Life-Sized Angry Birds

You know how sometimes when you imagine something or come up with an idea, reality is not quite on par with your imagination? My Teen Angry Birds program was the EXACT OPPOSITE of that!

I imagined using cardboard boxes to create life-sized structures to topple and helium balloons (for the pigs--if they float free then the pig was destroyed).  The dollar store was out of green so we used silver (I was going to tape pig pictures on, but even small pieces of paper were too heavy). We had plenty of room, so we used playground balls and threw them to knock down the structures. 



The building supplies

 Each teen took a turn building, and another teen got three chances to knock it down and then it was his/her turn to build. We did one round like this, and then they did a team round where they split into two groups and competed to see who could knock down the other team's tower in less throws.

The only thing I would change is to have more large boxes--I had TONS of smaller sized ones, but the balloons wouldn't fit.

So cute! So crafty!

We also made our own angry birds by making yarn pom-poms and gluing paper faces to them. The teens LOVED this (paired with snack time, of course!).

Check out the GIANT cardboard tubes I found!

We made a giant photo-op structure and decorated it with all the birds and pigs the teens made.

Finally, our last activity (and this was pretty much unnecessary) was another type of structure to knock down. We used Dixie cups and (shamrock themed) stress balls that I got on clearance. Sharpies worked perfectly to transform them into pigs, and I let each of the teens keep one at the end of the night. There was pretty much only one or two ways to stack the cups, and it was HARD to aim and knock them down. We used the pom-pom birds that the teens had made, and flung them with a large kitchen spoon. I would probably just skip this in the future.

Oink oink oink

 This was a very inexpensive program and it was FUN. I did start saving boxes a couple of months beforehand. I only bought yarn, snacks, balloons, and the stress balls.

Highly recommended!

SLP Outreach/Confessions of a School Visitor pt. 3

I've expressed my frustration with SLP school visits before--they stress me out BIG TIME, take a huge toll on my workload, and my data shows that they don't have much effect in terms of SLP sign-up.

Despite my well-laid plans for this year, I ended up making the decision not to do SLP visits to the schools this year. The reasons were many, and I had an awesome discussion about it over Twitter with several other librarians, which led Marge Loch-Wouters (who I'm delighted to call one of my stealth mentors) to write about SLP visits over on her blog, Tiny Tips for Library Fun

Sara, at Bryce Don't Play, also hit on some of the issues I've had with presenting SLP as well--I've definitely been struggling with 'The Way SLP Visits Have Always Been Done' ie: costumes and puppets. (I LOVE costumes and I LOVE doing puppets with the kids--but that just doesn't fly or seem authentic when you're trying to convince the fifth graders that the program isn't just for the first graders).

(I need to learn from Marge how to not write a book with each blog post...sigh).

Last summer I did collect data on what schools had the most participation so I could compare that with my school visits. And, as I suspected, there's little or no correlation. Regardless of whether I visited, the biggest factors were location (nearness to library) and the school's own library situation. Unsurprisingly, schools that had dedicated library staff had kids who were more likely to participate in the program. Readers gonna read.

In my geographically spread out library population, I've often considered that it doesn't matter how excited I get the kids about the program, if they can't get to the library they can't participate. It's the parents I have to find.

So with that in mind, when I was invited to participate in the City's Healthy Way Walk (booths and giveaways along the new trail around the lake to encourage families to get out and walk), I said "YES!"

I had FORTY FIVE kids sign up, fifteen of which were teens. MANY of whom said they'd never doen the program before. Let me put that into perspective for you: last year I had a total of 275 kids, 42 of which were teens (yes, small numbers overall, but steadily growing each year I've been doing this).

Onward!

Add me to the chorus!

I'm also singing the praises of Lego Club at the library!



We've never done a lego club here before, but I know the local Boys and Girls club had/has one. Still, I thought it was worth a try at the library. One of the things that made want to try it is the audience it attracts--elementary school boys and their dads are a hard group to reach! My hope was that it would be successful during summer, and I could continue to offer it through the school year--maybe once a month on Saturdays.

Since I really didn't know how this would go in my community (and since Legos are expensive) I invited kids to bring a gallon bag of Legos from home to complete the secret challenge. I invited kids grade 3+ alone, and younger with an adult.

I was feeling kind of anxious this morning, like I should be doing more work for this program! But aside from advertising there just wasn't much for me to do--refreshing. I made some signs to reveal the secret building challenge and printed some photos to inspire the kids and "set the mood." And that was it!

I had a dozen kids happily building and chatting away for nearly an hour and a half! I made sure to photograph their creations, and handed out Jolly Ranchers as a little treat at the end.

Now that I think this could really take off, I'll put out flyers and a notice on our website asking for Lego donations so we can build (no pun intended!) our own collection for kids who may not have their own.



I'm so thankful it is so easy for librarians to share great programs like this!

posted from Bloggeroid

Confessions of a School Visitor pt. 2

Phew, I better get this posted before it becomes completely irrelevant!

As I mentioned in my earlier post on school visits, I either spend 5 minutes per classroom, or do an assembly for k-5. I prefer doing the assemblies because I get to have more fun with the kids, but am happy to have the chance to visit either way.

Last year I flailed around for an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out how to address 100+ kids. Then I found my brain and remembered that I *LOVE* traditional storytelling. So I did a Gecko story and it was grand.  I also made a half-hearted attempt to dress up in a 'beach' costume because I thought that's what I had to do.

This year I knew I would tell a story, but COULD NOT decide on one that made me happy and nearly gave myself a stress aneurysm trying to figure out what to do. I wanted to share some string stories, and that came together great--I talked about different kinds of storytelling and wowed the kids with the showy, "Mosquito" and "Yam Thief" figures.  But those were only a few minutes, and I still needed a longer story to tell.  Finally, I settled on one I already knew from the book, "Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia." by Won-Ldy Paye.  This story is great and funny, but I just wasn't excited about it for school visits.  The best thing about  the string stories was that I could share those in the class-to-class visits as well as the assemblies.

During assemblies, I ask for a couple of volunteers from 5th grade and have them 'assist' with the silly song I do for the group warm up.  Having the oldest kids there participate and have fun helps get everybody on board.  It works great!

Things that have made school visits easier this year:

• I marked each school on a county/city map and included the school's address.  That way I can use GPS if available, but I have a backup if I lose connection.  I keep this map in my car during school visit time, and then file it away for next year's visits.
• Skipped the costume pretense and made my own SLP tshirt.  I still bought one, but it was HUGE and I couldn't make myself wear it (I think I have some issues, lol) so I got creative and came up with a shirt that fit.
• I did the printing ahead of time.  All the handouts were printed in batches according to number I needed per school, and then I had my student workers sort and paperclip them into piles.  If it was an assembly, they sorted into piles of 15.  If it was a class-to-class visit, I had them in batches of 20.  Then I could quickly distribute.
• I let myself off the hook. I didn't do each visit the same--and I let the group response guide me.  Bored 5th graders? Short and sweet.  Assembly where the teachers are clearly enjoying it too?  Pull out all the stops.  And everything in between. Letting myself chill out was very helpful.

Plans for next year:

• Learn Belly-Button Monster for group-telling (I've known I would tell this one for the night-themed CSLP for nearly two years now).
• Dress however I want--Kids respond better when I'm dressed in my own style anyway (had a middle schooler come stand awkwardly close and introduce HERSELF the day I was wearing my neon pink tights).  I think they can smell authenticity.
• Plan some lightning book talks--2-3 per class visit.  Total of 6-9 books (k/1, 2/3, 4/5 interest).
• Not go insanely crazy with stress/dreading of the school visits.

Got any other ideas?  What works for you?

Confessions of a School Visitor pt. 1

Ahhhhhh....

Last school visit!  Confession?  I dread school visits and drive myself crazy worrying about them.  Why do I do this?  I don't know--they are wonderful every time. 

School Visits Part 1: Setting the Scene
The first year I was here I started in March, so I didn't do school visits that year (at that point I didn't even know how many schools there were).  Even though I skipped the visits, the SLP reading club sign-up increased that year by nearly 30 kids.  Last summer was my first experience doing the SLP promotional school visit, and it went well, but reading club sign-up only increased by seven.  So I'm wondering how effective those school visits actually are.  Let me clarify--they are definitely effective at building goodwill and community. The kids love it when I visit and I get great feedback from teachers, not to mention the great statistics to include in the annual report.  But how much does it impact the Summer Reading Program?

I have 14 schools in my district, plus a slew of individual 4K sites.  I offer schools the choice of getting k-5th grade together for an assembly of about 20-25 minutes, or visiting each class for about five minutes.  This year, several schools were just too busy to have me come.  I dropped off my schedule/letter to parents at all the schools, and did an equal number of assemblies/class-to-class visits.

This year, when kids sign-up for the SLP, I will be collecting data on which school they attend so I look at participation on a school by school basis--and hopefully see if there's any correlation between schools I did/didn't visit.

Part 2