Noon Year's Eve, Biggest Ever Edition

Better late than never... I'm going to try to be a little less verbose here from now on, so that I don't fall so far behind on my blog posts. But with that said, here's a super lengthy one about Noon Year's Eve 2019-2020.

This was my biggest Noon Year's Eve Party ever, with SEVENTY-EIGHT patrons in attendance! That is a huge number for our library! It was so much fun to host such a large-scale program, and it was made even more exciting by my own family joining the party!

Before the program, I set the room up with a few key elements:

1. The balloon drop (After trying a couple, this one, $10-ish on Amazon, is still my favorite).
2. The countdown to noon projected on the wall to build anticipation (made with timeanddate.com).
3. The green screen (I've use a photo backdrop from Oriental Trading all the years before but decided to spice things up a bit this year and use the green screen for the "photobooth" instead).
4. Plastic champagne flutes, sparkling cider, water, and snacks.
5. Craft stuff (The same craft I've done in my Noon Year's Eve Parties since I started them!).
6. Bingo + Bingo prizes
7. Music.

Now I'll discuss everything in more detail.

Crafts:

When the patrons first entered the auditorium, I immediately guided them over to the craft tables. I didn't reinvent the wheel; I used the same two crafts that I used for all of my past Noon Year's Eve Parties-- the time capsule sheets and the crown seen below:

I started the kids off by having them decorate 2020 crowns (which I had pre-cut for them) so they could be festive when the balloons dropped at 12:00. I had also created a two-sided worksheet which I called a time capsule. On one side of the sheet it asked kids to list their favorite things (favorite color, favorite book, favorite movie, etc.) and on the other side it asked them to draw a self-portrait. When they were finished with it, I had them put it in an envelope, which they could also decorate. Then they sealed it up with a sticker (which were just printed on blank labels) that said "Do Not Open Until January 2021." One difference this year: I made a "pre-school sheet" and a "school age sheet" but really, they were pretty similar.

Here are some completed crowns:

Bingo:

This was, by far, the largest Bingo game I have ever conducted. I really had to put my full teacher voice on. I'm also gonna mom-brag a second here and say that it was my first time seeing Sadie play Bingo and, with the help of a much older friend (my coworkers 9-year-old daughter), she did really great!

I actually made brand new Noon Year's Eve Bingo boards this year and bought special prizes just for this game! All from Oriental Trading, we got little blind bags, little stuffed animals, and (seen below), Cute Poop Slow Rising Squishies, which were scented... VERY VERY SCENTED. 😩

Balloon Drop:

Like I said, after trying a couple of different balloon drop bags, this one, $10-ish on Amazon, is still my favorite. It holds about 40-50 balloons, I'd say. Once the countdown (made with timeanddate.com) hit 12:00 noon, I pulled the string and the balloons fell down on the kids, who were gathered below in anticipation. Then I played Auld Lang Syne (specifically the version by Glenn Miller). I'm not sure if the kids noticed, but I think the adults did!

After the balloons dropped I did a little balloon game, having the kids bounce them in different ways. This is to a song called (creatively) The Balloon Game by Music For Little People Choir on the album, "Birthday Party Singalong." Some song lyrics go, "I can bounce it on my finger, yes I can, yes I can," and "I can bounce it on my nose, yes I can, yes I can." Only a handful of kids joined in, but that was ok! Everyone had fun bouncing and tossing their balloons around.

Green Screen Photos:

I've been super into the green screen lately! For the past few months I've been doing a bunch of different kinds of photoshoots with the patrons (The Halloween ones were best of all!). But, because there was so much going on and there was such a large group of people at Noon Year's Eve, I only had one background option (normally I have a bunch) and I wasn't able to get too creative. It was still lots of fun though! Look at the photo above of the room set up to see the green screen standing in the back of the room. Here are two pics that get the point of what we with it did across:

"Champagne" and Snacks:

Of course, I hardly took any pictures of the snacks. We had sparkling cider in champagne flutes, mini cupcakes (from Stop & Shop), individual goldfish bags, and water. It was perfect.

What worked least: The green screen, which ordinarily I really love, was probably more trouble than it was worth for this program. In the past, when I've done photoshoots, I've had the time to choose backgrounds with families, pose them a little, and then take multiple shots. In this program, it was just too chaotic and a regular background would have worked the same or possibly even more efficiently, since patrons would have been able to just take their own photos, as opposed to relying on us. In years past, I used this one from Oriental Trading and would totally use it again in the future.

I feel like I have to share that we HAVE had some amazing green screen photoshoots on other days (seriously, a good amount of them!), but that it was just the wrong fit for this particular program. This also seems like a good time to share my top 3 from Halloween (that's us in the bottom one!):

What worked best: The countdown + balloon drop combo. So. Much. Excitement.

Overall, I think this may have been my most successful program ever, in terms of numbers. It's too bad it took me so long to get it up on my blog!

Unicorn Party

I had TWENTY kids from grades K-3 at my Unicorn Party last week! That's a record for school-age programming for me and, despite my (sort of secret) lack of enthusiasm about unicorns, everyone had a great time at the program-- even me!

I had lots of activities planned for the evening-- too many in fact! Kids were taking piles of stuff to go because they didn't have time for the snack or the second craft. The funny thing is that I was worried that I didn't have enough to do. In fact, I was mad-dash, last-minute Googling "Unicorn Party Games" up until about an hour before the program when I finally had to tell myself to just cool it and let the chips fall where they may.

We started everything with unicorn names on unicorn name tags. This was at check-in, before the kids actually came into the program. Thanks 100% to this The Frugal Sisters blog post, I printed this sheet full of names and these tags to fill in. This was a great way to have a good little ice breaker right away. It uses the first letter of your first name + the month you were born to determine your unicorn name. Here are a few kids with their silly name tags:

In case you're on the edge of your seat wondering, my unicorn name is Shimmer Peachy Pie. My daughters are Royal Midnight Truffle and Starlight Peachy Pie. My husband is Sunshine Midnight Truffle. My cat is Prince Lemon Drop. Anyway...

It took me TWO HOURS to set up the room for this program! I had two crafts, two snacks, a couple of decorations, and a small storytime and Bingo area in the corner. Here are some set up pics:

The first thing we did once the program officially started was read a story. And the best part about this storytime was that the book I read was a brand new book that was just released 2 weeks before the program! So it was new to everyone! In fact, I actually read the kids the advanced reader copy! It was such a cute book for this age range with a positive "love everyone" message:

Unicorn Day by Diana Murray

The kids really liked the book! For some reason, I am always sort of surprised when my books go over really well with large groups (Is that a horrible thing to say?), but I definitely love when it happens! The kids all caught on to the story immediately and even liked pointing out things that they saw in the illustrations-- mostly the baby unicorns, but also the horse who was not having too good of a time, and the tiny fairy that appeared on some of the pages. One boy even got up to point out the "teenager" unicorn he spotted. Enthusiasm!

Next up was Unicorn Bingo. I made this! 

Here is a link to download my Bingo boards (there are 20).

Here is a link to download the Bingo calling cards that go with it (there are 30).

Program fun fact: Kids always always always love Bingo! I went a little all out and used these fun pink and purple unicorn M&Ms as Bingo markers and then gave out these cute, bendy unicorn toys as Bingo prizes -- both from Oriental Trading!

Big shout out here to my HELPER who stepped over and around the crowd to help me distribute prizes as needed. One of my favorite library families includes an awesome big sis who's just aged out of many of our programs, but who's offered to "help out" instead. My goodness, I had no idea how much help I needed when I accepted her offer that evening. Zara, if you ever read this, YOU WERE A LIFESAVER!

Once each kid won a bendy unicorn, we moved on to crafts. There were two. The main craft was unicorn mask making, which was a collaging craft. We used these kits and the kids really liked it.

A little note, if there is even the slightest chance it'll help someone: There are a lot-- I repeat, a lot-- of pieces to punch out in these kits. Especially since I had two of them. Learn from my mistake and PRE PUNCH THEM OUT.

 Here are a few finished products:

It was at 5:15pm (which was the technical end time of the program) that we all sort of scrambled to get everything else that we hadn't gotten to in. Another huge thanks to my helper, Zara, as well as our clerk, Mary! It was at this point in the program when things started to get super busy and I really leaned on them! They cut elastic cords, poured cups of water, and collected the Bingo cards from around the room. They opened the plastic bags that craft #2 were in (this super cute wooden unicorn wind chime from Oriental Trading), served cookies, and helped kids glue pieces. This madness would have been actual utter chaos if not for Zara and Mary!

Basically, from 5:15 until 5:30-ish, the kids grabbed and ate cupcakes and cookies, finished up their masks, took pictures, and colored their wind chimes. Phew! Whatever they didn't get to, they scooped up to do/eat at home. We ended in a total whirlwind but everyone loved it and all the parents were super happy at pick-up!

Here are two cute, colored-in wind chimes:

What worked least: Even though this program was a major success, I can think of a ton of ways that I should have run it differently. First, I really should have pre-cut the string for the masks but I just did not anticipate the kind of turnout and madness that I wound up having. Yet this was a small step that I could have taken and, I think, it would have prevented a good amount of craziness. Next, I should have skipped the wind chime craft completely. It was too much. I bought the wind chimes about a week before the program thinking that the mask craft wasn't enough, but I think I would have relaxed a bit if it just wasn't even there. The mask was PLENTY. Third, I needed a person on food duty. Because the end of the program got so rushed, the food serving wasn't very organized and a designated food-server would have made things go more smoothly.

What worked best: Despite the full on paragraph of "what worked least," this program was awesome! The kids loved it and the parents loved it! One mom told me that "everyone was talking about the unicorn party." I love a good program compliment! That's a win!

Valentine's Day Party

For some reason, over the course of my life, Valentine's Day has moved up the holiday ranks and landed in a comfy spot near the top. I just really enjoy it! Maybe it's because I'm partial to "girly stuff" like hearts, pink, flowers, and chocolate. Or maybe it's just that I will just cling on to anything at all that breaks up the monotony of winter. I'm not sure. But whatever the reason, every year I find myself getting more and more pumped about Valentine's Day. And even more so at work! I think Valentine's Day with kids is the ultimate cutest and most fun thing. I look forward to it and, more or less, call "dibs" on it every year.

So last week I had my Valentine's Day Party for kids in grades K-2 and, while I only had three kids in attendance, it was awesome! Here's how it went:

I started with story time and dragged it out a bit in the hopes that my group of two would get a little closer to the 18 who were signed up. I read Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger first, then followed it up with Smitten by David Gordon.

After the books we moved onto our game of "Love Bingo." I made these for a Valentine's Day Party about 3 years ago and they look like this, for example:

I was clever and got candy hearts as Bingo markers too. The kids marked off boxes on their boards as I held up corresponding full-sheet pictures at random. Between rounds, I told them to keep the pieces on their boards so they could just continue to fill them up until everyone eventually had Bingo. As the kids won, I let them pick from a basket of assorted prizes--which were things leftover from programs and reading clubs that we had in the library basement. If it even needs to be said, of course, every kid was a winner.

Next, we played "Blinded By Love" (which is a game I borrowed and modified a bit from Cul-De-Sac Cool's post, "12 Coolest Valentine's Day School Party Games"). Basically, each kid got "blinded" (using a paper mask I cut out and drew heart eyes on, and, when that got annoying and I realized that these were three really fun and honest kids, was replaced by just eye closing), and one by one, they had to try their best to draw a heart on the oak tag. There are no winners or losers in this game. It's just fun for a good little giggle. And giggles it got!

Then we took a craft and snack break. I put out a whole array of things for them to make valentines with: heart-shaped doilies, pink, red, white and purple hearts in two different sizes, conversation heart foam stickers, glittery heart foam stickers, love bug foam stickers, markers, and glue sticks. Then I let them just go to town. I also served delicious Entenmann's Valentine's Day cookies + water bottles.

Last, I told the group that, if we could either spend the last 10 minutes playing one more game, or they could use the last 10 minutes to finish their valentines and snacks. The two girls chose game, which was totally enough to play if I modified it a bit, while the one boy of the group finished decorating his valentines. Also from Cul-De-Sac Cool's post, "12 Coolest Valentine's Day School Party Games," I modified a game called "Heart Hop." The original game calls for the kids to split into two teams and race across the room to a pile of pre-written-on hearts. Each kid picks up a heart, reads what it says--something like "hop like a bunny"--and makes their way back to their team, doing whatever the heart instructs. The first team to use up their pile wins.

In preparation, I made two identical piles of hearts with commands written on one side-- hop like a bunny, walk backwards, crab walk. etc. But when I found out we were playing the game with just two kids, I just used one pile and had them play just to be silly. No racing.

What worked least: The size of my group was the only thing that kept this program from being as good as it could have been. However, the QUALITY of the three kids I got couldn't have been better! If had to have a party of only three, these were the three to have!

What worked best: The games, by far. I was surprised! I always expect the crafts and snacks to be the highlights of my programs, but the games really shone for this one. In fact, these kids were barely even interested in the cookies! Crazy!