Welcome, Fall! Leaf Art

As the deadline to plan October programs approached, I realized I wasn't doing anything seasonal except the big Halloween storytime we do yearly. In the interest of trying to make myself more excited about Fall (it's getting cold and the trees are dying...yay?) I decided to put together a fun Fall craft program.

We had three stations: crayon rubbings, torn paper trees, and painted leaf prints. I structured this program as a drop-in for an hour and a half, and over 30 people came to make leaf art with me! This was a fun, easy program that I put together with things we already had in our supply room. If you want to recreate it, here is a supply list:

Crayon Rubbings
Crayons
Paper
Leaf Rubbing Plates

Torn Paper Trees
Torn construction paper in Fall colors
Brown construction paper for trunk
White paper for background
Glue sticks
Scissors

Painted Leaf Prints
Washable paint in Fall colors
Paper
Artificial Leaves

Also, it's becoming a wonderful theme that the kids who come to my programs are more creative than I am. Some of them figured out that the Leaf Rubbing Plates also make great paint prints! Here are some of the gorgeous finished products they made.

Torn paper tree and rubbings examples and supplies

Leaf print example and supplies

Artists at work

Artists at work

Finished torn paper tree

Finished leaf prints and paintings

Finished torn paper tree

Finished crayon rubbing

Finished torn paper tree

Finished torn paper tree

Finished art drying after the program

Celebrate Self-Improvement Month

This program came to me on a whim while I was browsing the internet looking for local or national holidays to base programs on. Turns out, September is National Self-Improvement Month. Who knew? It ended up being a drop-in program with three stations: mind, body, and creativity.

Mind
This station had wooden puzzles from our Children's Room, brain teasers, Sudoku sheets, color-by-numbers, and word searches. I also made up a set of two-sided riddle cards for people to challenge themselves and their friends to answer. My goal was to have something at this station for all ages, and I think I succeeded in that.

Working on brain teasers

Mom and son trying to figure out riddles

Creativity
At this station, I set out a bunch of random art supplies and encouraged people to make whatever they felt like! A lot of the kids had fun with a non-guided art activity, and went to town with the foam stickers. There were also coloring sheets for those who didn't quite feel ready to create without boundaries.

Burgeoning artists at work

The time the foam shapes exploded

Finished art

Finished art

Body
The final station, which took up half the room, was an exercise obstacle course designed by a couple of teen volunteers. They did an amazing job using what we already had in the library to create something challenging and fun for all ages!

Teen volunteers being silly in the obstacle course

When I started planning this program I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but I'm happy with the direction it took. We had several large families attend the program, and it seemed like each family member from toddlers to adults found something to do. I noticed tweens challenging their parents with the riddle cards, and kiddos under 5 repeatedly going through the obstacle course. Overall, it was a successful program that I'd repeat next year.

I'm a Little Bit Famous Now

Just kidding, I am in no way famous. I did, however, get to be on the local news as a library representative earlier this morning.

The local organization Grand Canyon State Model Railroaders have been at our library with a giant HO Scale model train exhibit since Wednesday, and they will be here until the end of the week. The exhibit is pretty amazing. It takes up our entire program room, which has a capacity of over 300 people. All the models are handmade by members of the group, and each is based on a different town with an interesting history. The train cars themselves are one 68th to scale of a real train, meaning it would take 68 of the models to make up one life size train car. The speed they travel around the track is also to scale, which is an interesting tidbit I learned while preparing for my interview.

These are a couple pictures I got from their Facebook page. Click the link above to visit their page and see some cool videos of the trains in action!

In preparation for my interview, I worked with our marketing team to come up with some reasons we wanted to have trains at the library.

• Multi-generational programming: Trains are nostalgic for a lot of people, and interesting to people of all ages. This exhibit is something all members of the family can enjoy and discuss.
• STEM: Science, technology, engineering, and math. 
• There are quantifiable physics involved with the way trains move on the tracks.
• Evolution of the technology of trains over the decades.
• Math of figuring out accurate scale of models to life size trains.
• History: Each handmade model is based on a real historical town.
• Community engagement: Getting people into the library who wouldn't usually come, or who have never been before. 
• The library supports engagement hobbies such as making scale models as part of lifelong learning.

Of course, I didn't actually get to use any of these great talking points in my interviews. They just wanted the bare bones from me: We are excited to have the trains here, everything is free, and it's running all week until Saturday. 

The first video does not include me, but has some great information from one of the Grand Canyon Model Railroaders about the exhibit.

Here are my two big exciting interviews, that are definitely not filmed with iPhone cameras straight off the TV (Just kidding, they are):

(1 more video to come)

Later in the day, Channel 10 also came and interviewed a different member of the group.

Overall, facilitating media visits and being interviewed for the news was a really cool experience. I didn't stumble over my words nearly as much as I thought I would, even though it was 5:00 in the morning and I had had roughly an hour to memorize my talking points. I felt really excited to be representing the library, and the city, on the TV news. Sometimes I feel like a door-to-door salesman or religious zealot trying to spread the good word of the public library, but I'm so psyched every time I get to tell more people about it! I know the news spots were really more about the train exhibits than the library, but even so, a bunch of people will probably visit the library who might have never been in before. That's what library programming is all about!

In closing, here is a selfie I took with the camera guy, Brett, and the reporter, John.

Kids-Giving Day 2017

This program was the brainchild of my wonderful and talented partner in crime, the other youth services librarian at my branch, Sara. She conceived, named, and planned this whole thing. Hopefully she will have her own librarian blog soon so that I can link to her entry about Kids-Giving Day and give her all the recognition for this incredible event. Until then, here is my take as one of the staff members who helped set up and run it......

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, we thought it would be a good idea to do some sort of large charity event to teach our younger patrons how to give back to the less fortunate or struggling their community. Three organizations that Sara found out are always accepting donations were Child Crisis Arizona, the Phoenix Children's Hospital, and Operation Gratitude.

Child Crisis Arizona requested donations of new containers of baby wipes, so we announced that people could bring their donations to the library in our newsletter, and set up a small area to collect them. We collected 9 packages by the end of the day.

Operation Gratitude is always accepting donations of cards written to active duty troops and veterans, so we also set up a card making station. One of our staff members donated a large stack of blank greeting cards, which were at the station if anyone wanted to write a note in a card. We also set out art supplies for kids to make their own cards. By the end of the program, we had a box full of 114 cards, which we will send to Operation Gratitude to be dispersed to the troops. 

Finally, Phoenix Children's Hospital is collecting activity bags to be given to their patients who need extended hospital stays, and their siblings. Their guidelines were very specific, so we made exactly what they asked for: bags containing a pack of crayons and several coloring sheets. These were very easy to assemble, and the real charm of this particular donation came from the decorations on the bags. We set it up so that the bag decorating station came first; patrons were encouraged to use crayons, markers, and stickers to jazz up plain paper bags as much as they wanted. Then, a volunteer helped them stuff their bags with one pack of crayons and 3-4 coloring sheets that we printed out before the program. Kids and grownups alike had a great time writing inspirational messages and drawing colorful pictures on the bags for the PCH patients. By the end of the day, we had collected 82 bags!

Here are some patrons (photographed with permission) working on their bags.

And here is Sara and me collecting all the wonderful donations while cleaning up!

The total number of participants was counted as 109! We also got lots of positive verbal feedback from parents about the purpose of the event. Apparently our community here in Mesa wants more opportunities to give back, and teach their children about giving back as well. I think we will definitely be doing another community service-based program in the future!

Pumpkin Mosaic Art

Since it's October, I hosted a drop-in craft for all ages with the theme of pumpkins. Living in Arizona, it's sometimes hard to remember which season it is by looking outside, because it stays in the 90's well into November and then suddenly drops to the mid-50's until Spring. So, we overcompensate for our lack of weather with extra decorations.

This is the example I made of a mosaic pumpkin. This is a fun art project that you can easily tailor to any age group, which was lucky for me because I had a family with a baby and a preschooler, a set of three pre-teen siblings, and lots in between.

Making a pumpkin mosaic includes four basic steps:
1. Paint a piece of white paper your desired pumpkin color (fun to mix paints and create a custom shade). Wait for it to dry. We had Halloween and Autumn coloring sheets to work on while we waited.
2. Cut your custom painted paper into strips, then cut the strips into triangles, rectangles, and squares.
3. Fit your new shapes onto a construction paper pumpkin and glue them down.
4. Decorate with googly eyes and a Jack-o-Lantern smile!

This project is great for motor skill development because of the painting and cutting with scissors, and also helpful in developing spacial awareness by fitting the pieces together on the pumpkin.

I thought I got some pictures of our awesome final products, but I can't find them now! So instead, here is a .gif of a librarian (and/or model) wearing a dress I wish I owned in front of a photo backdrop I wish I owned, and my promise to be better at taking pictures of adorable children's art in the future.

Afternoon of Disguise

This program was so simple to execute, and so popular!

I lovingly stole this idea from the incomparable Jbrary, who (I believe) originally came up with the idea for an Afternoon of Disguise and lay out the whole program beautifully on their blog. I tweaked a few things from the way they did it, but stayed true to the main idea of the program. 

An Afternoon of Disguise is basically a fun opportunity for kids of all ages to create their own costumes and disguises. We had a mask making station, costume pieces, and a large box of scrap fabric to make your own clothes.

To get the costume pieces, I first solicited temporary donations from my coworkers through email. I asked for any dress-up clothes, old clothes or outerwear, costume jewelry, shoes, hats, scarves, or any other miscellany they might have around their houses. I made sure to let them know that they would get them back, but during the program children would be touching, trying on, and possibly manipulating them in unexpected ways, so they shouldn't loan me anything worth any money or sentimental value. One person came through with a trench coat, some scarves and hats, and a box of costume jewelry, but unfortunately the library staff was not really a wealth of dress-up clothes.

Luckily, I have a best friend with three kids and LOTS of dress up clothes. She was kind enough to let me borrow a big lox of mix-and-match costumes including a Harry Potter Hedwig one-piece costume, scarves, skirts, hats, feather boas, a Home Depot apron, and tons more great pieces.

I also funded a few pieces myself from the dollar store: a superhero cape, a couple of pirate pieces, more feather boas, a tiara, and two sets of fairy wings.

At the mask station, I set out a variety of art supplies and colored construction paper. They were free to create their own masks, or trace one of the templates I provided onto construction paper and cut it out. The most popular template was a half-face super hero style mask, for which I also provided hole punches and yarn to secure these to their face, or straws to be attached to the side so they could hold it in front of their face like a masquerade mask. There were also full face templates available. Art supplies included glitter glue, crayons, markers, adhesive jewels, feathers, and stickers, so they could decorate the masks however they liked.

One last donation from a coworker was the giant box of fabric, which ended up being the most popular thing at the program. It was pretty large pieces of fabric that couldn't be used for anything else; spandex, burlap, and other icky-feeling and hard-to-sew fabrics that had been a donation at one time. I set the contents out next to scissors, and let all participants know that while other costume pieces had to stay in the library, they could take home anything they made with the fabric. As you will see in the pictures below, people got crazy creative with the fabric! Everything from tutus to vests were made, and they got to take them home to wear again!

This was another successful Friday afternoon program, with almost 100 people dropping in during the two hour time slot. I will definitely be planning more on Friday afternoons.

Here is a small feature from our local paper Nearby News.

Enjoy these pictures below of the creative and silly costumes created today! (Permission was granted by parents to share pictures of their children online)

Mask making station

Make a Grandparents Day Card

In preparation for Grandparents Day on Sunday, September 10th, I thought it would be great to give our kids the opportunity to make a card for a grandparent or other loved one. So today being the Friday before, I set out some art supplies and encouraged everyone to make their own card!

I made some examples and displayed them at the entrance, in case any of the kids were stuck on where to begin or needed some inspiration.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get pictures of anyone's finished product besides mine, but we had some great ones.

I'm excited about the high participant count for this program for several reasons: One, it shows that Friday afternoon is a good time for all-ages children's programs, when this was previously written off as a dead time. Two, it gives kids who might not have the supplies at home an opportunity to make cards for their loved ones. Three, it gives kids who might have the supplies but not as much inclination to be creative a fun environment with ready-made ideas and a group of their peers already making things. Those who might not want to do arts and crafts at home might have figured out that the public library is just the place for it! I'm looking forward to a lot more drop-in crafts on Friday afternoons to come.

Play Book BINGO Live!

This event was the culmination of a whole summer's worth of passive programming.

For the whole summer, I printed BINGO boards that I made for children, tweens, and teens, and left them at the circulation desks so kids could pick them up and mark off what they read. There were spaces for actual books that had pictures of the covers, and there were also spaces with descriptions of books such as "A book that takes place in Arizona" or "A book with an LGBTQ+ main character." For these spaces, the kids could choose their own books as long as they applied to the description, and write them in.

When the boards were returned to the library, participants received a prize from the treasure chest if they had completed one row, and $2 to spend at our used book sale for a totally full board. Click on the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

Picture book board 1

Picture book board 2

Picture book board 3

Tween/middle grade board 1

Tween/middle grade board 2

Teen/YA board 1

Teen/YA board 2

Teen/YA board 3

Finished tween board!

Finished picture book board!

Finished picture book board!

For the BINGO Live event, I printed and laminated 20 BINGO boards with book cover art in each square (the fill-in-the-blank concept would have been too difficult to incorporate in this program, I think). I created a slide show with the cover art and brief synopses of all the books that appeared on every BINGO board from the passive program. Then I randomized the slide show so the slides would appear out of order, and projected the slides on the wall.

We played several rounds, including a couple of total blackout rounds. The winners of each round received a snack of their choice from my snack bin and a $5 gift card to our book sale.

What I liked about the passive BINGO program was that, like the Summer Reading Program itself, it encouraged children to use their summer vacations to read as much as possible. It also gave a mix of book suggestions and opportunity to choose their own.

For the active program, I was able to show more than 50 titles to a group of people who may have never heard of them. Not only that, but the group was diverse in age. We had a family with little ones drop in, a couple groups of middle- and high-schoolers with their chaperoning adults, and even several retired adults who like BINGO! I was delighted by the turn out, and will definitely repeat a Book BINGO program again.