So Far Behind on Summer Reading Posts that it's not worth trying

I only wrote posts for two of the six programs that were held during summer reading. Instead of going back and writing each individual post down I am just going to summarize here. This summers theme was On Your Mark, Get Set, READ a health and fitness program. The first week I did miniature golf with the children in the library, using bookends as holes and bringing in a few putters for different size children. The second week we did Nutrition where the children were supposed to guess what is in the bag by smell and where they learned that some foods are good for you and some are not.
The third week I did an obstacle course using pool noodles as jumps and hoops to through stuff through, cones for weaving and giant frisbees to play with. The kids had a blast, and many wanted to do it over and over.
Fourth week I did Ninja Training. This was a different type of obstacle course but it definitely grew on the one the week before. The children made origami throwing stars which they threw through one of three hoops. They then did a mini egg and spoon race, crawled on their bellies and walked across a 2x4 for balance. Finally I used some pool noodles to make samurai swords for the children to play with.
Week 5 was the Science of Sports. We did do all balls bounce? As an experiment.

Last but not least was Week 6 and Horses at the Library! I got a local farm to come with a couple of their horses, one pony and one mini, and let the kids brush them while they learned about the sport of horseback riding. Lots of people came to this one so it was a fantastic way to wrap up the summer.

Coming Soon: Fall Program Posts Coming in October!

Come On Down and Guess That Smell!

So this weeks event was a total bust. I did nutrition with some cereal box puzzles and a Guess That Smell game, and fruit. Unfortunately, all my work was mostly useless as only a couple of kids came and they were little kids that happened to be there for story time. Story time, which was also about nutrition, went great. There were 20 kids in attendance this week. My assistant who runs story time was talking about what foods were good for you versus junk food. It went really well and kids actually answered questions. Only 8 of those kids however came to my actual Summer Reading Program. Sigh. Oh well, can't really do anything about it except be really pumped about the next program which is an Obstacle Course using pool noodles!

Miniature Golfing in the Library!

So it's summer reading time and all librarians know what that means, lots of programs! This year the theme is Sports/Health/Fitness or On Your Mark, Get Set, Read! which makes for lots of fun ideas. For the first week we did miniature golf in the library and had about 12 kids which is pretty good considering we have 45 kids signed up for summer reading.

We got little kids golf clubs and I had two full size putters to use.

I set up the course using books and other items from the library. I used book ends as holes, which made things difficult because of the slight dip up to get the ball in the hole. I used books as obstacles for the most part except for one hole that I used shredded paper as "sand traps". The kids had a pretty good time so I consider this program a win. Next we're doing Nutrition and Food Fun.

City of Ember and How We Survive

Sixth and Seventh grade book club was really fun this week. We discussed The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau which is great book if you haven't read it. It was compared to The Giver and Maze Runner. After the book discussion we played a game of The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game. It gives you topics of worst case scenarios like, what do you do if the breaks go out in your car? and what is the proper way to jump off a train? It then gives you three choices of what to do. Some of them just seem silly while sometimes more then one of them seems possible. You then guess which option is the correct choice. This is a game from 2002, so I didn't come up with it myself, it was something I got when I was in sixth grade myself. But the kids and I had a lot of fun guessing and coming up with our own solutions to the scenarios. This is the last book of the year, can't wait to start again in the fall!

Book Scavenger and the Hunt

For fourth grade book club this month we talked about Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. The book is named after a game that's kind of like a special version of a book scavenger hunt where people hide books and then other people try to find them with only one clue to guide them. The book is about a new game from the creator of the Book Scavenger game. To go with this we did a book scavenger hunt. It had things like find a mystery or find a book with a character the same age as you, stuff like that. The kids had to find the books and bring them to me. Then I had them put the books back afterward, in the correct spot, and I watched to make sure they put the book where it belonged. The kids had fun running around trying to best each other. This is the last book of the year for fourth graders, next set of book clubs will be for the summer reading book groups. Can't wait!

Slight of Hand and Upside-Down Magic

For third grade book club things became magical. We read Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski. The book was adorable and the kids really liked it. What they liked more though was learning magic tricks. I gave them each a pack of cards and showed them videos to learn magic tricks. It took a while to find good videos but was totally worth it to see the kids so entertained. Next we are reading Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (the original one). Till next time. Nicole

Treasure Hunting and Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

The same day as the fourth grade book club I also had the sixth and seventh grade book club. Three children attended (1 boy!) and we discussed Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. This is a good time to discuss, what age is too old for a discussion ball? The third and fourth graders love it, but one seventh grader thought it was weird. Should I stick to a written out discussion? Maybe, I'm trying to decide. Anyways, to go with the discussion we had a treasure hunt (treasure and dragons seem to go hand in hand). I bought some prizes that I thought sixth and seventh graders might like (thank you Five Below) and hid them around the gardens. This was great fun for the children, but we couldn't find two items, and I couldn't remember where I put them. So if anybody from my library finds a ping pong ball with an emoji on it, and a sheet of smiley face stickers, feel free to keep them. Overall, this program went fairly well. The last book of the year that this group is going to discuss is The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Next I will be talking about my third graders, who read a book on magic. All for now. Nicole

Investigative Skills in a Book Club

So last week I had two book club meetings. The first was fourth grade. We had read the book The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan. So for book club we solved a mystery, matching footprints and fingerprints. It went all right, but most of the kids' couldn't get through the first two chapters of the book so we couldn't really have a discussion. I did do a discussion with the one boy who read the book so that was good. What do you do if the kids haven't read the book? I wanted to read a chapter, but its difficult sometimes to work with children, they had a dance party instead and played keep it up with the discussion ball. Not a shining moment on my part, but I'm still learning. Next we are reading Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, so hopefully that will be better. More later on 6 and 7th grade book club as well as third grade book club. Nicole

What you've missed with Math Club

So the last two weeks I have been practicing using different mediums for math club.  Last week we used Uno cards to do math. This was a bit of a pain because the numbers don't go very high and you have to separate out the wild cards and things. This week we used dominoes. I liked this medium because each domino was a different problem and that meant there were a lot of problems to go through. This is definitely a medium I would use again. Till later, Nicole

April Vacation Week

A little late but I've been super busy.

Vacation, the perfect time to draw children and families into the library with some awesome programs. This April Vacation (April 22nd-29th) had the theme of Spring Week. We started with the a movie night on the first Friday, we chose the movie Epic. This did not draw a crowd, probably because it wasn't a new movie.

On Monday I did a Spring Science Program. We made Rainbows in water bottles, using different densities of liquid. We also made coffee filter art, and rainclouds using shaving cream and food coloring. This program was pretty popular, 11 kids in our small town, but very messy.

On Wednesday we had a drop-in craft of three crafts: Flower Pots, Butterflies, and Picture Frames. We had very few children come to this program, but they all seemed to really enjoy themselves.  I had a horrible time finding the tiny pots I wanted to use and went to four dollar trees just to get enough and ended having more than enough of them. Oh well, I can save them for next year.

On Thursday we had a Garden Party. There was a waffle bar, fruits, vegetables and pudding with oreo cookie crumbs on it. This program was very popular with 20 kids, and I almost didn't have enough food. We also did a tiny egg hunt game where everyone got to pick a prize from the prize bin if they found an egg.

On our final day, the second Friday, we decorated bird houses. This program was fairly popular but I ended up returning some of the bird houses to save money.

And that was our crazy week! All for now, next I will talk about what we have been up to in Math Club!

A Math Puzzle

Now keep in mind that my math club is for K-3. So this week I made a math puzzle. I took some puzzles from the dollar store and assembled them. Then I flipped them over and took a sharpie to the back, numbering the puzzle pieces 1-100 (It was a 100 piece puzzle). So during Math Club today I had them assemble the puzzle by arranging the pieces in order from 1-100. It took a while, and the children were reluctant at first, but then they got into it, competing for who would finish first so they could play another game. I thought this was a good way to practice counting to a higher number then those counting bears could go to (100 bears is an awful lot) without it seeming too daunting. When they were done I helped them to flip over the puzzle and see what picture they made. Then since it was a Disney Villains puzzle they talked about Disney for a few minutes. Finally I let them run around and get some energy out. Till next time. Regards, Nicole.

Cookbook Book Club for Kids (that's a mouthful!)

So yesterday (Friday) we had our first ever Cookbook Book Club meeting. We used The Mash and Smash Cookbook by Marian Buck-Murray for our first book. Everyone had to pick a recipe out of the book, write it down so no one else does the recipe, and then the children made the dishes at home and brought them in for a feast! There was Chicken Teriyaki, French Toast Fingers, something called Nickabuck Crunch Cups which contained graham crackers, yogurt and maple syrup, and Apple Bread Pudding Cups. A full meal served buffet style on a Friday night. Everything was delicious and the kids had a lot of fun making something for book club instead of just reading. The children especially loved that for this cookbook they were able to mash and smash food. Then at the meeting we discussed what was difficult about the recipe, if the directions were clear (some were not) and other things that came up. The meeting was only a half hour long, just long enough for dinner, but so worth the extra effort for the kids. Our next Cookbook Book Club meeting will be next month and we are using the Around the World Cookbook by Abigail Johnson Dodge. Hopefully interest will grow with this fantastic program that every library should try. Till next time. Regards, Nicole

Acting, Etiquette and Espionage

This month for the sixth and seventh grade book club we discussed Ettiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger using the discussion ball I made. Then we had a tea party. I made 'Classified' files with character names in them and the kids had to act like whatever character they got. Then the other kids and I were supposed to guess which character they were while we were having an old fashioned tea party. I used Lorna Doones and Arizona iced tea, because we're on a budget, but the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Next we are reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. Till next time. Regards, Nicole

Celebrate Library Week

Now this activity isn't just for children but for everyone. In honor of Library Week I created a treasure hunt at the library. Everyone uses clues to find pink slips of paper with a letter on them around the library. The letters spell out Community Lifelong Learning which unfortunately is a little difficult for the younger set to read. But if they finish the treasure hunt they win a prize! Also, every day we have prizes for everyone that comes in including pencils, books, and candy. Overall I think this is a good plan for my first library week. Talk soon. Regards, Nicole

Fourth Grade Book Club- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Yesterday I had fourth grade book club. We used the discussion ball (a ball that has questions on all over it and the five W's which correspond to cards that have book specific questions). That took up about a half an hour of our time. The second half of the club meeting was spent playing a game based on the book. In the book Charles Chilington (?) used books on display to find the books in the stacks which had clues in them. This is what I did. I took printouts of book covers and the children had to learn to look up and locate the books in J Non-Fiction to get the clues. These clues made up a sentence saying where the key was to the treasure (prizes). The kids absolutely loved running (sort of) around the library trying to finish before the end of book club. They did really well and found the key to the room "Where the Lemoncello book should go". So they had to go to Grabenstein in the Fiction Stacks with his other books, in order to get the key. It was a lot of fun and a great idea for the future. Next we are reading The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hanigan.

Math Club

So it looks like I'm filling in for Bedtime Math for the foreseeable future. My teen who usually does the group is doing tennis this season. I found out at 4 on Monday (math starts at 4) so I quickly threw things together. One thing which doesn't take any supplies and gets the kids energy out is Math Freeze Tag. It's just freeze tag but to unfreeze you have to answer a math problem. Super simple yet the children love it.

No book club this week so my next post will be about family game night, a new twist on a lagging program. All for now. Regards, Nicole. 

Thirty Seconds book blurbs and the memory game

So today was fifth grade book club and no one came. I picked The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate for next month. Anyways, I'm really disappointed because I didn't get to play the new game I made up. It's a memory game to go with thirty second book blurbs. I learned book blurbs at the NELA conference I went to. It's actually the children's part of NELA that I can't remember the name of right now. To keep attention you only spend thirty seconds talking about each book. To go with this the speaker suggested to show pictures so they can make a connection. Instead of pictures I used objects. And to make things more fun, I made it into a memory game. Meaning, I showed them the objects then covered them up and had the kids write down what they remember seeing on the table. Then when we went over the objects I talked about what books went with each object. It was a great way to introduce the books and make a game of it. The game was popular with my early in the month book clubs, 4th grade and 6-7th grade, but these late ones aren't as popular, 3rd grade and 5th grade. So I didn't have a chance to play this game. Hopefully the book clubs will at least gain popularity. All for now. Regards, Nicole

Math Olympics

Today I filled in for my teen volunteer for the Bedtime Math group. Normally I supervise this, but the teen was out sick. So on 5 minutes notice I came up with the Math Olympics. There were four events, cup stacking, a short race with five laps around a table, "long" distance jumping and hopscotch. 

I used what I could find in the math cupboard. A box of glow sticks were used to make hopscotch. I timed the events with a stopwatch and I measured the jumps with cups and a measuring tape. 

After the events everyone got a prize from the prize bin I keep in the Children's room. 

After the Olympics we played math freeze tag where they had to answer a math problem to unfreeze. And finally I ran out of math related ideas and pulled out an old favorite, telephone, to quiet the children down before the end of the hour. Every child went home happy and I gained another experience. Creative Math. 

Third Grade book club

Unfortunately, and I'm sure many of you have been through this before, only one person came to the third grade book club. We did pick a book, Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate, but the games just aren't the same with only two people. I have this really fun ball game I call the genre game. I came up with the game because what happens when you ask a third or fourth grade what genre they like? "I don't know." Awesome. So anyways I took a regular medium sized bouncy ball. It fits in two hands pretty well. I took this ball and I wrote questions on it. Do you like sports? Do you like Dragons? Do you like exploring new places? On top of this I also have Have you...? where I ask them if they read and liked Harry Potter, or the Magic Tree House series, whatever is appropriate for the age group. I thought it was a pretty good way of getting the kids to talk while still letting them be somewhat active. My sixth and seventh graders thought it was great. Didn't try with my fourth graders yet. But rolling a ball back and forth between two people, not really worthwhile. But I tried to make it as fun as possible.

I also came up with thirty second blurbs for the books and came up with a game for that, but that is a story for another time. Regards.

The Youth Services Room

Hello Everyone!

Hello Everyone! This is the first post of The Youth Services Room, a blog for Smyth Public Library's Children's Room, Juvenile fiction area and Teen area.

Here you will find information on my 3,4,5,6-7 and teen book clubs, or discussions and some read-alikes to go with the books we are reading. So far I have met for the first time (I'm the new Children's/Youth Services librarian) with the fourth graders who picked the book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, and I have also met with the 6-7 grade group who chose Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger. Next I will meet with the 3rd graders who will hear their book choices and pick a book, and finally the fifth and teen groups who will do the same thing. I try to bring fun into my book clubs, so while we do have discussion we also have games which have to do with the book, you'll have to read more to find out.

This blog will also talk about our storytimes, children and teen programs, and displays. I hope you will both gain something from my posts as well as stay as entertained as I was creating these moments to write about. Hope to post soon. Regards.

The Youth Services Room