Science Crafts

Program Date: 3/14/19

I had two crafts planned for this one but we only had time for one so I am going to talk about the one we had time for and link to the one we had to skip so you guys can see if you are interested!

I tried to combine two things that (in my experience) kids LOVE– crafts and science. The perfect craft jumped out at me on Pinterest: DIY Kaleidoscope!

For this craft, we needed several materials:

Toilet paper tubes

White cardstock (circle pattern included in link, I just printed them out!)

Scissors

Pencil

Sharpie/permanent markers

Straws (cut)

Mirrored sheets

Tape

Stickers (optional)

We started by giving the kids all a toilet paper tube, markers and stickers and giving them some time to decorate the tube any way they wanted.

The next step was to decorate the white cardstock sheet. We made sure they understood that the more sections their circle had, the more variation their kaleidoscope was going to have. We encouraged them to use different colors and shapes so that you could really see a change. When they were finished, they cut the circle out and we poked a straw-sized hole in it with a pencil.

The next step was the mirrored sheets. I didn’t buy the *exact* right sheets (I linked to them anyway but next time I’ll buy the exact ones on the Pinterest link). The problem with the sheets I bought was that they weren’t mirrored on both sides. If they had been, the designs would have reflected a lot better.

I pre-cut and marked rectangles of the sheets based on the measurements in the original link, and had the kids cut them into 3 equal sized strips. Once they cut them, they laid them right next to each other, *almost* touching, and taped them together, mirror side up. After that they taped them together into a triangle, mirror side in and put the triangle inside the toilet paper tube!

Next, we taped the straw to the toilet paper tube, with enough sticking out to put the circle on the end.

The last step was to actually put the circle on the straw, and look into the kaleidoscope! When you turn the circle, the different sections reach the open part of the tube, and reflects against the mirrored sheets inside! I wish I had taken a video, but it worked *really* well and the kids were amazed!

I would 100% do this fun craft again!

The other craft I had planned was a telescope tube craft. The link is here. I will probably try to do it soon because I thought it sounded really cool, but we ran out of time!

Overall this was a really fun craft and a great program!

Valentine’s Crafts

Program Date: 02/06/19

Usually in February we don’t have after school programs because we run a book club instead, but because we started doing PTO Program events (so the kids have somewhere to go while their parents are at the PTO meeting) we have done this one in February for the last two years. It is always a hit! It doesn’t hurt that we offer cookie decorating as one of the stations. The promise of food is always a win for library programs!

Along with the cookie decorating station, we offered several valentine’s day themed crafts.

Cookie Decorating

I purchased sugar cookies at Walmart and vanilla icing for the kids to use for this station. I also put out different types of sprinkles, so they would have a choice! Most of the kiddos chose to eat their cookie in the moment, but a few saved it to give to their siblings which I thought was really sweet!

Crafts

I had several different stations for crafts!

Tissue Paper Hearts

I had the kids cut hearts out by folding paper in half, and then cut it again so they had only the outline of the heart. After that we stretched contact paper so that the whole, unfolded heart fit on it. The the kids were able to put different colored tissue paper squares onto the contact paper! Another layer of contact paper went down on top if it, to seal everything in.

Jewelry Making

I had several different types of beads available, including beads with letters, so the kids could make whatever they wanted! I had yarn for them and also thinner clear bead string. The foam sheets were available to cut hearts into, to use them as charms on their jewelry.

Valentine’s Bookmarks

These were a hit! Some of the little hearts and stuff were really small so I had the kids use colored pencils instead of crayons. I also had a Heart Eyes Emoji paper craft on this table! It was very simple and exactly what it looks like. Cut out hearts, glue them on, draw a mouth. Bam! You’re done!

Thumbprint Heart Magnet

For this craft, I had the kids put two thumbprints on a piece of white cardstock, overlapped slightly in the shape of a heart. They cut out the circle, and glued it to a clear glass half circle bead. Then we glued a magnet to it so they could stick it to the fridge!

“I ❤ You” Hand Craft

This one was a little confusing! The kids had a hard time visualizing what part of their hand needed to go where to make the shape, and what part needed to be cut out. I had to help with this one more than anything else! I didn’t get a great photo of this one but you can see my example in the above photo.

I am sure we will do a similar program next February because this one went great!

Read-A-Thon

Program Date: 1/24/19

I was very inspired by a teacher in my Twitter circle and her reading event for her students! I thought it would easily transform into an after school program, so I went for it! It was very low key and chill, and I think it is the perfect program to do in January.

During this program, the kids were to either bring a book or check one out that day, and they could pick a comfy spot to read and eat some reading themed snacks while they enjoyed their books! I had several different types of eating available and also several different types of snacks! We had 9 kids at this program (not bad for it being the first program after Christmas break) and that was honestly the perfect number. We had a little trouble with distracting others, so the more kids who attended, the more potential for distraction there would have been.

Seating options I had available were:

Picnic blankets

Large dog beds (washed first)

Large floor pillows

Yoga mats

Exercise balls (stabilized with pool noodles)

Wind inflatable air sofa

Snack options were very punny and I thought it was hilarious!

Popcorn (Pop Open a Good Book)

Goldfish crackers (Fishing for a good book)

Skittles (Reading Rainbows)

Gummy worms (Book Worms)

Fruit by the Foot (Book Marks)

Chips Ahoy Cookies (Smart Cookies)

Bottles of water (No pun for that one!)

Each kiddo got their book and picked a spot, and then got a late full of yummy snacks!

This one was a really easy one. There were some times where they got a little squirrely and distracting but for the most part they sat quietly and READ their books and ate snacks and it was awesome!! I sat and read and snaked with them so it was fun for me too. 🙂

 

 

Makerdays!

Last fall when I was first in charge of coming up with after school programs, I decided to ease into it by doing the same program a few times during the semester. That program was Makerdays! And now I add it to our schedule at least once a semester because it is easy and fun and things can always be added!!

The gist of Makerdays is that it is all makerspace activities. Makerspace activities use materials that kids can make things with. Popular examples are play dough, Perler beads and LEGO (all present at this program).  They don’t always get to take things home but they do get to create while they are here and it keeps their hands AND minds busy!

This program is set up in stations and is completely unstructured. The only thing I consistently have to do is take photos for the website and iron Perler bead projects together. That’s it. Kids can either bounce from station to station or they can pick one and stick with it the whole time. Usually there is little to no arguing and it sort of runs itself!

This program was during the final PTO Meeting of the year, and I had 17 kiddos. They all had a great time and a couple even asked when we would be doing it again!

Some of these stations are new since we started this program last fall, but most have been around since the beginning. I’ll go through station by station so you readers can get a feel for what we do!

Perler Beads

These are always a hit. I have a few kiddos who go straight to this station at the beginning of the program and camp out there until it’s over. I always tell them to let me know when they are almost done so I can plug in the iron. I always do the ironing in the back room, so this station is as close to the back room as possible so the space I have to walk with un-ironed projects is as short as possible.

Playdough

This staple shouldn’t need an explanation! I bought new Playdough at the beginning of the semester, and a coworker brought in a ton of tools to go with it that her grandkids didn’t play with anymore. Its always a smash! (And always smashed into the carpet somehow).

Keva Planks

These are really cool little wooden planks that you can use to build whatever you want! They seem to be more popular with the older kids, and even middle school kids at the other building. There is a booklet with ideas on this table as well!

Squishy Circuits

I found these deep in a cabinet last fall and our director said we got them for free at a conference. They are SO cool and I have a couple of kids who are super into this. Using the conductive dough (essentially playdough) and the provided wires, circuits are made and can light LED lights, sound a REALLY loud and annoying buzzer, or made a propeller spin. The buzzer ended up in my pocket about halfway through the program because they wouldn’t quit sounding it. I really need to order some more of this stuff! The website  is here!

The Epic LEGO Wall

I did a whole blog post on the LEGO wall, found here. The LEGO wall is always open after school, but I encourage it extra during the Makerdays program. Once they are finished with their project, I take a photo for the LEGO Wall of Fame in the hall!

Checkers

I usually try to leave this one out during all unstructured programs because the kiddos love to play! I’m fairly certain this is a set from Cracker Barrel and I need to get a new one because somehow a black checker is lost now.

Coloring Pages

These pages are always out during school but again, they love it!

Blocks Rock!

I won this game at a conference last year! The basic premise is that two kids sit across from each other, each with their set of blocks and a bell in between. Using the cards, they flip one over and the first kiddo to match the pattern using the blocks rings the bell and wins the round!

T-Rex Puzzle

This was the first time I used this puzzle after it was donated by a coworker. It was SO hard but a kiddo and a couple of grown ups finally got it but together!

Its all very unstructured fun! I;m running this program again next semester! Can’t wait!

 

STEM Bookclub #1 & #2

Last year at the Indiana State Library conference, I went to a fantastic seminar about a makerspace book club. I did some digging, and found the link to the presentation, and here it is! I’m sure it had more of an impact in person but there is a lot of really good information there about the overall gist of this program.

So that was a year ago. In August when we were having a big brainstorm about what to do during after school programs, this seminar came to mind. We decided to do 2 STEM Bookclub programs, with different activities at each.

The programs were planned for the Thursday before and after Thanksgiving, so that we would have a good deal of time in between to prep and reevaluate in necessary. But surprise! We had ice the Thursday before Thanksgiving and school was cancelled! Because of that, we added the program back on the next available Thursday and that made them two weeks in a row!

We had a solid handful of kids at each program. It was honestly low as far as our attendance usually goes, but the groups I had were so great and having too many more might have been a mess. So it was perfect!

The overall premise of these programs is this: a picture book is read out loud to the group, and then a problem is identified (it needs to be identified by librarians beforehand so that proper materials can be gathered). Once the students know the problem, they are tasked with fixing it. By using everyday materials, they use STEM thinking to solve the problem. It’s actually really simple! But I found that finding books that have a specific problem can be a little challenging. I will outline the two we did below so you can see them in action!

STEM Bookclub #1

Book: The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields

Problem: Create a maze using materials that a Hexbug can maneuver through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay I won’t lie. This book doesn’t *exactly* connect with the STEM challenge, except for the fact that they both involve bugs. But I saw the Hexbug challenge on Pinterest and I thought it was the coolest thing. So I went searching for a book about bugs that I could pair with it. If I had found a book about a bug being lost or finding it’s way or something, that would have been PERFECT but I couldn’t. Hey, if you know of one, leave the title in the comments!

So after I read the story, I explained the challenge. We had 5 kiddos during the program, and they split up into girls vs boys, with 3 and 2 on each team. We didn’t give them a ton of super specific instructions (especially with such a small group) and they did a wonderful job!

Before we got to work, I gave each team a piece of plain paper and a pencil and asked them to sort of sketch out their plan before they got started. I told them it was okay if they changed their plan later, but I wanted them to stop and think for a minute before they started in.

We gave them the following materials to work with:

• Posterboard
• Tape (masking and Scotch)
• Straws of various sizes
• Popsicle sticks
• Toilet paper rolls

By using these materials, they made their mazes!

They did a fantastic job! Unfortunately I am unable to upload video to this blog, but here are the finished mazes both with a Hexbug in them!

It was a really fun activity and now we have Hexbugs to play with forever!

STEM Bookclub #2

Book: Toy Boat by Randall de Seve and Loren Long

Problem: Make a boat that can float in water and withstand wind.

The connection between the story and the problem is a lot stronger in this one! The boy in the story has a boat made out of recycled materials and it’s his very favorite toy. He accidentally lets go of the string when the boat is floating in the water and it gets away! So out kiddos were tasked with creating a boat that would float if it got away from them.

Step 1 for this program was to collect materials over the course of a few weeks. Actually the rescheduling was helpful in this regard because it gave us an extra week to collect materials! Here is a list of materials available to the kids:

• Bottles of various sizes
• Duct Tape and masking tape
• Styrofoam Cups
• Straws
• Popsicle sticks
• Pipe cleaners
• Stickers
• Extra bottle lids
• Hot glue guns (used by librarians only)
• Aluminum foil (cut by librarians only)

After we read the story, they got to work! They worked really hard on their boats and so few looked exactly alike! I was very proud of them and their innovation.

Once everyone was finished with their boats, we go tot work sailing them! I filled a kiddie pool with water so we didn’t have a huge float space. The kids took turns putting their boats in and seeing if they floated! They all did a pretty good job!! And then at the end they wanted to all put their boats in and let me turn on the fan (wind) and see what happened. Bumper boats happened. But they all stayed upright!

I will definitely be thinking of new things to do in the future but these both were really fun and brain building making activities and the kids had a lot of fun!!

 

 

Video Game Day!

Last Wednesday was video game day!! This was the program during the November PTO meeting, and like I have said in previous write ups, I try really hard to go all out with these programs. The kids are here anyway, so why not do something extra fun to get them interested in coming down to the library?? Video games seemed like the perfect option!

I had 22 students and 2 extra coworkers helping with this program! Because these Wednesday programs run in conjunction with the PTO meetings, some of the adults that usually accompany their children to our programs are at the PTO meeting. That is awesome and totally the point of this! But it means I need extra hands around from my staff.

The Rules:

After waiting to make sure everyone was here, I went over a few things with the kids before I released them. I wanted to make sure we didn’t have any squabbles, and also that they were careful since several of the systems were borrowed. I told them:

NO fighting

You MUST share

Sometimes someone may have to sit out and watch

Mrs. Williams holds the Nintendo Switch 😉 (This system was lent to us by my amazing husband, and even on his birthday!! So I was extra super careful to not let it get broken.)

I was AMAZED by how smoothly this program went. I spent a lot of time babysitting the Switch, but I heard 0 fights and was told by my coworkers that they didn’t have any problems with anyone fighting or not wanting to share! I prepared for the worst and the kids really surprised me with how mature and kind they were. My heart was full. ❤

The Overall Setup:

We have 6 computers in the library, 3 with Minecraft and 3 that we open to a website called www.friv.com. I also had 3 iPads with games that were set out for the kids to play on.

We have our original Wii system, with Mario Kart. My plan was to set it up with my projector and screen so that the game would be on the big screen, but the cords I had on hand weren’t the right ones to make that happen. SO it went on the regular TV screen instead. I only ended up with 2 controllers for this game too. The ones I brought from home were way newer than the system and they wouldn’t connect (my husband later told me how to get them to connect, but at the time I couldn’t figure it out!). The kids really had fun doing this though!

I borrowed the Nintendo Gamecube from my parents. I used to play it when I was a kid so I was super nostalgic and I’m sure the kids thought I was a crazy lady. We had Mario Party 4 for this system, with 3 controllers attached (with cords!! So many of the systems how have wireless controllers, so this was a new thing for some of them!). This system went on the small TV I borrowed from my kitchen, since the Wii got moved to the library TV. It worked pretty well!!

At a conference last year, I saw the coolest thing. They’re called Bloxels and they work with iPads to create video games! Kids use the blocks that are provided in the game board, and by placing certain colored blocks in certain patterns, it makes things like water and land and fire. Then they take a photo with the iPad and can customize it to look how they want. SO once they do several frames its a little video game they can play! This one is a LOT of work, and it was the first time I have ever really done it so I think I am going to figure it out a little more and maybe use it again in the spring!

Last but not least, the Nintendo Switch. We got our Switch last January, and my husband loves it. About that time he told me about a really cool game they have out called Nintendo Labo. They have several different types, but essentially the box comes with cardboard cutout pieces, and there are instructions on the game to fold it a certain way and it makes a cardboard piece that is compatible with the game software. It sounds kind of confusing but it was really cool!! This was the only thing I had available for the Switch, and several kids helped me make an RC car. The other projects said they would take 90 mins, which we didn’t have, but I will definitely be using this again!

Overall the whole program was great. I definitely hit some road bumps but the kids were fantastic and they had so much fun!! I will definitely run this program again, hopefully without some of the kinks.

Retro Toys

We always have a brainstorm at the beginning of each semester about what to do for after school programs. We try to come up with things that we think the kids will like AND things that are different!

One of my coworkers had the awesome idea to have a program of all old toys! We borrowed some things and bought some things, and overall it turned into a really great program that let our kiddos learn about some new (old) toys and also learn that some of their favorite toys had been around for a long time! The tagline for this program was: “Have you ever wondered what toys were like before everything had screens?? Come to the library and find out for yourself!”

We had 14 kids at this program, and that was honestly the perfect number. We set everything up sort of in stations, and I asked them to try a few things before they took a seat at the Play-Dough table for an hour. They were really good about it!

Retro Toys:

Viewfinder

Fashion Plates

Barrel of Monkeys

Kaleidoscope

Jacks

Dominoes

Spirograph

I’m going to post pictures of most of this stuff, but I’m not going to spend a ton of time explaining it because they were all pretty common, even if they are retro. 🙂

Viewfinder:

They really liked this one and several had never played with them before! Some of those little discs were my dads, and others (like the Barbie and Anastasia ones) were mine as a kid. (Shout out to my parents for letting us use their Viewfinder!)

Fashion Plates:

I had some moms who were so excited to see this! (Shout out to my own mom for letting me use her Fashion Plates-just like she did when I was a kid!)

I didn’t get any photos of kids playing with the barrel of monkeys, kaleidoscope, or jacks 😦

Dominoes:

(Thanks yet again to my mom who let me borrow the Dominoes from her 1st grade classroom!)

Spirograph:

Spirograph was one of the “old” things we were able to buy new! We picked these up at Dollar Tree, if anyone is interested!

Toys they knew, that have been around a long time:

Play-Dough

Hot Wheels

LEGO

Lite Brite

Silly Putty

Lincoln Longs

Memory

Blocks

Puzzle

Play Dough:

Hot Wheels:

We were surprised to learn that Hot Wheels were created in 1968! That track was definitely not quite so retro, but it was really fun!!

LEGO:

LEGO was another thing we were surprised to find out was as old as it was! LEGO began with wooden blocks in 1932, and became plastic blocks in 1947!!

(For info on the LEGO wall, check out this post: The Epic LEGO Wall!!! (GCL version)

Lite Brite: 

Check out that box! Super retro. I was surprised that they knew this one as well as they did! (Shout out to my dad for letting us borrow his Lite Brite!)

Silly Putty:

They knew exactly what to do with this one!! We did teach them how to press it on the newspaper to copy the ink though! That was a lot of fun. Silly Putty also came from the Dollar Tree!

I did not get photos of kiddos playing with Lincoln Logs or Memory 😦

Memory is the same set we used during the Oversized Game Day! though, and there are some photos there!!

Blocks:

Puzzle:

Other Ideas!! 

There were a few things that we really wanted to have that I wasn’t able to get a hold of in time. I will put the list below in case anyone needs more ideas!

Hot-pad loom and loops to weave

Etch it Sketch

Magic 8 Ball

Rubik’s Cube

Paper Dolls

Mr. Potato Head (I know we have one here somewhere but I couldn’t find it!!)