Everything you need to know about dyslexia and how to better serve youth with dyslexia in your library
My monthly tween manga club is one of my favourite programs, largely because I am a life-long manga and anime nerd, and it thrills me to be able to share my passion with kids who love Japanese comi…
One of the longest-running, most successful teen programs at my branch also happens to be an excellent example of teen-driven unprogramming:...
Dungeons & Dragons and other RPG games have become increasingly popular recently in libraries. It’s a great way to engage with kids, but can cause some logistical problems. First, getting…
Check out these fun activities from Award Winning Author/Illustrator Jarett Lerner to do at home or in the classsroom. Includes comics, drawing, and more.
Check out this awesome infographic showcasing what public libraries do for teens. YALSA created it with data from the 2013 (FY2012) Public Library Data Service (PLDS) Statistical Report. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/sites/ala.org.yalsa/files/content/Infographic2_FINAL.pdf Stephen
Simple planning sheets for the creation of Mythical creatures, prior to an extended writing activity. Two simple planning frames are provided for the pupils to draw,design and note their initial ideas. Also included is a bank of vocabulary for pupils to maintain access to, including a range of easy ...
The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County is a small to medium sized library in a fairly conservative and small(ish) Midwest town. It’s landlocked and there isn’t a lot of floor space to reva
Look at the essay and do the exercises to improve your writing skills.
About seven months ago, I noticed a new trend among public libraries of offering “adulting” programs. When I first saw a posting via social media about this program, my brain screamed, “Where were …
Library Escape Rooms are really big right now, so I tried to design this program so that any library can try to duplicate it. Because making something like this is kinda daunting–where do yo…
This coloring page features the Chimera from Greek mythology. It has the head of a goat, the body of a lion, and a tail of a snake!
I love poetry. In fact, I still have all my old high school notebooks full of my very bad angst filled poetry. Occasionally, I still even add a new poem. And since April is National Poetry Month, I wanted to find a way to combine some poetry activities with the new MakerSpace at The Public […]
Howdy I liked the Book Fortune Teller so much I just knew I had to make a version for my Teen Animanga Club. Just click the link to print an editable Publisher file with my cute text and a blank copy for your teens to write on. For a quick printable PDF click here. Laura Disclaimer
Everyone wants to be a spy, so Miss Gloria and I did a program a few years back where are kids could learn how to become a secret agent. It was a lot of fun and pretty low cost. We started by havi…
Okapi Printout. The Okapi is a giraffe-like mammal found in Congo River Basin rainforests of the upper Congo River in Africa. This nocturnal animal was only discovered by scientists in the early 1900's.
I run a Pokemon Club at my library as part of a regular series of after school programs. The kids who come to my club are always very excited to be here, and they often stop by and talk about Pokemon or ask me when we'll meet again, even if Pokemon Club is weeks away. I am glad to have such a large group of kids who come to the library on a regular basis, but I wanted to find a way to keep them engaged with the library between meetings. I know these kids love their Pokemon and they love talking about them, too. So I wondered, would it be possible to do readers' advisory for a particular Pokemon? I created bookmarks with a Pokemon on one side and a list of 3-4 books I think that Pokemon would like to read. I did this based on my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the different characters and their personalities. I made sure all the books I listed were part of my library's collection, and I added the call numbers after each one in case a child would want to find them on the shelf. For the back side of the bookmark, I used a picture of that Pokemon's evolution and left a blank area for the patron to suggest books for that Pokemon to read. I set out one set of these bookmarks (ten copies of the exact same one, so that one child didn't stop by and try to "collect 'em all" by grabbing the set), along with a sign explaining what to do. Children were free to pick up a bookmark, choose books for that Pokemon to read, and write down the titles on the bookmark. Once completed, they brought it to me and received free Pokemon cards. Our library has amassed a large collection of slightly random, mostly common Pokemon cards. I will admit that more than a few of these were from my own collection, as I thought it important to learn how to play the card game before we started our Pokemon club. I want the library to have a small collection of cards that I or a volunteer can use during club meetings so that kids who are intimidated by trading with other kids, but who still want to trade, can do so with me. However, in an average batch of Pokemon cards, there will be several duplicates. I compiled all the duplicates into several stacks by type and dealt them into piles so that each stack contained, for example, two fire Pokemon, two water Pokemon, etc. Then I put each stack in an envelope. Kids who finish the Pokemon bookmark receive one envelope of cards, which gives them an incentive to participate and also rids the library of all of its extra cards. None of the kids are receiving super-valuable cards, but the cards are still good for trading or playing the game. I haven't even announced this passive program to my Pokemon club kids yet as we haven't had a meeting since I made the bookmarks, but in just the first 24 hours of the bookmarks being out, I already had six kids stop by my office to receive their cards. They informed me that it was easy to look up books on the computer and add them to their list of suggestions; I'm glad that they have a skill - looking in the library's catalog to find a book - that many of my patrons lack. I was hesitant at first to try this program, as it seemed a bit labor-intensive, but it took less than ten minutes to create the envelopes of cards, and the bookmarks took less than an hour to create and not very much time to print, either. I only have eight different bookmarks made so far; if this program is as successful as I hope it will be, I will add more later on. If it fizzles out and is no longer interesting, then I won't bother creating more bookmarks. You can access the bookmarks here. Enjoy! UPDATE: The second part of this article can be found here.
OK, det här är väl inte världens mest seriösa biblioteksaktivitet och det kan upplevas skrämmande eller provocerande för en del (-Får en göra så med bibliotekets böcker? Det har väl inget med läsni…
It's "spring" break 'round these parts. For a part-time librarian that means stealth programming. And (besides ninjas) what's stealthier th...
January is kind of a quiet time at the library, so I thought it would be a great time for a contest! I had the Where's Waldo idea for a while and I wasn't able to do it until now! The idea is basically a scavenger hunt around the Children's room with characters from the Waldo series. So far it has been getting a good reaction and it is a lot of fun to watch kids try to find all of the characters. One day Tim came for a visit. I told him about the Waldo's and he felt the need to participate as well! Here is how I ran the contest. I rounded up all of the characters which included Waldo, Woof, Wilma, Odlaw and Wizard Whitebeard. I found some images of them and had them laminated. I sent the aids to go on recon and hide the characters all over the children's room. They did a really great job because I had trouble finding them the first time. Next to keep track of entries, I made forms for kids to write their info. I also put small images of the characters so the kids knew who to look for. Its a fun contest and the kids enjoyed it. This won't be the last of scavenger hunt type contests be sure to look for more in the future!
Kids and grown ups alike will have fun with these simple ideas for activities in genealogy. Know your roots!
Art Therapy Resources
This is an old post that I wrote, and, for some reason, never published. This was the culmination of my super fun and successful Spy Week that I did last spring break. I wrote about the passive station I did all week here and here, and this post is about the drop-in Spy Party I did on the last day. This was a super easy activity, that went over REALLY well: fingerprinting. This amuses me greatly: Chicken disguise Program outline: Here's another example of my planning process, which I talk about here. In this case, I decided to save one of the activities for a different program (Angry Birds), since I realized I was over planning for this one. Nametages with spy names (Mr. or Ms. plus a color or initial) Laser course (red yarn) Observation test: This was really popular. I had a tray full of random items. The kids would look at it for 10-20 seconds, and then I would remove something and they would try to remember what was missing. They played it independently too, taking turns being the guesser and the hider. The disguise station was basically just paper crafts--make a hat, beard, or other disguise Leftovers was items I had already created for the passive station Book display: I had them take 5-10 minutes and look at the books I had on spies and codes. Then they wrote a cool fact on the poster paper I had out. Two Truths and Lie--regular game that was a good fit for the program. Lying Game--I don't remember what this was! See the post here for a list of all my resources and credit for many of the ideas I used.
Learn about and color in the Tasmanian Devil, a nocturnal carnivorous marsupial from Tasmania.
