When COVID-19 hit, librarians around the world started offering virtual storytimes: some prerecorded, and some live. Many of us who opted for prerecorded have now shifted to live virtual storytimes, due to having less time to edit, changes in publisher copyright allowances, or because our website now has a full roster of storytime videos and… Read More How to Make Your Live Virtual Storytimes Sparkle
Does Dog Man’s popularity have no end? Are there even kids out there who have yet to become fans?! That’s what it feels like everyday at the library when we can’t keep the books on the shelves, and kids are bubbling away talking about their favourite characters, and the best flip-animation pages. Naturally, I decided… Read More Dog Man Library Program Outline
I have run tons of trivia events for tweens and teens: Star Wars, Pokemon, Stranger Things, NHL, Harry Potter, Superheros, and now: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ideally, I run trivia events shortly before or after a major movie release. That’s pretty much all the time when it comes to Marvel movies (and every December when… Read More Marvel Trivia for Tweens and Teens
Painting + Emojis + Galaxy?! It’s a kid’s dream come true! It’s my dream come true! I think most libraries could run this program once a month and it would fill up every time with new kids. It is incredibly appealing, plus it’s a skill-based challenge that both parents and kids love. I run this… Read More Emoji Paint Workshop
I heard through the grapevine that my neighbours to the south are celebrating A Universe of Stories as their Summer Reading theme this year! Canadians are celebrating Our Natural World. I know some people might not consider galaxies as part of our natural world, but I sure do. I imagine hundreds of American Librarians (hey,… Read More Galaxy Jars with Mini-Lesson on Nebulae
Hack That Painting is the slightly more refined cousin of Bad Art Night. Kids are given pre-painted canvases, and get to add whatever they’d like to the image. Do they imagine a dinosaur stomping down the mountain? A monkey climbing in the tree? Or a kraken-demogorgon hybrid erupting out of the water and eating a shark?!… Read More Hack That Painting – Program Outline
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
Cool craft alert! Out of all the many many summer programs I’m running this year, the Galaxy Jars registration filled the fastest by far. I personally love the craft – it’s imaginative, beautiful, fun, and just the right amount of messy. When I brought my galaxy jar examples during my class visit blitz, they… Read More Galaxy Jar Workshop in the Library – Program Outline
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
When you start with chocolate and add kids, timers, blindfolds, spoons, and straws…you get a special kind of wild magic. I’ve heard of other libraries doing chocolate challenges with teens, and I decided to make it my own with a Chocolate Olympics Summer Reading Kick Off Party for all ages. I had 7 stations (most run by… Read More Chocolate Olympics in the Library
Ontarian Librarian 