President's Day Palooza!

45 minutes

Intended for 24 guests, grades K-2

Supplies

2 tubs of pretzel rods (about 170)
3 containers of vanilla frosting
1 glue stick
1 spoon
24 zip lock sandwich bags
24 paper plates
24 pieces of green construction paper
"Duck for President" by Doreen Cronin
"John, Paul, George and Ben" by Lane Smith

Program

Let's have some fun with this one!  But before the fun can be successful, we need to set it up right.  The craft for this program is building pretzel rod cabins.  Lincoln lived in a log cabin, but I can assure you it wasn't this tasty! 

To create a building base for your cabins, trace the paper plate on the green construction paper.  Cut out your circle, and glue the green paper onto the paper plate.  This helps to reinforce it a bit, and it also acts as "grass" to build upon. 

This next step is a little messy.  You need to spoon out about 1/4 of the frosting can into a zip lock sandwich bag.  With this, you're creating little pastry bag so the kids will be able to pipe out the icing later.  This takes a little time on your end, but it saves a lot of mess later. 

 

As for the program itself, start off with a story time reading both books.  They're silly but also informative!  And then just let the kids build their edible pretzel rod cabins.  The concept is the same as Lincoln Logs and using the frosting as a glue to hold the pieces together.  It's fun and delicious. 

 

 

 

I was pretty impressed by the architecture skills of these 4-7 year olds! 

Earth Day Birthday!

45 minutes

Intended for 24 guests, grades K-2

Supplies

2 flats (48 flowers each) of marigolds
24 trowels (Milk jug shovels)
"The Curious Garden" by Peter Brown
Popcorn
Juice Boxes

Program

Earth Day is April 22nd!  What better way to celebrate than by having a birthday party for the Earth!  And who doesn't like the gift of flowers?

Before we can even begin, this program takes a bit of preparation and planning.  Unless your library has a massive budget, or a lot of gardening staff that knows how to share well, you're going to need to figure out  way to produce 24 trowels.  Fortunately, thanks to Pinterest, you can learn how to turn any old piece of trash into something moderately functional.

I had stumbled upon this project on Pinterest which came from the blog Darling, Just Be...

In this project, you turn an old milk jug into a trowel!  This is perfect.  The kids won't be digging deep holes, and then they can even take them home to use at the beach or what have you!  So for this project to even take place, you need to collect about 24 milk jugs.  And then properly fashion them into trowels perfect for little hands.  

Marigolds are in season in April, they help to keep away mosquitoes and ants and they are pretty!  Which is what makes marigolds a perfect choice for this planting project.  Each child will be able to plant 2 flowers along the border of the library garden. The planting outside should take about 25 minutes.

After planting outside, the kids can come in for a reading of Peter Brown's "The Curious Garden" and have some popcorn and juice!

You're Never Too Old: Finger Painting

45 minutes

Intended for 20 guests, grades 3-5

Supplies

Tempera paint
Heavy stock paper
"Stuck" by Oliver Jeffers
"A Funeral in the Bathroom: And Other School Bathroom Poems" by Kalli Dakos

Program

Who says that once you turn a certain age that you can't have the same fun as the little ones?  I know I didn't.  Which is certainly one of the reasons why I love being a children's librarian! 

This is a program series titled "You're Never Too Old."  It is geared for grades 3-5, and they get to have fun that they might think they are "too old" to have anymore.  This first program is Finger Painting.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  Kids, grades 3-5 get to finger paint again.  Something they may not have done since kindergarten, or, for shame, have never gotten to do ever! 

I selected some picture books, something they may also think they are "too old" for, that would be right up their alley.  It's amazing how many picture books are written on a higher level and can still be enjoyed.  Perhaps another reason why I am a children's librarian!

For this, I read two poems from "A Funeral in the Bathroom," Broken Toilet and Emergency.  You Can probably guess what they're about by the title.  And I also read "Stuck" by Oliver Jeffers.  They loved the silliness of it and were able to pick up on the irony (I was even able to give them a little lesson about irony!). 

After that, they were so excited to just finger paint!  Which eventually turned into the children painting their fingers, and their hands, and their arms... But hey, that's what it's about! 

 

I set out the tempera paint on plastic coated paper plates.  I only gave them the 3 primary colors plus white.  I told them to mix and get creative! 

 

They had such a good time.  I joined in too.  There should be finger painting for adults!