Family Program / Boxcar Children

A couple of my fall family programs this semester were new programs for me, and this book party based on The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner was one of them:

It was surprisingly challenging to find activities to go along with the Boxcar Children for a library setting.  In the end I went with:

• a scavenger hunt for Boxcar Children book covers
• a book giveaway
• a train craft based on this project from Homeschool Creations
• printing off Boxcar Children book checklists for kids to take home

In the end, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and maybe this program will give you some ideas to celebrate the Boxcar Children with your own patrons!

Read & Play: Robots

My last Fizz, Boom, Read summer story time was all about robots!  I found so many fun robot stories and activities for kids just out of the usual story time age range that I might have to do a family robot program in the fall or in the new year.  But here's what worked for my family story time:

Read: 

Robots Everywhere by Denny Hebsen

Lots of Bots by David Carter

Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman

Junkyard by Mike Austin

Sing: 

Follow the Band by Jim Gill (he's been my go-to summer musician lately...) along with our usual opening & closing songs

Play: 

This awesome, FREE printable Roll-a-Robot game from Kim of 733 was our post-story time activity.  I actually printed out 2 copies of the game so a few more families/kids could play at once.  I also printed off this fun robot coloring sheet from Dabbles and Babbles for kids to work on while they were waiting for a turn or if they were too young to understand the game.  

Read & Play: Five Senses

My latest Fizz, Boom, Read story time focused on our five senses:

Read:
My Five Senses by Margaret Miller
Rain by Manya Stojic
Senses on the Farm by Shelley Rotner
Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan

Sing:
Jump Up Turn Around by Jim Gill (along with our usual opening/closing songs posted here)

Play:
I was inspired by this tissue box science idea from PreKinders - I didn't have tissue boxes on hand so I just used paper lunch bags instead.  I put small pipe cleaners, beads, pom poms, and bottle caps in each bag with a label to flip up and see what was in the bag if they couldn't guess what it was by feel.  The families seemed to enjoy it - we had lots of people stick around and hang out after story time this week so it was nice to have an easy activity for them to do.

Family Program / An American Girl Book Party

I loved the American Girls and their book series growing up so I thought planning this program would be a cinch but it ended up being a lot harder than I thought!  There is a whole lot more emphasis on the girls of "today" than on the historical characters now than in the past - I also thought they would have activity ideas, coloring or activity sheets on the American Girl website, but nope (except for online games).  Not a thing - so I had to be really creative with this one & borrowed a really fun craft!

Doll Party Hat template + instructions from Make It Do

My library friends made doll-sized party hats with the template and instructions from Make It Do - it was fun to see all the girls carrying their party-ready dolls around the library!  I had several girls make hats to take home for their dolls to wear since they didn't have their doll with them that night.   After making their hats, they could visit different stations around the room for various activities like this AG Matching Game:

The goal of this activity was to match each object with the American Girl who would have used it in her specific time period - the grown-ups really liked this one! :)

Another activity was a simple scavenger hunt where kids had to find each star featuring a different character hidden around the room.  Finally the kids had to vote on their favorite American Girl character:

They put a sticker on the picture of their favorite character - these were by far the most popular American Girls!  Although this program was probably the hardest to plan of the whole semester I think it was also the biggest success.  Hopefully these ideas help you if you or your library decides to host their own American Girl program!

Read & Make / Pumpkins

My last story time of the fall semester featured pumpkins!  I love wrapping up with pumpkins since our last week of fall story time is usually the same week as Halloween.  It's the perfect way to feature a staple of the fall season without focusing specifically on Halloween in case anyone isn't really into the whole trick or treating thing.

Read:
Mystery Vine by Cathryn Falwell
Life Cycles: Pumpkins by Robin Nelson
(I know this one is small for story time sharing, but I like to include a nonfiction book with lots of photographs once in awhile!)
Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas
Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

Rhyme:
Pumpkin, pumpkin round and fat,
Turned into a jack o' lantern (turn around)
Just like that! (clap on that)

Make:
Pumpkin stick puppets!  I just let kids cut out or tear a circle (ish) piece of orange paper for the pumpkin and had them tape it to a craft stick.  If you want, you can have kids color a jack o' lantern face on one side  - then they can use it at home to re-enact the "Pumpkin, pumpkin" rhyme.  Instead of clapping on the last line, flip your pumpkin puppet from the plain side to the jack o' lantern side!
from Boy Mama, Teacher Mama

SWRD II

Have you heard about Star Wars Reads Day?  It's an annual celebration of Star Wars & reading (of course!) started by Lucasfilm and all of the licensed publishers.  Bookstores and libraries around the country celebrated the second annual SWRD last Saturday, October 5th.  I joined in the celebration at my library for the second year - the first year we had about 5-10 people show up, but this year I had 65 people come for our SWRD celebration!


Since Saturdays mean only one librarian in the Children's Room, I set up lots of drop in activities that parents and kids could do on their own.  I had four main activities (besides a book display) set up:

1. A scavenger hunt: Cutouts of Star Wars characters with added letters hidden around the room that kids had to find - after finding all the characters, they had to unscramble the letters to discover a hidden message that reads "Read you must!"  (idea borrowed from Catch the Possibilities)

2. Stick puppets: Just cut and tape!  These were an adorable free download from Teacher's Notebook

3. Prize drawing: I found some cute SW erasers from the Target dollar bins and got some promo freebies from Scholastic and DK Publishing as a part of SWRD.

4. Seek & Find Mash-up: I printed off a large version (using Block Posters) of this mural created by Ulises Farinas & gave kids a list of things to find - I'm not sure how legal this is, but I'm certainly not selling it & whenever someone asks where I found it, I send them to the artist's website.  Plus it's just so cool!! Kids love finding and pointing out all the characters that don't belong in the SW universe!

Did you celebrate SWRD II this year??  If not, I highly recommend joining in the fun next year!

Read & Make: Owls

I've been wanting to share some quick story time posts!  I love reading about what other librarians use in their story times - and when I'm stuck in a rut, a new rhyme, book, or song can make all the difference! Owls are one of my favorite story time themes because there are so many cute owl-y books to choose from!

Read:
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
In My Tree by Sara Gillingham

Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton is another favorite of mine to use for story time!

Rhyme:
Five Little Owls - template from Sunflower Storytime
Five little owls went flying high
Over the hills and through the sky,
Mother owl said "whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo"
But only four little owls came through 

(repeat until there are no owls left)

No little owls went flying high 
Over the hills and through the sky, 
Mother owl said "whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo"
And all five owls came flying through!

rhyme from King Country Library System (I added the last verse)

Make:
A simple paper & feather owl!  I used a volunteer to help trace and cut the templates, but if your kids are older you can let them cut the owl out themselves.  Just add googly eyes, color with crayons, and tape on some feathers!

Dig Into Reading 2013 / An Indiana Jones Book Party

This was a really fun program to plan as part of the summer reading program at my library!  I had seen a pin on Pinterest about an Indiana Jones birthday party and thought the idea would fit great with the "Dig into Reading" theme this year.  I had to be a bit more creative than I expected though, because most of the ideas I found used whips, fake "blow guns", and darts which is fine if you trust your kids in your own home, but in the library I thought it would be asking for disaster, haha.  So all of the activities I came up with are safe, with no blow guns in sight!

First, I made up a couple of games - a matching (or Memory) game based on Indiana Jones LEGO characters & a map matching game.  You can download a printable version of Indy LEGO game here to share with Indy fans of your own.

The map matching game I made up using a map outline image (blown up using Block Posters) for the base map and then outlined and marked copies of the continents with the countries and cities that Indy visited in the movies.  The goal of the game was for the kids to match up the continents on the right spots on the map and then see if they can name the continents, countries, and cities marked on each piece (the answers were on the back).

For a craft, kids made Indy-style messenger bags out of construction paper and yarn to wear while on their "treasure hunt".

The main activity of the afternoon was a treasure hunt made up of clues that led kids around the Children's Room.  Each clue directed kids to a different area of our nonfiction section using the Dewey Decimal system as a guide.  (ie. Find the spot where the shark books live) At the end of the hunt was a mini treasure chest with fake gold coins which kids could turn in for a prize.  They were able to finish pretty fast (I made up little Dewey guides for them to use), but they seemed to enjoy it!

This was a very well-attended event and everyone had a good time - I hope it gives you some ideas if you ever want to have your own Indiana Jones adventure party!

Family Program / A Friday Fling with Skippyjon Jones

We've had two Friday Flings this month (special themed story times for preschoolers), one based on the Gossie and Friends books by Olivier Dunrea, and the second based on the Skippyjon Jones picture book series by Judy Schachner.  Skippyjon is another one of our favorite characters in the Children's Room.  In case you haven't read these seriously fun picture books, they feature a Siamese cat who thinks he is actually a Chihuahua.  Of course, hilarity ensues as the incorrigible Skippito-friskito finds his way through all sorts of adventures which usually begin in his magical bedroom closet.

For our program, I started off with a quick singing of Raffi's Shake Your Sillies Out (a regular story time favorite!) and a reading of Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner.  This was the only book I read with the kids that morning since Friday Flings aren't designed as full length story times.  After our story, I explained the activities I had prepared for kids to do and let them go around the room as they wanted.  I had some Skippyjon coloring sheets set out as a crafty activity, a spot-it challenge, and a matching game.  

The spot it challenge was super simple: I just printed out the Life of Skippy panorama from the Skippyjon Jones website using Block Posters to make it a little larger.  Then I posted a list of simple things for kids to look for like 6 different Skippyjons, 11 yellow dogs, and 1 big bumblebee.  The matching game I made from scratch using Spanish words used in the books.  On one card I wrote the English word with a matching picture and on the matching card I wrote the Spanish word with the same picture.  Each pair of cards had an outline in a different color to give kids an extra clue to figure out which cards belonged together.  If you'd like to print out a set to use, download it here!

We had a great time with this program & and so did our families!  Hopefully these ideas help you with planning your own Skippyjon-themed program!

Family Program / Percy Jackson Book Party

One of the more challenging programs that I created earlier this year was a Percy Jackson book party. This book series (as well as the others by Rick Riordan!) is always a popular choice with our 4th and 5th graders.  I've only actually read the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief, but that was enough to pull out major themes and events to base activities off of for our event.

To begin the party, we read a selection from the first chapter of The Lightning Thief.  Each kid then got to spin a Twister-like spinner split into sections to decide which Camp Half Blood cabin they belonged to.  In the book each cabin belongs to a different Greek god or goddess and I picked out 4 of the major cabins (Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and Ares) to use.  I made up simple stickers with the names of the cabins for the kids to wear once they spun.  The other activities we did are listed below - campers get a bead on a necklace for each year of camp completed in the book series, but we made bracelets instead with plastic lacing.  Pin the Eye on the Cyclops is pretty self explanatory and the Greek mythology guessing game I made up is just pictures of the deities that kids had to match up with their names.  The scavenger hunt was the hit of the party - kids had to look for pictures of items that were significant in the book series which were hidden around the Children's Room.  These included Poseidon's triton, Zeus's lightning bolt, the Golden Fleece, Athena's owl and the Roman Eagle standard.

If you're thinking about planning a Percy Jackson book party, check out the links in the paragraph above or the links below for PDFs of the resources I created for our book party.  Feel free to download and print them or use them as inspiration for your own event!  These websites were also incredibly helpful to me:

percyjacksonbooks.com (all of the images used in the resources I created are from this website)

rickriordan.com

Camp Half Blood wiki

PDFs:
Scavenger hunt bookmark lists
Greek gods & goddesses matching game
Camp Half Blood stickers & scavenger hunt items

I hope this inspires you to create your own book party - the resources are free for you to use, but if you do use them, credit is appreciated! :)  Enjoy!