Create Your Own Race Course

45 minutes

Intended for 24 guests, grades 1-3

It can be easy to get caught up in frilly, lacy tea parties, and Pinkalicious programs, but we are leaving some guests out.  The boys -- who are typically harder to reach out to in the first place.  Well, this program is for the boys! 

Supplies

Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming! by Patricia Hubbell
Wiki-sticks
24 scissors
Poster board
Markers
Crayons

Set-up

Set up 6 tables in the room how ever you like for crafting.  I don't use chairs, I think kids craft better on their feet.  Plus, if this program is after school, they have been sitting all day...  At each table place 6 poster boards, 2 hand fulls of wiki-sticks, 6 scissors, and assorted markers and crayons. 

Program

Waiting for guests to arrive can be a little awkward.  No one arrives at the same time, and some come late.  To avoid any weirdness, play a game of Red light, Green light, 1, 2, 3! as the children come in.  When new guests arrive, they can just hop into the action. 

If you have never played Red light, Green light, 1, 2, 3!, it is simple enough.  Have the librarian stand at one end of the room and the children at the other.  (It is best to play this length wise in the room and not width wise.)  The librarian turns towards the wall, away from the children and says "Red light, Green light, 1, 2, 3!" and while the librarian is turned around the children try to make it to the other side of the room.  The librarian can say it fast or slow or any variation there in.  If the librarian turned around and catches a child moving, he/she can send the child back to start.  The children need to be stealth!  It's fun. 

Once all of the guests have arrives, it's story time!  Read through "Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming!" by Patricia Hubbell. 

After the book, it's time for a your craft.  Making a race track!  You want to make sure you have enough time, which is why I only suggested one book.  Each child gets a piece of poster board.  It doesn't have to be huge just sturdy.  In fact, you could cut the standard size poster board in half and that would be great.  The piece I used was 14.5" by 18".  Have the children place the wiki-sticks on the board as though they are outlining a race track.  Wiki-sticks are string covered in wax.  The wax makes them sticky so they can stick to the board, and they are pliable, so they can put as many twists and turns in the race track as they can dream up.  They can then color in the track to decorate it and add personality. 

Minute to Win It

45 minutes

Intended for 20 guests, grades 4-7

Based on that popular NBC show, Minute to Win It!  There are challenges that you try to complete, and it may seem simple, but the trick is, you only have one minute to win it!  The best thing about this program is that it can be done on a low budget because most of the items are simple house hold items that are already owned. 

The NBC website is very helpful.  It has all of the Minute to Win It activities listed, the supplies needed, and a video clip of how each activity should be played. 

We picked six different activities for the kids to do, and set up six different centers around the room.  Depending on the activity, there could be 2-4 stations per activity center.  We tried to keep as many kids busy with an activity as we could. The librarian in charge had a timer and clocked one minute.  Once the minute was up, the kids then rotated to try and complete another activity.

Activities we tried:

Breakfast Scramble

3 stations.
Supplies
3 cereal boxes
Scissors
Ruler
For Each Station
Take the front of a cereal box and cut it into 16 even rectangles, like a puzzle.  The fact that all the pieces are the same size and shape makes this tricky.  Scramble the pieces.  The children then need to reassemble the picture in less than a minute. 

Gettin' Juggy With It

1 station

Supplies

4 5 gallon jugs (water cooler jugs)

For Each Station

The child must stack the 4 jugs ontop of one another to make a very tall free standing jug pillar, so to speak. 

Coffee Topper

2 stations
Supplies
6 paper coffee cups
Old CDs (the more you have the better)
For Each Station
Place the 3 cups on the ground.  From a height of about 3 feet, the children have to drop a CD and try to get it to land on top of each cup.  A lot harder than you think...

Defying Gravity

2 stations
Supplies
6 balloons
For Each Station
Place 3 blown up balloons (not helium, just the sweet air from your lungs) at each station.  When the time begins, the child has to try and keep all 3 balloons in the air for the full minute.  You will need a good sized space for this one. 

 

Face the Cookie

4 stations
Supplies
1 package of sandwich cookies
1 table
For Each Station
Place the package of cookies on the table.  Have 4 kids stand around the table.  At the start of the activity, have the kids place a cookie on their forehead.  They then have to wiggle, squirm and contort their face to move the cookie from the forehead to the mouth.  Sure you could probably do one, but in order to complete this activity you have to get 3. 

A Bit Dicey

2 stations

Supplies

12 dice

24 popsicle sticks

1 table

For Each Station

Place 6 dice and a pile of popsicle sticks.  The child must then place the stick in their mouth and balance a vertical stack of 6 dice atop the stick.  

 

Shoe Fly Shoe

1 station
Supplies
1 table
Kids with shoes on their feet
For Each Station
You will need a good amount of room for this one.  Place the table about a foot away from a wall.  Have the child stand about 20 feet from the table.  The child needs to remove his/her shoe from his/her foot, and using his/her foot, try to flick the shoe onto the table.  Only one kid at a time otherwise shoes will by flying in people's faces. 

Stack Attack

2 stations
Supplies
2 tables
72 plastic solo cups
For Each Station
On a table, have a stack of 36 cups.  The child must then stack the cups in a pyramid pattern, having 8 cups on the bottom row, and then 7 cups on top of those, then 6 cups on top of those, then 5, then 4 and so on till there is one cup at the top.  After the pyramid is complete, the child must then take down the pyramid.  Don't.  Bump.  The.  Table.

You can have as many stations as you would like.  Feel free to mix it up and even use other activities.  If you feel the challenge is too hard and the kids will get frustrated trying to accomplish it, feel free to modify it.  For A Bit Dicey, 6 dice was waaaay too hard.  We found 3 to be more reasonable.  Above all, have fun!

Parachute Playtime

30 minutes

Intended for 15 guests, 3-5 year olds with an adult (15 children, 15 adults)

Supplies

Huge colorful parachute
CD or MP3 player
Assorted children's floor songs
Assorted classical music or whatever floats your boat

Program

For the first 5-7 minutes of the program, while quests are still arriving, do some floor songs to warm everyone up:
Ring around the Rosie
The Hokey Pokey
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
The Wheels on the Bus

Once everyone has warmed up, it is time to take the parachute out.  Build up the anticipation by chanting: "We're taking out the parachute!"  They love this.  Maybe I love it a bit more than they do... 

Once the parachute is out, have the kids and adults all gather around the parachute and play music of your choosing.  I stick with classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky...) because I don't have to worry about appropriateness and I honestly enjoy it.  It works great because of the varrying tempo, tone and volume. 

Here are a couple of different motions you can make with the parachute:
Slow big waves
Fast small waves
Fast big waves
Slow small waves
Up slowly and down slowly
Up slowly, down slowly, pull it behind your body and sit inside the parachute
Place 1 large inflatable ball in the parachute and try to keep it in / get it out
Place 4 medium inflatable balls in the parachute and try to keep them in / get them out
Place ~30 small "ball pit" balls in the parachute and try to keep them in / get them out
Place all the different sized balls into the parachute and try to keep some combination in / out
Walk around in a circle with the parachute
Adults hold up the parachute high and kids have a dance party underneath
Adults hold up the parachute high and kids switch places underneath
Adults hold up the parachute high, make waves and kids lay down underneath and watch
Kids hold up the parachue and adults dance underneath
Only green (red, yellow, blue) triangles make waves
Try "the wave", starting with librarian, moving clockwise, lift after the person to your right

Here are little clips from our Parachute Playtime program.  You can hear me screaming over everyone.  Yay for loud voices! 

Make no mistake, by the end of this program, everyone will be exhausted, especially the librarian.  But make sure to keep your energy up, because the tone and excitement of the room will depend upon the librarian. Have an energy drink or some coffee and mentally prepare, because these kids will run circles around you if you're not up to par!

National Cupcake Day - December 15

45 minutes

Intended for 25 guests, grades 2-4

Supplies

"Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake" by Thomas Taylor
"Cupcake: A Journey to Special" by Charise Mericle Harper
"If you give a cat a cupcake..." by Laura Numeroff
25 plain cupcakes
Decorative frosting
Sprinkles and assorted decorative candy
OR Pre-made (store bought) cupcakes (If your library has strict food preparation rules)
Harper Collins Cupcake Coloring page
Crayons
Markers
Sprinkles
Sparkles
Pom-poms
Name tags

Program

As children come in, ask them what their favorite cupcake is, and write it on a name tag along with their name.  They can then share with others their name and their favorite cupcake.  If you want to get fancy, you can have cupcake shaped name tags, perhaps made from a cupcake shaped Ellison dye (if your library is lucky to own one), or just create a rough cupcake shape, cut it out, put some double sided tape on it and call it a day! 

For this program, you can read how ever many books work best for you based on how many activities you are doing.

Post story activity 1. 
Use the Harper Collins Cupcake Coloring page and have the children decorate their own cupcake using the art supplies. 

If you will not be doing activity 2, I suggest that you read the Numeroff book, because this activity page comes from that book.  Also, if you are not having the children decorate their own real cupcake to eat, then you should have packaged cupcakes for the children to eat.  What's National Cupcake Day without eating a cupcake?  

Post story activity 2.
Have the children decorate their own plain cupcakes with frosting and edible decore to eat. 

This concludes the program, and hopefully the kids are happy, because they have just had a fantastic cupcake day.  Cupcakes make everyone happy, right?  Yes.  The answer to that rhetorical question is yes. 

 

Doll Tea Party!

45 mins

Intended for 25 guests, grades 2-6

Supplies

25 Tea cups
25 Saucers
Pretty table cloths
Iced Tea
Lemonade
Cookies and tea crackers (Goya Maria cookies work great!)
Craft supplies (for whatever craft you choose)
American Girl Book to read ("Is This Normal?: Girls' Questions" and/or "True Stories: Girls' Inspiring Stories of Courage and Heart")
American Girl Magazine for craft ideas
Tables
Chairs

Set-up

Arrange tables in the front of the room with pretty table cloths.  Set the tea cups, saucers, cookies, and beverages on the table buffet style.  Set up additional tables and chairs in the room for the guests to sit at and enjoy their tea. 

Program

For the first 5-7 minutes of the program, while waiting for party guests to arrive, play a simple game of Hangman. 

Once all guests have arrived, invite them to go up and get tea and snacks and bring them back to their table. 

While the guests are eating, read one or two of the stories from either book and invite them to respond and how it makes them feel, and if they have had to deal with a similar situation. 

When they have finished their snacks, have them clean up and begin the craft. 

You will want to leave about 20 minutes to complete the craft.  Craft ideas can be found in the American Girl Magazine, appropriately themed for that month. 

Crafts that I have done:
Knot Tie Blanket sized appropriately for the doll
Doll Sized Ice Cream Cone: made with small terracotta pot, styrofoam ball, tissue paper, and foam stickers.

After guests have finished their craft, the program is concluded!