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
While planning summer programs, I became super excited about the idea of throwing an over-the-top adorable Teddy Bear Picnic. We have a beautiful big park and pond behind the library. I pictured doily bunting on stakes, hanging around plaid picnic blankets. “Toss the cupcake” lawn game. Cookies on faux china plates, and lemonade in tea… Read More An Indoor Teddy Bear Picnic
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
Creative writing in libraries is a no-brainer. I will always have a special fondness for creative writing programs: when I was a kid I would spend hours filling notebooks with my “novels,” and was encouraged to continue after winning a children’s creative writing contest put on by my local library. Now I have the opportunity… Read More Creative Writing for Tweens: 9 weeks of program outlines
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
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
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
I have really come to love the Station model for tween and teen programs. Teens need the flexibility and autonomy when it comes to activity choices. Some teens will appreciate the option to drift from group to group when they start to feel uncomfortable. This was the first in a new Teen Night series I’m running… Read More How to Run a Station Based “Minute To Win It” Teen Night at the Library
Ontarian Librarian 