Inspired by a project in Jean Van't Hul's book "The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity,"Â children created colorful suncatchers with natural materials, clear contact paper and paper plates.
This is a simple and creative project for children and adults to complete together. When offered in person at the library, participants visited the library's garden to pick flowers, leaves and other natural items to use in their project.Â
As librarians, we are continually challenged and tasked with creating programming that teach multiple literacies — including information literacy, digital literacy, news literacy and media literacy — in fun, engaging and interactive ways.Â
Wonder Time is an engaging program that encourages curiosity and self-expression. Children discover that learning is fun!
Each Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m., kids have an opportunity to “wonder” about something. The program is geared toward (but not limited to) children ages 6 to 14.
 Actual text message exchange between one of the authors of this blog and her child:  Â
                          
The Unicorn Party was planned in response to the growing fandom associated with unicorns, particularly among children, tweens and teens. The program lasted 90 minutes and comprised several unicorn-based activities, unicorn snacks, a unicorn book display and a "live unicorn" (i.e. decorated pony).
This month, I’ve handed the spotlight to a dear friend who always knows what obscure holiday it may be and how to celebrate it! Kami Bumgardner is the youth services coordinator at Maitland Public Library in Maitland, Fla., and works primarily with toddlers and kids through fifth grade. Any questions or comments will be forwarded to her. Enjoy!
Â
***
This six-session pilot program encourages creativity — and interest in library services — for elementary- and middle school-aged children through open-ended art projects such as Watercolor Resist Paintings and Continuous Line Monsters.
We offered this program in collaboration with the organization Phoenix Family, which provided us with access to their existing after-school program and art supplies.
Passive programs can be a great way to regularly attract students into the library without having planned, specific events. Pick a corner of the library that can be designated for these drop-by activities, set out the supplies and some instructions, and let it go! Here are a few of my go-to passive programs.
The holidays always bring a lot of traffic to our libraries, and December 2016 was no exception. We offered Light Up The Holidays: Stories and Crafts as a children's program in all of our eight branches and even one of our Bookmobile stops. The program covered four different holidays that fell during the same week last year.
Stickering is a fun alternative to the coloring craze, and it requires few supplies. I purchased three "Paint by Sticker" books — two for children and one for adults — to use at the event. Participants were invited to pick out whatever image they wanted from the books and go to work!
The children's images took about 30 minutes to complete, and the ones for adults took approximately an hour.
Watch the video below to see how painting-by-sticker works.
This program is run once a month by a local cook and educator. She teaches children in grades second through sixth how to cook using our new mobile kitchen cart (Charlie Cart) here at the library. Participants gain culinary skills and use creativity and math skills to bake, cook and create.
April is Financial Literacy Month! How do you teach financial literacy to the younger crowds at your library?
ALA, in partnership with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has released a collection of free online games to teach children basic financial skills related to earning, saving and spending money.
The four interactive games — part of a series called Thinking Money for Kids and available at tm4k.ala.org — are designed for children ages 7 to 11 but are appropriate for other ages as well.
Virtual Literary Legos is a children's program offered via Zoom. It consists of two sessions: in the first, I read a story, asking the kids to pay particular attention to the visuals and think about something they could create with Legos. We take a break so the children can work on their creations, and then we reconvene for a show-and-tell.
This program incorporates literacy, creativity, meaningful interaction and fun with Legos! Before COVID-19, I ran this program once a month from our library; now I do it twice a month virtually.
Anamosa is a community of 5,533 in eastern Iowa, and it's quite remote. Many families drive 30 to 50 minutes to the nearby cities of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Dubuque looking for family activities.
Our residents are always looking for things for kids to do close to home, so the Anamosa Library & Learning Center put together a spring-long, superhero-themed program series for all ages, culminating in a private showing of “Avengers: Endgame” at a movie theater in Cedar Rapids.Â
When you think of providing programming at your library collaborating, with Special Olympics might not be the first organization that comes to mind. However, if you are in need of inclusive programming that reaches children with and without intellectual disabilities, Special Olympics Young Athletes program is a great place to start.
With the 2020 election right around the corner, there is an Internet trend that should give angst to anyone who works with young people and/or information literacy.
It’s called a “deepfake,” and it is a technique in which artificial intelligence-based technology is used to alter or produce video content. Essentially, a deepfake is a video of something that looks like it occurred, but truly did not.
Summer is just around the corner. While we might be looking forward to the warmth, fear not — we'll be clamoring for some air-conditioned activities soon enough. Keep your out-of-school teens (and everyone else) busy with these fun and easy DIY activities.
Our DIY Squishies program allowed our teens to be producers as well as consumers as they made/designed their own toys.
Due to lack of universal preschool opportunities in our area and expressed interest from patrons, our library designed a six-week program with lesson plans and thematic activities for children about to enter kindergarten. The program started over the summer, but sessions are now offered year-round.
