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It's high time to celebrate a little pre-summer and SLP school age programming. What's up this busy month?
May StuffHolly over at the new blog
Let the Wild Rumpus Begin has a great post up about robotics in her Maker Monday series.
Miss Molly the Librarian loves cosplay so Free Comic Book Day was just about the best day ever.
Jennifer over at In Short I am Busy has two programs to share:
Raising Chicks and her highly successful
1-3rd grade book club (a 3-5th grade version will launch in fall).
Brytani at
The Neighborhood Librarian did a Fancy Nancy party just before Mother's Day. Oooh-la-la!
Summer StuffJennifer at In Short I am Busy
is going a new direction with her summer program and also shares her
superhero masks passive program win.
And Jenna, well known for her ALSC advocacy work guest posts on Tiny Tips and
reminds us of what is really important in summer.
This is the third year we have kicked off summer with a library read in-camp out. As luck would have it both Friday the 13th and a full moon made it imperative that the evening feature spooky stories.
We do this after hours - the doors lock at 6:00 pm on Friday, we have a brief break and re-open for our campers. Everyone is invited to bring blankets or sheets, flashlights and wear PJs. We have a few teen volunteers who take chairs out from tables to create camping sites (whether under the table or using chairs) or help put blankets between shelves anchored by piles of books to create a cozy reading nook.
The room is darkened with just a little light coming in through the windows. The first half hour is spent building tents, signing up for SLP and reading. We gave everyone a few minutes heads-up to undo their tents near the end of the 30 minutes. Then we invited families into the program room, where spooky stories and walking s'mores were ready (2 boxes of honey graham bears + 2 packages of chocolate chips + one bag of mini-marshmallows = one cup of sweet fun) - and our our fake campfire. A display of fine spooky books were ready for kids to check-out.
We had some younger kids than usual so I started by reading Reynolds/Brown's
Creepy Carrots. I let kids know that each story would get creepier so they could leave if it got to be too much. I told the "Coffin Story" and "Tailybone" with the lights low - but kept a bit more on the lighter side. Everyone made it (so brave!).
While the stories were happening our volunteers quickly put the room back together. Families had time to check out a few books (thanks to our director who staffed the check-out and did final lock-up).
This is one of the easiest, most pleasant and laid back unprogram one can do for summer - or any time of the year. Kids and families love the magic of an empty library and those that come love the reading and the program. For more samples of how to do it, drop by earlier posts
here and
here and Amy did her own
fun take on it last year.
As we come to the final posts on the School Age Programming survey Lisa Shaia and I developed, the spotlight turns to YOU. Our respondents generously shared the many ways that they find programming ideas.
The breakdown:
We are wired, baby!
The internet, web, google searches, listservs like pubyac and alsc were mentioned 92 times. Pinterest and library blogs were mentioned 57 and 59 times respectively. It is clear that respondents used the rich content available online to spark ideas and find new content.
But lest you think we are tied to our phones, tablets and PCs, I must disabuse you of this notion based on survey responses!
Another huge source of inspiration was talking, brainstorming, collaborating and chatting with colleagues. 62 respondents found this method of inspiration to be a great idea source. Another 34 found in-person conferences, workshops and meetings to be invaluable in their idea generation for programs. And 34 respondents found their ideas in print sources - journals and magazines, professional resource books and newsletters. SLP manuals were the go-to inspiration for an additional 11 respondents.
Plus a huge source of inspiration (28 mentions) is the media, popular culture and what books and series are hot with kids.
And finally, on a more personal level, many, many people said their inspiration came from talking to kids, teachers, parents and families. They celebrated their own imagination and ideas ("warped mind," "in dreams," "idea fairy," "the recycling bin") as well as dipping into their own experience or files to come up with great content. And many simply stated that ideas for programs are everywhere.
They are indeed. To see additional survey results, please stop
here,
here,
here,
here and
here.
Image: 'Chocolate fountain #nomz' http://www.flickr.com/photos/12700556@N07/6876057805
Found on flickrcc.net
Lisa Shaia at Thrive Thursday and I put together a survey recently to take a snapshot of school age programming. We had 171 responses (yay, yous!). We've looked at how many librarians create how many programs; the role of budget in number of programs; how often programs are offered and the scoop on outreach.
Today let's take a peek at what kinds of programs for school-agers people reported out on and where they find their best go-to inspirations.
Almost 70% of respondents offered ongoing program series for kids - multiple week or continuous programs like a Lego Club , Book Club or Pokemon Club. But an almost equal number also offered one shot programs that capitalized on celebrating the publication of a new book, a book character or a special season or holiday. Seasonal reading programs similar to a down-sized SLP were also offered by over half of the respondents.
It is clear that school age programs show a rich variety of approaches by librarians. We didn't ask about individual program names but a dip into any youth services blog,
Thrive Thursday monthly round-up blog hop or PUBYAC perusal would reveal a perfect sampling of what is being done with school-agers.
Our next post will look at where our ideas come from!
Lisa over at Thrive After Three and I did an informal survey recently to look at the state of school-age programming. We had 171 responses to help us get a snapshot of services.
Today we want to look at number of programs that people reported as well as if there is a a correlation between that number and how much budget is devoted to programming.
From the survey results, it is clear that we librarians love to program for school-age kids. On average, respondents presented 42 programs annually. The high was 200 - at a shop with five librarians. The lower end included 2 programs at another shop with 5 librarians. So you never know!
A pleasant surprise was how many passive programs libraries were reported. Out of that average of 42 yearly programs, almost 10 were passive programs. Over 3/4 of respondents run active
and passive programs.
Annual program budgets varied from 0 to $12,000; the average was $1,169. Looking at 42 programs annually, that breaks down to about $27 per program. We know that contracted performances (singers, jugglers, magicians, storytellers, etc) that need $300-$500 to fund can really eat up a program budget fast. So we might speculate that that $27 per program may be on the high side.
We were especially curious to see if a large program budget meant more programs. This is clearly not the case. The programming budgets of respondents varied widely as did the number of programs. Most interesting, over half the respondents had an annual budget for programs of $500 or less and on average had the same number of programs as libraries with large budgets. Some spend on average $1-2 per program. This may indicate these libraries are not spending money on contracted performers but more likely running program series with materials on hand, book clubs, etc.
Libraries that have large program budgets and staff are lucky - but programming numbers don't seem to correlate with that large budget. Youth librarians have long used creativity and ingenuity to create programming magic and the survey seems to bear this implication out.
To see more published results of the survey, please stop over at Lisa's blog Thrive After Three
here and
here!
Graphic courtesy of Pixabay
Lisa Shaia (of
Thrive After Three and the founder of
Thrive Thursday, a monthly round-up of programs, services and thoughts on serving school-agers) has created a survey with me to see what is happening in the world of school age programming.
We want to know how you serve this age group, your triumphs , challenges and the nitty gritty. We will be blogging about results soon so don't delay in filling it in!
Please take a few minutes and fill in this easy survey and we will share results at our blogs!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XHPupB8RqMhWh6w0ufuOF-FHyatA4V9W2InN7khTNQU/viewformThanks!!
I am happy to host the May Day edition of the Thrive Thursday blog hop. It's a chance for us to read about programs, thoughts and initiatives happening for our school-age audience. Enjoy!
ACTIVE PROGRAMS
Who doesn't love Geronimo Stilton - and all his friends! Lisa over at Thrive After Three blog breaks down a great four week series for us.
Carol at
Program Palooza did two Earth Day-related programs
here and
here that combine fiction, non-fiction and a re-cycled craft.
More
Earth Day friendly crafts are on tap at
Ms. Kelly at the Library's blog.
And Lisa suggests a
Lorax Book Vs. Movie program that has a nice Earth Day connection too!
Why not re-purpose a fun craft-it program for
Money Smart Week by having the kids "buy" their supplies to bring math into the STEAM picture? Amy of
Show Me Librarian shares in a guest post at
Library as Incubator blog
Disability awareness becomes part of this program from Carol at
Program Palooza.
American Girl Addy is the focus at
Ms. Kelly at the Library's program.
Unprogramming might with E
lephant and Piggie shows up at my blog Tiny Tips.
Movies...er, I mean book trailers!! Dawn over at
Story Time with and Signs and Rhymes shares how
5th graders made book trailers of her book.
Create a Picture Book workshop series...seriously!
Story Time with and Signs and Rhymes Dawn takes readers on a step by step process on creating a workshop where kids learn the ins and outs of authorship!
With summer coming up, this
ALSC webinar inspired wiki space on STEM programs will inspire you.
STEALTH/PASSIVE PROGRAMSNeed some
passive programs for spring break? Sara at
Bryce Don't Play to the rescue!
Angie at
Fat Girl Reading has two more
spring break stealth programs that are a cinch to set up.
Need a
poetry passive program/display? Mel at Mel's Desk shares her colleague Julie's great work!
Less Screen Time Week is how Wisconsin librarian Sue Abrahamson is rethinking Screen Free Week, May 5-9, as guest poster on
Tiny Tips for Library Fun.
PROGRAM THOUGHTSOver at
Kids Library Program Mojo, a blog for librarians taking a youth services programming CE course: Michelle shared thoughts about the
pressures on parents and program attendance; and Erin reflects on how we can
meet parents where they are in our programming.
Re-imagining library tours into a truly phenomenal experience takes time and effort that I reflect on here at
Tiny Tips.
And to bring us home, Sara at
Bryce Don't Play starts solving for the equation of
school family literacy outreach awesomeness using some Brewfest math.
Stay tuned for the June blog hop hosted at
Storytime ABCs. And if you'd like to host a month, contact Lisa Shaia, our intrepid founder and scheduler to throw your hat in the hosting ring:
lisamshaia (at) gmail (dot com). We also have a Pinterest board and a Facebook Group, so join in on the fun!
My Wisconsin colleague and wonder woman, Sue Abrahamson, from the Waupaca Public Library is my guest today. Rather than go screen-free, the staff decided to make gentle suggestions on ways to introduce activities that have families working their hands and moving away from screens. Best of all, look at the programs the library scheduled to support the families that week!
In Waupaca, we believe it is practically impossible to go "screen-free" so we are calling it "Less Screen Week" and are challenging families to spend one week setting aside more time for activities that do not involve a screen (TV, gaming, computers, and yes.... smartphones!). Below is our log sheet for families to mark 15 things from the list to be eligible for a prize for their children at the library..... and, of course, it's a BOOK! They can choose from our prize book selection.
May Day! May Day!
Whatcha been doing with school-agers lately?
It's time, yes, time my friends, to share your blog posts of the wonder and magic you work with kids at your library - services, programs, thoughts, initiatives at our
Thrive Thursday round-up.
I'll be publishing our monthly round-up in one short week on
Thursday May 1 so now is the time to scroll through your blog goodness and send the goodies to me, your May host (yes, I DO have a basket of flowers, a woven flower crown and a Maypole at the ready).
Please share your links to school age program magic in the comments below!
I love the opportunity to get out and share with library colleagues. But as many of you know, it's even more fun to get out of the library world and share with folks outside of libraries.
I'll be presenting tomorrow at the
Wisconsin Afterschool Association conference in Lake Geneva. This two day conference is for providers as well as folks working in youth serving organizations like the Y and teen centers who work regularly with afterschool kids.
The fact that I will be at this conference is pure kismet. I was visiting a friend last fall and her dining room table was full of applications for presentations. Turns out she is the chair of this year's WAA conference. In our conversation, it was clear that libraries should not just be part of the association and conferences but also have a place at the table given our work with this demographic.
So "
Book It! Creating Fun, Book Based Programs for School Agers" was born. Here's the description:
Promote literacy and fun! Learn easy preparation ideas, how to adapt books to parties and tips on “unprogramming” (letting kids guide discovery). Best of all - leave with plans!I'll be talking unprogramming ways to keep programs managable: collecting great sources from blogs and Pinterest; reasonable prep time; giving kids agency to discover and creating stations of stuff. The book party themes we'll talk about: dinosaurs, Elephant and Piggie, Dr. Seuss and Diary of a Wimpy Kid programs. The
Pinterest board is ready. So am I.
Let's meet new friends and potentail partners and share the library good word!
Graphic courtesy of
Pixabay
Any day or time is a great time for a dinosaur program. While I love doing them for any age, I especially enjoy doing these programs for school agers - the non-fiction elements are just too good to pass up and it's a wonderful STEM opportunity.
Here is how we did our most recent dinosaur program:
Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. Barbary Kerley; Illus by Brian Selznick
This is a Caldecott honor is great to book talk. Two hundred years ago, people hadn't the slightest idea on what dinosaurs looked like. English artist Hawkins studied the bone fragments and structures and used his own knowledge of animals to build life size models of what dinosaurs looked like. He held a dinner party in a hollowed out dinosaur to create excitiement and eventually created a huge garden to display the behemoths to the public.
Bones Bones Dinosaur Bones. Byron Barton
This is a great short picture book on archaeology and fossil hunting.
Activity: Have kids glue dry penne pasta (bones) onto a dinosaur outline. Doing it early in the program gives the glue plenty of time to dry. It also gives us a chance to talk about how hard it was for scientists to figure out exactly how all the fragments theyuncovered fit together. Imagine putting a dinosaur skeleton together without an outline. What bone connects to what bone?!?! Thanks to
Sunflower Storytime for this
much used idea here at LPL!
How Big Were the Dinosaurs. Bernard Most (very humorous) OR
How Big Were Dinosaurs. Lita Judge (great contrasts)
Read either of these books that examine and compare the size of dinosaurs.
Activitiy: Have a ball of string or yarn 130 feet long (don't tell the kids how long). Tie it at one end of the room and have kids take turns unrolling it as you "measure a dinosaur). This was the size of a diplodocus. Lots of ooohs and aaahs along the way. Then bring the kids and string back and have them measure how long the string is with yard stick and tape measure. Talk about what else they think might be that long around the community.
 |
| Unrolling the string |
Activity: As the final ending activity, I cannot resist asking kids to be fossil hunters. We talk about the painstaking careful excavation of fossils and dinosaur bones with small picks, troweks and even brushes to carefully reveal small fragments. Everyone receives a chocolate chip cookie and a toothpick. We ask each child to carefully excavate one chocolate chip from the cookie with the toothpick - and then gobble up the results.
With lots of non fiction books on display ready for check-out this is a sure fire hit and an easy way to do science with fierce fans of dinaosaurs!
* a huge tip of the hat and genuflecting reverence to Sandy Berman who back in the day fought mightily - and often successfully- to push LC subject headings from the academically bizarre to the practical, useful and reality-reflecting modern day. As a young librarian, there WAS no such thing as a subject heading called "Dinosaurs". No my friends, it was really, really truly "Dinosauria". Here's to Sandy and his amazing leadership that still stands us in good stead.
So happy to see some action in the blogosphere with school age programming content. Some recent news:
A brand new blog from Library Village with school age content called
Librarian Out Loud. The very first post is a winner breaking down how to be fabulously successful with a rainbow band loom.
Thrive Thursday, a movement to share school age content started by Lisa Shaia, has officially grown into a monthly blog hop hosted by different bloggers on the first Thursday of each month.
Lisa hosted the first monthly version in February and
Jennifer at Jean Little blog just posted the second hop last week. Be sure to watch for these gatherings of school ideas. Upcoming hosts and blog hosts include Annie at sotomorrow, Sara at Bryce Don't Play, Amy at Show Me Librarian and even me at Tiny Tips. Be sure to share your programs!
Drop by and check them out!
Amy Koester of Show Me Librarian and I are tag-teaming at our blogs this week to report out the Chicago ALA Conversation Starter -Unprogramming: Recipes for School Age Success - that we led on Monday July 2 (see below for links to the whole series). Please join our continuing conversation in the comments or on Twitter by using the hashtag #unprogramming. Amy and I were both so excited to have a chance to share the thoughts behind unprogramming at a national conference level. And we were uber pleased to have a SRO crowd of colleagues come to the program.
What's fun about unprogramming is that it really isn't new. Most of you are doing unprogramming already in big and little ways. We are simply pulling the threads together and encouraging everyone to try this more mellow approach and see real benefits. Just starting the conversation, so to speak.
The audience at our program joined the conversation and shared great ideas of how they have used the unprogramming concept in their programs. Below are a few quick ideas people shared of programs they are doing:
Painting to Music - kids pull up music on YouTube and then paint while listening to it. Disfferent beats elicit different art responses. The art the kids create is then hung in the room.
Stamping - using Ed Emberley's books as inspiration, kids use stampers and stamp pads to create their own nique creations.
Bibliobop - combining books with music and dance
"Training Camps" - train kids to be a cowboy or pirate or logger or astronaut in these free-form programs that allow kids to pick up "skills" they need to become mighty.
Book Club - kids choose individual books to each read and then videotape interviews with each other booktalking their choice.
Guys Read Club - always done with a book component as well as a "smashing" component (water balloons off a roof; TV drop)
Plus Stuffed Animal Sleepovers, Teddy Bear Clinics, Messy Art Club!
Please share ideas for your unprograms in the comments or under the #unprogramming hashtag on twitter.
We
storified the twitter feed for more audience reactions and ideas. Amy will finish our series today with our slide deck.
Thanks for joining us so we could share the fun of this program from ALA in the blogosphere with all of you. And thanks to Amy for being the best presentation partner one could have!
Unprogramming series
Amy Koester of Show Me Librarian and I are tag-teaming at our blogs this week to report out the Chicago ALA Conversation Starter -Unprogramming: Recipes for School Age Success - that we led on Monday July 2 (see below for links to the whole series). Please join our continuing conversation in the comments or on Twitter by using the hashtag #unprogramming.What is it about unprogramming that we are so high on? One of the key pieces is that planning is greatly simplified - a matter of tagging ideas you read in blogs or hear from colleagues into a manila folder, Evernote, Pinterest or into whatever “possible ideas” bin you favor. Checking publisher and author sites, books in the collection and google results in possible activities. This very low-level on-going "aha!" planning lets staff address their other work without being overwhelmed as a program is decided upon and the date of the event approaches.Keeping the action within the program conversational and letting kids discover on their own contributes to the ease and simplified planning. By allowing kids more agency within the program, staff become free to guide rather than lead. One thing you quickly discover is how much kids enjoy the program when they have responsibility and freedom to direct their activities and make discoveries, talk about a book or author or the process they are going through. Worried about helping staff transition between over-planned programs and unprogramming? To create staff buy-in, encourage spending less time on preparation by connecting the budgetary dots: too much time spent prepping a stand-alone program isn’t financially worth it for the institution.
Consider partnering with an over-planner and modeling planning and doing a program together to show how preparation can be kept simple and the program rewarding. Goal setting with staffers can also be helpful. Challenge staffers to spend no more than 2 hours of prep per school-age program. Also encourage strategic thinking: if you spend money or time buying or creating a prop, where else can it be used.
The results are more mellow preparation, less emphasis on process and more on relaxed chatting and activities that relate directly to books.Stop by Amy's blog today to discover our Pinterest page full of programs and a real life example of how unprogramming works! Unprogramming series
Part 5 - Why It Works!
Part 6 -
Part 7 -
Part 8 -
I'm doing a webinar along with three of my favorite BFF-brarians on Wednesday March 6, sponsored by our state library agency. My part is on unprogramming - freeing yourself to play with content, literacy and kids as leaders in programs. What's about the rest? Read on:
Your youth services might be a well-oiled machine of systematic displays and story times, but how often do you look at WHY you do what you do? Sometimes you need to reinvent the wheel and break the mold. Hear from three youth services experts in the state on ways think of yourself as an educator (versus entertainer), literacy enthusiast (versus craft expert), and life changer (versus summer library soldier).
Mark your March calendar for:
3:00-4:00pm Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Hosts: Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, DPI Library Consultant; Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System Youth Services and Outreach Coordinator; Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library (Janesville) Head of Youth Services; Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library Head of Youth Services
No need to register—just click the link on the scheduled meeting day and time. Sign in with your first name or library/school name. Webinars will be recorded and archived for later viewing.
Here are some links referenced on the webinar to leave you an easy trail (I've scribbled links at webinars - all incorrectly so I want to give attendees a break):
Barbara Scott's
Children's Programming blog - not too active recently except for Lego programs, but go back and find detailed plans for book parties. She is the inspiration for the way our programs have become unprogrammed!
Pubyac is the mother of all youth listservs. While stumpers can dominate, the programs shared are dynamite.
teachingbooks.net is rich with content focusing on youth book creators: trailers, author interviews, discussion questions and more.
Bryce Don't Play - yes, Sara works with me. Her blog is truly a trip into a young librarian's journey to awesome - from programs described to the ways of thinking why she does what she does. In this post she explains how to stay au courant with kids' passions and obsessions.
Pinterest. It's how I program now; I can say nothing more.
Hope you join us for an interactive good time!
Image: 'Eggs-tra Special for You, Happy Easter!' http://www.flickr.com/photos/66606673@N00/450373034 Found on flickrcc.net
.jpg)
Really excited for this!
Is that 3-4 Central Time? I'm on the west coast.
3-4 pm Central!
I'm going to try to attend this! Free webinars can be hard to come by. Thanks for letting us know.
Is the archived webinar available?
Why, yes, glad you asked! Never fear because the session is archived. You can access the session on this webpage http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_ys-sn#prof-dev under “Professional Development”