learning a now DIY project and passing it on to the kids and teen in my community – and they love it too! Lip Balm workshops are easy and effective. The coolest part is the customization, so make sure you have lots of… Read More DIY Lip Balm: Program Outline
At this point, every kid has made slime. They probably have a ton of basic slime at home. If you’re going to throw a slime party for the masses, you need to make it special! Impress kids and shatter their expectations of the library by researching the trendiest slime, and making it happen. One easy… Read More How To Throw a Slime Party at the Library (and why you should!)
Ever had one of those programs where you get twice as many attendees as you were expecting and have to scramble to make it work? Yeah, they’re my favourite kind. It takes a lot of adrenaline and quick thinking to make it work, but hey! Look at that crowd of excited library users. Pizza Mania… Read More Tween Club: Pizza Mania! Pizza jewelry, Pizza Tasting, and Dessert Pizza
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
Let me tell you about my new favourite thing: Tween Club. I’ve been running a free weekly program for grades 5 – 8 for five weeks now. Some weeks it’s all glitter and paint and giggles. Some weeks it’s intense, ridiculous challenges. And other weeks it’s the Taste Test Challenge. I will post later about… Read More Tween Club: Taste Test Challenge
This program wins the award for most delightful smelling program I’ve ever done! But more importantly, it was a fun and valuable experience for 25 teens and tweens. I decided to open the workshop up to an extra 5 attendees at the last minute because there were so many kids who wanted to come! We… Read More Bath Bomb and Sugar Scrub Workshop – Program Outline
Ontarian Librarian 