Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19th (for the young buccaneers)

30 minutes

Intended for 20 guests, ages 3-5 with an adult

Supplies

"A is for Arrr!: A Pirate Alphabet" by Laura Purdie Salas
"Pirate Nap: A Book of Colors" by Danna Smith
20 pieces of white card stock
20 red foam squares (flag)
20 brown paper squares (treasure chest)
20 black ship shaped pieces
20 popsicle sticks
20 blue crayons
20 paper book cutouts
Bingo markers (Do-a-dot Art: Sponge Tip Applicator)
Jewel stickers

Program

With programs for the littler ones, I always have to remember to break up the story time with some finger plays.  Kings County Library System has a great wiki where they have an awesome collection of finger plays, rhymes and songs for the little ones.  Also, I tend to structure my programs a bit more for the little ones.  Not as much free time, more bing-bang-boom one thing to another to keep them entertained.  That being said, the program goes as follows:

Hello Song (Pirate style)

Hello, Hello!
Hello and how arrrrrrrrrrrrrr you?
I'm pirate-y, I'm pirate-y!
And I hope that you arrrrrrrrrr too!
(x2)

If you're a pirate

Tune: If you happy and you know it!

If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck (Swish, swish)
If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck (Swish, swish)
If you’re a pirate and you know it, then you’ll hear the sea winds blowin’.
If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck (Swish, swish)
(Repeat the song with “Walk the plank” (Stomp, stomp) & Say ahoy: Ahoy! (Wave hello)

Well blow me down mateys!  You all sound like formidable pirates to me!  This first book I have you ye all is "Pirate Nap: A Book of Colors" by Danna Smith.  Do you all think that you landlubbers can help me with the colors in this book?  Say "arrrrrr" if you think you can!  

"Pirate Nap: A Book of Colors" by Danna Smith

That was g-arrrrrrrr-eat ye landlubbers! Perhaps yer more pirate-y than I thought!  Let's do a little ditty together about Five Pirates on a ship!   

Five Pirates

Five pirates heading out to shore
One jumped overboard and now there are four.
Four pirates heading out to sea
One stole all the Captains's gold
And now there are three.
Three pirates with not a lot to do
One was made to walk the plank
And now there are two.
Two pirates having lots of fun
One drank all the first mate's juice
And now there is one.
One pirate sitting in the sun
He decides to abandon ship
And now there are none.

Well done me mateys!  Seems to me ye all know yer counting, but do ye know yer alphabet?  Let's practice it together to prep-arrrrrr-e for the next book!  (Sing the alphabet together.)  Well done! Does any one know what letter is a pirate's favorite? RRRRR!

"A is for Arrr!: A Pirate Alphabet" by Laura Purdie Salas

Well done again!  Let's sing one more pirate-y song before we do our craft for the day! 

I'm a Little Pirate

Tune: I'm a Little Teapot

I’m a little pirate, short and fat.
Here is my eye-patch, here is my hat.
When I pull the plug, the boat it sank,
That’s why they made me walk the plank!
(x2)

Arrrrrrr!  Let's go and make our craft! 

Once they have completed their craft, the program is concluded and the little pirates can go out and explore the open sea!  

Wishing Stones

45 minutes

Intended for 25 guests, grades K-3

Supplies

"Ella May and the Wishing Stone" by Cary Fagan
25 smooth stones (North Shore beaches are the best place to gather stones)
Paints
Glue
Glitter
Stickers

Program

This past summer, the theme of the 2012 Summer Reading Club was "Dream Big: READ!" and so in line with dreaming, I created a program that encouraged wishing.

The idea for this program is taken from the book "Ella May and the Wishing Stone."  It is about a little girl, Ella May, who stumbles upon a wishing stone that just so happens to make her wishes come true.  She brags to her friends about her wishing stone's powers and becomes just a tad bit rude with her new found power.  No spoilers about how it ends though, you'll have to check it out for yourself! 

For the program, I read this book.  And then I let all the children make their very own wishing stones!  (Disclaimer:  These wishing stones hold no "real" power and should not be treated as such.)  It's fun to wish and hope and dream, and if there is something that can encourage that in the children, then by golly, I'm for it!

They were given smooth stones, and paints, and glue, and stickers and a whole bunch of glitter!  I mean a lot of glitter.  Because what's a wishing stone without mass mounts of glitter on it?  The glitter makes it extra special!  And they were encouraged to just create and decorate!

Here is a wishing stone that I made:

And although I have had no wishes come true (yet!), it's pretty, and I will still keep wishing and hoping!  Because that is what is important. 

Painting with Grandparents - Grandma Moses and Grandparents Day! September 7 & 9

1 Hour

Intended for 25 guests, grades K-5 with grandparent(s)

Supplies

"The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds
25 water color sets
25 paint brushes
75 pieces of watercolor paper or card stock
Lovely classical music
Printings (from a color printer) or Grandma Moses's art

Program

As a Children's Librarian, we often become aware of obscure holidays and then find ways to celebrate them in programs.

September 9th is Grandparents Day. 

September 7th is Grandma Moses Day.  It was designated so because September 7th is the birthday of Anna Mary Robertson Moses.  She started a successful American folk painting career late in her life (when she was already a Grandma) which is why she was affectionately named Grandma Moses.  She commonly painted scenes from America's rural past.  Her paintings were used to publicize numerous American holidays.  During the 1950s, her exhibitions were so popular they broke attendance records!

Why not combine these two holidays, since they are so close in date and have a Painting with Grandparents program to celebrate them!

Grandma Moses, Halloween, 1955

I printed out some of Grandma Moses's art work and hung it in the program room to create a galleria.  Very simple yet totally refined. ;)

On one half of the room, there was a story corner set up, and on the other half, tables and chairs with water colors and paints.  

At the beginning of the program, I read a brief description of who Grandma Moses was and why it is celebrated on September 7th and also explained that Grandparents day is only 2 days after.

I then read a book to inspire the creativity of the group and warm their hearts.  Peter H. Reynold's "The Dot" is just a lovely story that teaches everyone they can be an artist.

After a reading of the story, I put on the classical music (a lovely mix of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms) and told everyone to go out to the tables and paint and be free!  The results were amazing.  Beautiful works of art from the children and the grandparents alike.  All in all, it was just a lovely, and very simple program to do.

These are two paintings that were made for me by two little guys who love the Titanic!  Truly made my day! 

International Sing Out Day! September 15

1 hour

Intended for 25 guests, grades 5-7

Supplies

Karaoke Machine OR

Gaming system that has karaoke games

Karaoke CDs OR

Karaoke games

Pizza (optional: for those hungry tweens!)

Plates

Napkins

Drinks

Program

This is pretty simple, and you probably get whats going on just by reading the supplies list.  Karaoke for tweens!  Some people just love to sing.  (I did and still do!)  Karaoke is a good time whether you can or can't sing, just watch others who do or just want to hang out with a fun crowd!  Why not host a karaoke event in a safe environment.  Monitor to make sure they are taking turns or have a sign up sheet and they can put in their song requests.  Just have fun with this one and they have fun too! 

The following gaming systems have karaoke games and microphone pieces to go with them:  PlayStation2, PlayStation3, Wii, XBOX360

At our library we have:

For the PlayStation2 and 3: 

Karaoke Revolution 

Karaoke Revolution Country

American Idol Encore

For the Wii:

Disney Sing It

Disney Sing It: Party Hits

Disney Sing It: High School Musical

Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3 - Senior Year

Disney Sing It: Pop Hits

Boogie

Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour

For XBOX360:
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore

Dictionary Day! October 16

Drop-in Program, All day

Intended for all the guests of the Children's Department

Supplies

Paper
Pencils

Program

Dictionary Day is October 16!  I wanted a fun and creative way to celebrate the language that we use, for better or for worse.  This is a very simple drop-in program that can take place all day long.  Participants can ask the reference librarian for a pencil and a piece of paper, and then feel free to create their own word, including a new definition too.  The created words can then be displayed on a bulletin board through out the day or till the end of the week.  Participants will feel pride in having their own new and innovative word on display for all to see! 

If you want to get a little fancy, because it is too simple for you, you could create a template for the participants to use when creating their new word:

confergate (kuhn-fur-geyt) verb. to go through a passageway by use of a secret or magic word of phrase. 

That's pretty much all she wrote.  Pun intended. 

Life Size Treasure Hunt!

45 minutes

Intended for 24 guests, grades 2-6

Supplies

An assortment of 35 or so random objects (ie. floppy disk, plastic banana, nerf darts, toy car, marbles, dice, clothes pins, toy figures, hilighter, peppermint candies, legos, a golden egg...)
A digital camera
Blocks (to create a background setting for the photo)
Smartboard
Laptop
Interactive "hidden objects" game

Program

For this program, the idea was to not only participate in a life size treasure hunt, but also to create your own to take with you!

In my library, we have a smart board.  And these things are actually pretty cool and very interactive.  We have been encouraged to use the smart boards in programs, so I was trying to think of a way that I could use it in a program and also have the kids use it.  I instantly thought of those "hidden objects" games!  I may or may not have an addiction to the hidden object games...
I used my MacBook for the program (because that's what I am familiar with) and from the Apple App store and I purchased Mysteryville: Hidden Object Investigation to use for the program.  It is like an "I Spy" book, but it's interactive.  There is a story line that goes with the objects you have to find, there is a certain amount of time to find the hidden objects, once you find the object you have to click on it and if you click too many random things you get a time penalty.  It's a lot of fun.  I wanted to project this game onto the smart board, and have the kids be able to play it on a huge screen and touch the items to collect them.  It was simple enough to implement, yet fancy and techie enough to draw a crowd and keep them interested. 

The second part of the program  was creating your own hidden objects game. I brought in 35 different totally random objects from home and I borrowed some from the library play space too.  Our library also has big foam building blocks.  I had the children build a setting with the foam blocks to use as a background for the "I Spy" picture.  I placed all the random items on a table in the room.  I had the children stand pick a random item that they wanted place in the scene.  Once the scene was set, I then used the digital camera to take a picture of the scene.  I wrote up a list of all the items that were hidden in the picture so that later on they can play and share with others the game they created. 

Here are the photos from two different angles!  See how many hidden objects you can find!  

  

International Paper Airplane Day! August 17

45 minutes

Intended for 25 guests, grades 2-4

Supplies

Pilot Wings pins
Paper (about 150 sheets)
Pencils
Hula hoops
Painters tape
String
"Origami Paper Airplanes" by Dider Boursin
"Paper Airplanes: Flight School" by Christopher L. Harbo
"Paper Airplanes: Copilot" by Christopher L. Harbo
"Paper Airplanes: Pilot" by Christopher L. Harbo
"Paper Airplanes: Captain" by Christopher L. Harbo
"The Kid's Guide to Paper Airplanes" by Christopher L. Harbo

Program

This program is about making paper airplanes, obviously, but it is also about that age old lesson: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"  It is a learning experience, as is much of life. 

When I was planning this program in my mind, where everything goes wonderfully according to how I envision it, I thought I would be able to have one of the major airlines graciously donate (because it's for the children!) the pilot wing pins that they hand out to children who fly with their airline.  This was a very lovely thought indeed.  However, when I started to do the footwork, and I called or emailed several of the major airlines (I will not drop names), I was given what is commonly known as "the runaround" and I received no complementary pins from anyone.  Sad face.  Thankfully though, Oriental Trading had these little pins ($3 for one dozen):

And my vision was fulfilled!

As the children walk into the program, you can hand them their unofficially official pilot wing pins as you tell them that today, they will become champions of the art form known as paper airplanes. 

I set up half of the room with tables for constructing planes.  On the tables, I laid out the various books listed above so that they can get some ideas.  I also had pencils on the table so they could write their names on the plane and create a plane name.  The other half of the room was set up with tests and obstacles to which they could submit their newly fashioned paper airplanes.

I put painters tape on the floor for a starting line, and had the children stand on the line and give their airplane a toss to see whose went farther. 

I hung hula hoops from the ceiling and they tried to fly their planes through the rings. 

I had baskets on the floor, and they tried to get their plane to land in the bucket.  Because, if you've flown on a plane before, you know that the landing is just as important as the flight. 

If their first plan does not preform in the test arena as they wished, they can "try, try again" and make a new one!