Let's Pretend: Sugar Plum Bakery and Bakery Storytime

Programming librarians rarely have free time on the clock to work on other projects, but we do our best to help each other when it's possible. I'm on a part-time schedule at the moment while recovering from spinal surgery, but I still had enough time (just barely!) to cover my coworker's program while she's on leave. I don't usually post programs that weren't my own idea from beginning to end, but this one is an exception because I used my coworker's plan as a jumping off point to execute my own semi-original program. 

The original concept was a semi-structured dramatic play program with a storytime at the beginning. I was nervous about it because my programming style is usually minimalist, plus I've been finding it difficult to move a lot of things around since surgery, and there were about a million items involved in the original plan. Supplies included several kitchen- and baking-related play sets, a sensory bin of tiny pom poms that kids could use to "measure ingredients," chef hats and aprons to dress up in, and a cash register so they could pretend to work in a bakery. Luckily, I have some AMAZING teen volunteers who set up most of the toys the night before, and a couple who showed up on the day of the program to help me out. 

Bakery Storytime

Hello: "Hello, Hello"

Warm up motor skills: "Open, Shut Them"

Story: Baby Cakes by Theo Harris

Movement Songs: "Do You Know the Muffin Man" and "Milkshake"

Since there aren't any traditional gestures that I know of for the Muffin Man song, we practiced singing and clapping on the beat. It worked out great as a baking-theme song!

Felt Story: Down Around the Corner

I like to do this story with a hand puppet because he's our friend who buys the donuts. The more you act it out with your puppet, the more involved the audience gets!

Down around the corner at the bakery shop

Were five donuts with sprinkles on top.

Along came a friend with a dollar to pay,

And he took one donut away!

(Have your puppet "eat" a donut and put it away. Ask the group to help you count the remaining donuts. Repeat the rhyme with four donuts, then three, two, and one.)

These aren't my felt donuts, but they look a lot like them!

Final Song: "Follow the Leader" by Ella Jenkins

This song is mellow and chills out a storytime audience as if by magic. I wanted to use it to gently transition from storytime to playtime, and it worked pretty well!

Sugar Plum Bakery Playtime

Gingerbread people foam craft before patrons arrived

Watching holiday music videos

Measuring pom poms

Making felt pie

Awesome teen volunteers!!

Showing off their gingerbread crafts

Checking out at the bakery

Tiny gingerbread people

Looking great in a chef's apron and hat!

Some finished gingerbread people

They're such good sports

Teen Scavenger Hunt

The end of summer means another thank you party for the teen volunteers! They do so much good work for us that the staff always throws them an after-hours party complete with food, activities, and party favors. Allow me to present, a group picture of everyone who attended the party, which was about a third of our SRP volunteer class of 2019.

This year, I was in charge of running the party along with one of the building managers. I found an app called GooseChase that makes it incredibly easy to make scavenger hunts for groups and/or students, and they even have an educator option that lets you access much of the app's features for free! GooseChase let me create my hunt easily using the desktop computer, then let me password protect it so only our teens would have access. After everyone downloaded the app and signed in to our activity, they formed two- or three-person teams and ran off. One thing I would do differently if I do another teen scavenger hunt using digital devices is to add more challenges. Tonight's had twelve, and they were all back within 15 minutes!

Dinner was pizza and fruit, and the movie was the incomparable 1996 classic Matilda, but let's get to the real important part: the scavenger hunt. In my humble opinion, the best part of having teen programs after hours is the opportunity to run around and be loud in the stacks while there are no patrons there to complain. It's silly, fun, and lets the teens unwind in a casual environment after working hard for two months.

AWE Computers: Take a picture of you and/or a friend playing at the AWE computers in the Children's Room.

Books: See how many books you can balance in top of your head. Have a teammate take a picture before they fall!

Children's Room Colors: Find the wall in the Children's Room that you think has the best color, and take a picture in front of it.

First Time: Find an area in the library that you have never used (or haven't used a lot), and take a picture there.

Friends: Take a picture with someone who is NOT on your scavenger hunting team.

Furniture: Find your favorite piece of furniture in the library, and have someone take ap cture of you using it.

Mirror: Find a mirror somewhere in the library and take a mirror selfie. The more creative, the better!

Picture Book: Find a picture book you read as a kid, and take a picture with it.

Purple: Find a purple object and take a selfie with it.

Sorter: Take a group picture of your scavenger hunting team by the front check-in area and/or sorter.

Study Rooms: Take a picture inside one of the study rooms.

Tables: Take a picture under a table!