No Snow, Snow Day

It's December, which can be a tricky time for those of us working in public service. You don't want to ignore Christmas, but at the same time want to be inclusive of all the other cultural holidays that take place around this time of year. Usually, I solve this problem by sticking with a theme of "winter" instead of focusing on any one holiday. The No Snow, Snow Day program was something we did last December with fantastic participant numbers, so we decided to have it again this year.

This program was structured as drop-in stations, something I've learned our community prefers to an instructional program where you have to stay the whole time. We had three stations: sensory snow, shape penguins, and coffee filter snowflakes.

Sensory Snow
Supplies: baking soda, white shaving cream, large bin.
Mixing equal-ish parts baking soda and shaving cream creates a chemical reaction that makes the substance cold like snow! I did learn that if we do this program again next year, we'll need A LOT more baking soda since it sort of dissolves when hit with the shaving cream. The kids loved playing with the "snow," but I would have liked for the bin to be more full.

The mess afterward... But it vacuums up easily and smells great!

Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Supplies: white coffee filters, safety scissors
Surprisingly, this was the most difficult project for the kids to grasp. I found myself sticking close to the snowflake table in order to explain how to fold and cut the filters so that when you unfold them, you have your own originally designed snowflake. After they got the hang of it, our 4-6-year-olds especially seemed to enjoy this activity.

Being silly with snowflakes

Shape Penguins
Supplies: black and white paper cut into shapes, orange triangles, glue sticks, googly eyes (we used self-adhesive ones and they worked great)
I like this activity because all ages of kids can tailor it to their personal skills. The younger ones can work on matching rectangles with rectangles or circles with circles, while the older ones can combine the shapes to make a more advanced penguin. It's also nice because if you don't have much time to prep, you can let the kids cut out their own shapes. If you have more time to prepare for the program you can do what I did and cut out the shapes ahead of time so participants can focus on matching shapes and creatin

The four examples: rectangle, square, circle, and oval.

Storytime regular with her circle penguin!

Penguin and snowflake

Advanced penguins--they even added a background!

Working hard on shape penguins

If there's one thing I've learned while working with this community, it's that drop-in themed programs like this are always a slam dunk. We had over 80 people at this program, and everyone found something they liked. I love watching caregivers encourage their kids to make things and be creative!

Polar Express Movie Party and Meet Santa

Today was so exhausting. I can't even begin to describe how drained I am right now.

We technically billed this day as two separate programs; Polar Express Movie Party first at 10:00 am, and then Meet Santa beginning at 12:30. However, I am blogging them together in one big lump of Christmas cheer.

The whole thing about the Polar Express party started a little over a month ago. The idea for the program was pitched to our youth services team, but we decided not to do it in favor of Snow Day. Snow Day was insanely popular, and had a much more inclusive "winter" theme than just the "Christmas" theme that a Polar Express party would have. So, the deadline for the December newsletter came and went without a mention of Polar Express at our branch (another branch did plan a Polar Express party that did not include a showing of the movie).

Long after the deadline, the party was brought up in a meeting and my manager's manager asked our team to plan it even though it did not appear in the newsletter. In that meeting we brainstormed a lot of ideas for the day, including showing the movie and having Santa visit the library. December 23rd was chosen for that day, mostly because it was the only available Saturday in December, but also to accommodate families who might not be able to afford pictures with Santa, or have a chance to visit Santa earlier in the month. And so, a movie license was purchased, a Santa was found on Craigslist (background checked and registered as a vendor with the city to get paid), and the program room was blocked off for us.

We made a sign! The train drawing at the bottom
shows the extent of my artistic ability.

The movie party went well, but attendance was much, much lower than hoped or expected. We bought juice and made popcorn for over 100 people, and only 25 came to watch the movie.

Millions of juice pouches

Nicole making popcorn

Kids watching the movie.

After the movie, we made the announcement that Santa would be coming at 12:30 for DIY pictures with kids and families. Because there were so many snacks and juice pouches left over, I left the program room open and stayed in there for about 45 minutes. We had a couple of families stay there as well, enjoying popcorn and juice, as well as the holiday music I put on the speakers. Before long, it was time for Santa to arrive!

I have to give a shout out to Anna (of Homeschool Corner fame) and her amazing dad, Ken. They are both very talented artists with the Sonoran Arts League in Cave Creek, AZ. Anna paints and makes jewelry, and Ken is an amazing sculptor who uses wood and metal in his work. He was willing to drive this fantastic, hand-made wooden throne to Mesa from his house in North Phoenix (about a 50 minute drive in good traffic) so that we had a fancy place for Santa to sit that wasn't a regular plastic chair. He brought Anna and the grandkids with him, so they all got a chance to hang out at the library and chill with Santa Claus.

Ken's beautiful hand-made wooden throne.

After Santa got settled, we had a lot of families line up to meet him and take pictures. I took some as well, and got permission from guardians to post the following adorable pics:

Ken, Madi, and Anna with Santa

Me, Anna, Ken, Madi, and baby Micah with Santa

After about an hour, we moved Santa and his throne into the children's area in the main part of the library for more exposure to our patrons.

Before he left, the three librarians on duty got a picture with Santa, too.

The librarians with Santa!

The biggest programming lesson I learned from this event was not to leave things to the last minute. Even though we got a lot of exposure online thanks to our marketing team, I know a lot of our patrons get their info about our programs directly from the printed newsletter. Even though attendance wasn't what we hoped for, the Polar Express movie party and Santa day were a lot of (very exhausting) fun. Now pardon me while I nap forever. Happy holidays!

Learn & Grow with Rhythm & Flow 12-22-17: Special Guest and Hanukkah Presentation

In the last two weeks of December, my library system traditionally does not hold storytimes because of low attendance. A lot of people are out of town, or have family in town and don't want to leave them to come to the library. However, I accidentally scheduled Learn and Grow with Rhythm and Flow for today, where it would have been on a normal month. Instead of going through the very difficult cancellation process, I just left it on the calendar. It's lucky that I did, too, because this was the only time our special guest was available to do her Hanukkah presentation for our patrons!

We have a retired volunteer named Natalie who is always an absolute joy when she helps out with programs. She loves being around kids, and is always full of great ideas for how we can expand our program participant base and partnerships with community businesses. Natalie was in the library a few weeks ago just browsing for something to read, and mentioned to me that she had a Hanukkah presentations she has been taking around to local retirement homes. My first question when I talk to anyone now is "Can you do the same thing, but at a preschool level?" She said yes, so we scheduled her and her presentation partner Nancy as special guests for December 22nd.

I spent the morning searching for preschool music having to do with Hanukkah, and found that the Kiboomers actually have a whole Hanukkah album! We used the songs "9 Little Candles," "Sweet Hannukah Gelt," and "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel." Here is the whole album:

I also found this slightly more rock and roll version of the Dreidel Song by the Kiddie Katz, which I like more than the Kiboomers version. It's slightly easier to listen to seven times in a row. 

We started the storytime with my usual hello, because I like to provide something familiar especially when we have a guest presenter that deviates from the regular storytime formula. Then, Natalie read/paraphrased from the nonfiction book Hannukkah by Valerie Bodden. 

When she got about halfway through, I could sense the kids getting wiggly. She was at the part about menorahs, so I asked her if it was okay that we take a break and sing a song about the candles in the menorah. We sang the Kiboomers song "9 Little Candles," counting on our fingers and learning what the middle candle is called.

Then Natalie finished going through the book, alternating between historical facts and tidbits about how the holiday is celebrated in the modern world. After the book, she brought out tiny plastic dreidels and chocolate coins (gelt) for all of the kids. I allowed about ten minutes for the kids to play with the dreidels, eat their candy, and color pictures. During this time, I let the Hanukkah music play, bringing attention to "Sweet Hannukah Gelt" and "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel." 

Source: TwistyNoodle.com

When it was about time for storytime to be over, I brought the attention back to the front of the room and we sang out goodbye song and had bubbles. I invited the families to stick around if they wanted, ask our presenters questions, and finish coloring their pictures. My biggest regret of the day was that I got no pictures of all the fun! So here is the model/librarian in a dress I want, to fill space where pictures of my program would go if I were a better multi-tasker.

Here is a list of books I had displayed today:

• Hanukkah by Valerie Bodden
• Honeyky Hanukah by Woody Guthrie (yeah, THAT Woody Guthrie. It comes with a CD)
• Chanukah Lights Everywhere by Michael L. Rosen
• I Have a Little Dreidel by Maxie Baum
• The Hanukkah Mice by Steven Kroll
• My Two Grandmothers by Effin Older
• The Hanukkah Trike by Michele Edwards
• Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov
• Maccabee! The Story of Hanukkah by Tilda Balsley
• Hoppy Hanukkah! by Linda Glaser
• Hanukkah: Eight Lights Around the World by Susan Sussman
• Hanukkah Moon by Deborah da Costa
• The Best Hanukkah Ever by Barbara Diamond Goldin