Recycled Crafts for Earth Day

I'm not sure why, but I have always been pretty enthusiastic about Earth Day. I've done library programs for it in the past, but took a break for a while when my effort to use only recycled materials became daunting instead of fun. This year I decided to get back into it, only I told myself each craft only needed to include one recycled material, instead of being completely recycled. Plus, as I think I have mentioned many times before, I really prefer to do programs with several simple crafts, rather than one longer one. So that's what I did! Recycled Crafts for Earth Day.

I had a small yet appreciative group of 3-5-year-olds (and their parents) and four crafts for them to make, each including at least one recycled material, in an open, unstructured type of program. There was one craft per table and the families moved around from table to table to try their hands at whatever they wanted for the duration of the time. And, as usual, I accompanied the evening with a playlist! Here's what we did:

Toilet Paper Tube Black Bears

I got the idea for these little guys from CreativeFamilyFun.net (but found it on Pinterest). I was looking for a simple toilet paper roll craft that didn't require cardboard cutting, too many pieces, or too much letting paint/glue dry. In the end I settled on this, even though it required painting, because all the tubes could be painted the same color so I was able to do it ahead of time. Plus LOOK HOW CUTE. I put out the pre-painted black tubes, small squares of brown construction paper, scissors, black markers, glue sticks, tape, and self-adhesive googly eyes (the biggest of these from Oriental Trading). The kids and parents liked this project, however I decided this one was more parent-heavy and required less from the kids than I prefer. Maybe it would have been better for a slightly older crowd. Even still, it was fun for the families and the final product was really cute.

Baby Food Pouch Cap Spiders

From Pinterest again, these were technically a Halloween craft from Plum organics, but were surprisingly the stand out hit of this program! The kids LOVED these little guys. Everyone wound up making several spiders, parents included! And they were so easy! The only things I'd put out were caps from baby food pouches, pre-cut-in-half piper cleaners, and self-adhesive googly eyes (the smallest of these from Oriental Trading). Then, I showed the whole group how to weave the pipe cleaners from one side of the cap to the other (as seen here) and then sort of bend them so they'd stay in place and seem "spidery." The googly-eyes, while self-adhesive, were a little delicate for small hands so I helped the kids out a little there too, but overall everyone really really liked these!

Bubble Wrap and Paper Plate Jellyfish

After an entirely Internet-purchased holiday season, I did a lot of Pinteresting to find a good bubble wrap craft that I felt comfortable with. I had considered just bubble wrap painting and maybe I should have gone that route, but instead I decided on this cute little jellyfish that I found on GluedToMyCraftsBlog.com (from Pinterest) that I really liked! I thought it was perfect: didn't require too much in the way of supplies and allowed for creativity. BUT NOBODY MADE IT! So disappointing! One family took the supplies home and, for everyone else, it was ignored. To be fair, I didn't have a huge turnout to begin with and the program was only 30-minutes but still. Not one kid even attempted the craft at this table. Next time I'll do the painting instead!

CD Sun Catchers

This one was so easy, there's almost nothing to say about it! I put out old CDs, ribbon, and these self-adhesive gems from Oriental Trading and then let the kids go to town decorating! I got the idea from HappyHooligans.ca (found on Pinterest), but kept the whole thing super easy by using the self-adhesive gems and eliminating the glue part entirely. Everyone did a nice job!

What worked least: I guess my bubble wrap jellyfish were not appealing since nobody migrated toward that table at all. Maybe it was too much white and nothing colorful to draw people over? Whatever it was, something was amiss. But crazily, I'd try it again! Maybe if I had a bigger crowd and/or more time, the kids would have enjoyed it! Next Earth Day!

What worked best: Those little spiders! Everyone loved 'em!

Stuffed Animal Sleepover

I'm not sure if Stuffed Animal Sleepovers are old hat in the library world by now, but I'd taken a fairly extensive break from them for while and, over time, wound up getting so many requests from patrons to bring them back that, finally, I did! Even though I've blogged about this program a bunch of times before, it's been a while (a year and a half!), and since each Stuffed Animal Sleepover has its own personality, and also because the pictures are SO DARN CUTE, I wanted to write about it again.

The idea of the program is pretty simple--a few books, a few songs, and a craft--but the real fun starts when the kids go home and leave their stuffed animals behind for an overnight sleepover party! SO HERE IT IS: My fifth Stuffed Animal Sleepover! Can't believe it!

As the stuffed animals and their owners arrived for the evening, I gave everyone a name tag. I've changed the name tags up a few times over the years but resorted back to my first ever version, because I think it's the best. I don't often use name tags in programs but they're important for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover so I can make sure the right stuffed animals match up with the right kids at the end. In fact, I take a lot of measures to make sure this is done correctly.

Once I took the kids back to the program room, I did a regular, simple bedtime-themed storytime. A list of my favorite bedtime-themed books can be found on my Recommended Storytime Books by Topic list. For this program I started with Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (as usual), then I sang Five Little Monkeys with the monkey mitt.

After this, the kids moved on to the craft tables and decorated "sleeping bags" for their stuffed animals to sleep over in. In the past these have been pillow cases from Oriental Trading decorated with fabric markers, but this past time I changed it up and used canvas tote bags from Oriental Trading instead. Aside from this slight change, this is the same craft I've used for every Stuffed Animal Sleepover since I started them, but it just works! So why reinvent the wheel? The kids like it (even repeat attendees) and it gives them a way to "tuck in" their stuffed animals before they leave them, which I'm not sure I could do without.

Then, when everyone was finished (and when there was about 5-minutes left of the program), we wrapped up with one more book: Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen. Then, to end the program, I had the group sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star twice-- once normally and once as quietly as possible so the stuffed animals could drift off to sleep. Then they kissed their animals goodnight, whispered goodbye to me, and tip-toed out for the evening. 

There's a very important behind-the-scenes step that comes next. Before taking the animals out for their library adventure, I always always always photograph each animal with its sleeping bag and name tag. That way, when the children pick up their stuffed animals the next day, I can match everything up right without having to worry or guess. Sometimes matching the sleeping bags isn't so easy so this step can be very critical!

Now on to the fun! Here's are the picture from the seven stuffed animals' big night out at the library:

Telling secrets in their sleeping bags.

Playing computer games.

Playing Gin Rummy

Playing other games: Connect Four, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game, and Checkers.

Making Valentines.

Building at the Lego table.

Doing puzzles.

Choosing books to read.

Thanks to Mary, our clerk who stayed most of the night with me, each stuffed animal got a super-custom-picked book that matched them. Then, as a circulation bonus, when the kids came in the next day to pick up their stuffed animals, I asked if they wanted to check those books out, and guess what? 6/7 of them did! Here are a few of those animals and their books:

Upon pick up the next day, each kid went home with a pile of goodies: their stuffed animal, sleeping bag tote bag, name tag, a book chosen for them, and a set of photos from their animal's night out. As usual, the kids liked the print outs, but the parents LOVED the print outs. This has held true every time. In fact, I have copied and pasted this exact sentence from post to post.

What worked least: Rather than something not working, the biggest challenge in doing this program has been trying to do so much of it after hours. I've found that I just can't do too many of the photos while there are patrons in the library. Not only are there very few places you can set the animals up without disturbing people, I also just kind of want to keep the magic alive a little too. So most of the hard part is done after the library closes--propping up all the stuffed animals, taking all the photos, matching all the stuffed animals back up with their sleeping bags, and preparing the photo print outs (a Publisher document). I wish I could figure out a way to fix this, but right now, I can't think of a better method. It's not hard work per say; it's just hard because it's late at night and I'm super tired.

What worked best: Singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and then singing it again quietly so the stuffed animals could "fall asleep" is sooo cute. We all whispered from this point on and this was a good, natural way to say goodnight to the animals and end the program.

Concepts For Kids

Throwback post! Now that I am totally back on a roll with blogging, I thought it would be a good time to write about a program I did back in November but never blogged about called Concepts For Kids-- admittedly not my most creatively named program, but fun and definitely worth the blog post.

Concepts for Kids is really just a very specific version of an ongoing program I did for a long time (but stopped about a year ago) called Books n Play for Pre-K. Each week, in Books n Play for Pre-K, I would do a different theme--anything from winter to colors to food to dinosaurs. Generally, the time was broken down like this:

~15-20 minutes: Hello song, two/three books, two/three songs
~15-20 minutes: Open play time with craft table and activity table (with music playing)
~5-10 minutes: One more book or song, Goodbye song

I modified my plan a little for Concepts for Kids, but at its heart, this was the same program, except with four very specific weekly themes: Colors, Numbers, Letters, Shapes. You know, concepts!

Here's a week-by-week breakdown of the books, songs, crafts, and toys that I used each week:

Week 1 – Theme: Colors

Books:
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

Song:
Picked a Strawberry (not color-related but fun Pete the Cat tie-in!)*

Craft Table:
1. Color hand prints**
2. Rainbow print outs + dot markers
3. Thanksgiving turkey craft ***

Activity Table:
1. Farm sorting (similar to this)
2. Bee hive game (seen below)
3. Rainbow discs-- CDs with flashlights ****
4. Light table with colored blocks (seen below)

* Picked a Strawberry: This is a cute song that comes from--you guessed it--Jbrary! It's not a color song but it's just SO perfect for pairing with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes that I broke the rules and sang it during the color-themed week anyway! Here it is:

** Colored Hand Prints: These are an ongoing craft favorite of mine, but (in my opinion) too simple to be a stand-alone activity. However every time I have a colored-themed-anything, for preschool aged kids, this one makes an appearance. It's totally simple. The picture below sums it up nicely, I think.

And this picture, seen below, is the one I found online years ago that originally inspired this activity:

*** Thanksgiving turkey craft: This one was a total last minute add-on when one of my other crafts fell through (due to my supply-checking negligence). I made the simple template seen below, and had the kids color it, cut it out, and glue on pre-cut feathers that I made from construction paper. It was nice and I think people enjoyed having something to do for Thanksgiving.

**** Rainbow discs: These were literally just some old CDs with flashlights to shine on them-- nothing fancy at all. I borrowed everything from our library system in a big Science Buddies kit (that came with other things too, including the light table seen above), but any CDs and flashlights would work just fine! Parents and kiddies enjoyed shining the flashlights on the CDs and exploring the rainbows that were made together. It's a cute, quick, age-appropriate little science experiment!

Week 2 – Theme: Numbers

Books:
Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
10 Little Kittens by Megan Borgert-Spaniol

Song:
Five Little Monkeys

Craft Table:
1. Dogs Colorful Day sheets and dot markers *
2. Cotton ball cloud gluing collage **
3. Flower petal finger paint counting sheets ***

Activity Table:
1. Early Math Activity Center (this from Lakeshore Learning)
2. Peg boards (these from Lakeshore Learning)
3. Smart Snacks Number Pops (these from Oriental Trading)
4. Dough boards (seen below)

* Dogs colorful day sheets and dot markers: These were were simple and fun and have been a hit time and time again. They can be downloaded here and seen below:

** Cotton ball cloud gluing collage: Using the picture below (which I made quickly in Publisher), I had the kids glue cotton balls on the clouds and then count them. Also, of course, color the sheets. Basically, I left this totally open ended since the parents were doing it side-by-side with their kids. I figured they could make of it whatever they wanted!

*** Flower petal finger paint counting sheets: I made this craft myself (see below), again using Publisher, but totally stole the idea from this unattainable link on Pinterest.

The idea was to finger paint the correct number of flower petals one each stem. This craft was a little less obviously open-ended than the cotton ball cloud gluing collage, but the kids and parents made of it what they wanted anyway... which is always ok! Here are some hand-printing twins:

Week 3 – Theme: Letters

Books:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
ABC T-Rex by Bernard Most

Song:
ABCs with parachute and balls *

Craft Table:
1. Letter Stampers + paper (these from Learn365) **
2. Letter foam stickers + foam sheets (similar to these from Oriental Trading) **
3. Letter stencils with pictures that match + paper (these from Oriental Trading) **

Activity Table:
1. Dough boards (like the number ones used above, but letters!)
2. Play dough and letter-shaped cookie cutters
3. Melissa & Doug ABC Letter puzzles (these from Amazon)

* ABCs with parachute and balls: This is pretty self-explanatory, but a little funny. I had a hard time coming up with a song this week at first. I kept thinking, "why aren't there any good songs about the alphabet?" And then I remembered there's a VERY FAMOUS song about the alphabet that kids this age all know and are happy to sing. So, to make things a little extra exiting, we bounced balls around in the parachute as we sang the ABCs together. Everyone liked it!

** This picture shows all 3 crafts for this week at once! So all-encompassing!

Week 4 – Theme: Shapes

Book:
Perfect Square by Michael Hall *

Song: 

A Circle is a Shape **

Craft Table:
1. Gluing collage craft with pre-cut shapes
2. Shape stencils + colored pencils and paper (these from Oriental Trading)
3. Shape worksheet ***

Activity Table:
1. Flower magnets ****
2. Shape sorting bins (similar to these)
3. Blocks

* Perfect Square by Michael Hall: This wound up being the only book that we read for our last week of Concepts For Kids. I wound up with a younger, more restless group this week and decided to call it quits after only one story because there was just no way they were sitting through another. To be honest, I had a hard time choosing my second book for the week anyway and wasn't 100% happy with my choice in the end, so it was just as well!

** A Circle is a Shape: This is to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus and, yet again, comes from our friends at Jbrary. Here it is:

*** Shape worksheet: While, I guess, this was a bit half-hearted, I wanted a simple, age-appropriate activity to partner with college and stencils and this fit the bill. This is the sheet that I used:

**** Flower magnets: The kit we have can be found here (although I have no idea where we originally found it!) and the kids always seem to really like making their own little flower garden. Check out how the flowers in the second picture match the chart in the first picture! 👏👏

What worked least: This program just didn't wind up getting the kind of attendance I'd hoped for. Ranging from 2-6 kids per week, it required lots and lots of planning and set up, for a minimal reward. I'm not sure that there's anything I would change about the program itself, just maybe try it at a different (morning) time in the future.

What worked best: The craft/activity time was certainly the highlight of each week. In fact, I sort of felt like the kids were just politely sitting through my (relatively short!) story time so we could get to the good stuff. I think the open play format really works for toddlers.

Holiday Dance Party & Holiday Dance Party for Babies

I have fallen way too far behind on my blog posts! The holidays, lots of days off, and Winter Reading Club planning got me this year-- typical December! I'm going to try to write TWO posts in ONE day so, with that said, this one might seem terse (or have lots of weird-yet-entertaining type-os), but here it is! Post #1 of the day: my Holiday Dance Party and Holiday Dance Party for Babies.

I did a Holiday Dance Party back in 2015 and this year's (aside from taking place at our branch library location and having a "spin off" program-- Holiday Dance Party for Babies), was quite similar. I love music and dance programs of any kind, but, I was happy to have done the bulk of my song-finding two years ago! Finding songs that are the perfect mix of dance-able, not too long, and kid-friendly is actually super-hard! I searched and searched and modified and modified until it was time for the program and I was forced to stop and be happy with what I had. Here is the playlist I wound up with (red = ipod, blue = sing):

Holiday Dance Party (2-5 Years-Olds)

1. Hello Song by Big Jeff
2. Jumping and Counting by Jim Gill
3. Once There Was a Snowman from this YouTube video (drums)
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from this YouTube video cover by Amasic (drums)
5. Frosty the Snowman from Music Factory Music (bells)
6. Jingle Bell Rock from the Glee cast (bells)
7. Oh, Hanukkah from the Glee cast (dance) *
8. It's a Marshmallow World by Darlene Love (tambourines)
9. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Barbie in the Nutcracker (ribbon dancers)
10. Jingle Bells from this YouTube video (parachute)
11. Wheels on the Bus (parachute)
12. Blow A Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + bubbles)

Holiday Dance Party for Babies (0-2 Year-Olds)

1. Hello Song by Big Jeff
2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from this YouTube video cover by Amasic (drums)
3. Once There Was a Snowman from this YouTube video (drums)
4. Frosty the Snowman from Music Factory Music (bells)
5. Jingle Bell Rock from the Glee cast (bells)
6. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Barbie in the Nutcracker (scarves)
7. Scarf Dance by Mary Jo Huff (scarves)
8. Oh, Hanukkah from the Glee cast (shakers) *
9. It's a Marshmallow World by Darlene Love (tambourines)
10. Snowflake, Snowflake (parachute) **
11. Jingle Bells from this YouTube video (parachute + balls)
12. Blow A Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + bubbles)

* When I did Oh, Hanukkah with the older group (ages 2-5), I briefly taught them a super-basic version of The Hora (while explaining that I am extremely unqualified to be teaching them The Hora) and had them dance it in a circle. The actual steps didn't last long but it was fun dancing around and wound up being a good laugh for everyone. With the babies, we all just danced around with our shakers. No circle, no steps. They're babies.

** Snowflake, Snowflake came from this wonderful Jbrary video:

It was a PERFECT baby parachute song! I had the babies lie or sit on the floor and we raised and lowered the parachute above them. I may even use this again for my baby group in Musical Kids this winter!

Keeping it fast so I can move on...

What worked least: For some reason, when I was planning this out, this Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer cover by Amasic (this YouTube video) seemed to have a more defined drum beat. In actuality, while fun, it didn't have the solid easy-to-drum-to rhythm I was originally hoping for. But I don't think anyone minded too much!

What worked best: It's hard to say, but I think the up-beat Glee version of Jingle Bell Rock coupled with the bells (for both groups) was the most fun part of each program. I'd high recommend this combo for future Holiday Dance Parties!

Apologies for any weird things I should have caught while proof-reading! Like I said, I'm working quickly today!