Valentine Writing Center

I like to put out various centers in our Activity Room to keep it fresh.  They aren't out all of the time.  I saw this idea somewhere (don't remember where) and created my own.

I made a heart shape in Microsoft Publisher and added "I love my library because..."  I printed the shape onto pink paper and cut them out.  Kids are encouraged to add what they want and put them in the mailbox.

I am a big proponent of signage for our centers so parents can see what we are doing.  After all, we're not just putting these hearts out to fill time.

If the Valentine's are legible, I hang them up above the center.  As always with a station like this, you will get a stack of scribbles.  They are still working on their writing skills, but I am not going to display them.

As an added bonus, these are great P.R. for your library.  I have a feeling that many of these will be posted on our Twitter page for fun over the next week.

Flannel Friday-Brown Bear, Brown Bear

I was working on our upcoming early literacy kits again and wanted a flannelboard to go along with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.  While I could pay for one as there are a lot of neat ones out there,  it was really easy (and cheap!) for me to run felt through our die cut machine.  With a little bit of puffy paint, they were ready to go.  

 Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see a black sheep, a gold fish, a green frog, a white dog, a purple cat, a blue horse, a yellow duck, and a red bird.

 

I like this option since we will be circulating these pieces along with the book and other props.  As we all know, once they are being checked out, it is inevitable that pieces will get lost or worn out.  This way I can easily replace them and not have to charge the patron.

Christine at Felt Board Ideas is hosting her first round-up this week!  For more information about Flannel Friday, check out the official blog.  For a visual representation of all that we do, check out our Pinterest page.

Winter Reading Program

Today begins our Winter Reading Program.  It doesn't have the glitz and glamor of our summer reading program.  It doesn't require the hours of preparation.  On the other hand, it is just as important.  Literacy is a big deal to us in the library world.  We want kids to read often.  By offering both a summer and a winter reading program, we are promoting reading with incentives for 5 months out of the year.  I am all for anything that works!  Here's how we run our program:

The Prep
I do have to think about this program a little early as our winter newsletter articles are due by November 15.  At this time, the outline of the program is completed and I have revised any content for our Bingo sheets.  At my library, the Bingo sheets go to our Community Relations person to polish before we put them out for the public.

Our budget for this program across three locations is $500.  This money first goes towards making sure we have enough books for our little kids' prizes.  I am a big fan of finding cheap and good.  We have Scholastic Warehouse sales near us twice a year so this is one place where we stock up.  I also will go through our book vendor.  This year I am a little excited as many of the books are a part of our 100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten program.  I also replenish the prize buckets at all three locations for the bigger kids.  This year I added Olympic rubber ducks.  At this time I have only spend $330 of my budget, but I still have to pick up our grand prizes.

The Program
We run two programs out of the children's room-Bingo for Little Kids and The Snowball Games.  Bingo for Little Kids is for ages 0-5.  In this program, kids (and parents) complete three Bingos in any direction.  The squares on this form are based on early literacy practices.  When they bring their form back, they get to pick out a free book.  They are welcome to play as many times as they want, but they will only get one free book.  Additional entries go into a drawing for Barnes and Noble gift cards (or whatever prizes I can find).

Our second program is The Snowball Games.  Because the Olympics are starting this week, some of the squares tie into sports.  This program is for grades K-5.  Kids complete one Bingo in any direction and can pick a prize out of our prize bin.  What is nice about this program from a budget perspective is that we can use many of the prizes year after year.  They can play as many times as they want.  At the end of the program, we draw one winner who will get a Barnes and Noble gift card.

I am a big fan of putting the forms out so people can pick up their own forms, rather than making them ask at the desk.  This way I can hit everybody, not just those who visit the desk.  We also promote the program in all of our story times and programs.  

The Stats
As a manager, I am a big fan of stats.  This way I can see what works and what doesn't.  I count original entries, as well as total entries, since it is possible that one person will enter 20 times.  Based on previous years, we end up with a couple hundred people participating in the program (as opposed to a couple thousand for summer reading).

Do you run a Winter Reading Program?  What do you do? 

Flannel Friday-Matching Hearts

One of my big goals this year is to redo our Activity Room to add a larger early literacy focus and better signage.  We have a generous Friends of the Library group who gave me some money to start this project off.  The first thing that I bought was a flannelboard dedicated to this room.  After all, it is one of the kids' favorite parts of story time.  Plus, I have a lot of flannel ideas!

This week's project was inspired by My Storytime Life.  To make my own set of matching hearts, I cut felt on our die cut machine in different colors.  Then, I puffy painted different patterns on each pair or hearts.

I didn't stop there.  One of my goals is to give parents the "why" of why we do what we do.  Plus, this is something that they could easily recreate at home with paper, crayons, and scissors.  Our early literacy program at my library is called Play to Learn and is based on the five ECRR2 skills.  My next step was a sign.

As you can see, it gives an idea of what to do and why we do it.  Of course, kids could also just play with the hearts.

We also "bribe" kids with stickers to clean up when they are done.  To help with that process, I added a bin under the flannelboard called "Flannelboard Pieces".  While most of our kids won't be able to read that yet, their parents will.  You would be surprised at how well bribery works!

This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Lisa at Thrive After Three.  For more information about Flannel Friday, check out our official blog.  For great felt ideas, check out our Pinterest page.

Face Outs Make a Difference

If you have seen some of my display posts in the past, you will know that I am a big fan of seeing what works in the retail world and adopting it in my library.  Any time I can face out a book, display it on shelves, or some other option, it helps it to circ.  As we know in the library world, circulation is important or items get weeded.

This inspiration came from a local bookstore (you may recognize it).

As you can see, this display looks neat.  You can see all of the book covers, which makes you want to pick up a copy (or five) for purchase.

We recently "found" some shelf space and our new nonfiction moved to fill it.  Since moving it here and using the face out method, I am constantly filling holes.  These books are now flying off the shelves.  Plus, they are right at the beginning of the nonfiction section now (rather than the easy reader area which didn't make sense).
 

It's a Preschool Fair

For the past couple of years, my library hosts a Preschool Fair at the Main Library.  With the big change in jobs this past fall, this now became one of my tasks.  Now that I have been through it, a Preschool Fair is actually a neat idea, promotes school involvement, and is inexpensive to do.  Here's how I did it:

October
Start early!  I sent out a letter to every preschool in our two townships, everybody who participated last year, and schools who have expressed interest at the beginning of October.  The letter introduced what we were trying to accomplish (showcasing local preschools) and gave a deadline to respond by.  I also included my email address as many of the schools had not met me before and I am working on building a relationship with them.

December
My deadline for a Preschool Fair on January 25 was Thanksgiving weekend.  Yes, I know that seems like a lot of time, but I then needed to track down those who didn't respond.  Plus, we all know what school schedules are like over the holiday break-you can't reach anyone.  I always started with a phone call.  When that didn't get a response, I sent the preschool teacher and principal at each of the schools an email with a new "must respond by" date.

Your phone will also become really popular once notice of your event goes out.  Our winter newsletter hit homes in mid-December and all of a sudden I had 5 more schools who wanted to participate.

January
Two weeks before our fair, I started to get serious.  This is when I printed our booklet that includes each school, contact information, and blank space for parents to make notes.  These all needed to be folded and stapled.  I had our subs stuff YS folders with our February Events calendar, winter reading form, Bookflix brochure, story time schedule, 100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten booklist, and a Sesame Street growth chart that we had leftover from some giveaway.  Every time we finished assembling something, we put it in a box and labelled it so it would be easily transported and unpacked downstairs.

I decided that we needed something fun for kids to do at our table also, so I came up with a quick craft.  My idea of a craft tends to be a die cut on a popsicle stick so we ended up with teddy bear puppets.  The sticks all had a glue dot put on ahead of time so kids (or parents) just had to peel the wrapper and stick the stick to the die cut when they were finished coloring.

The Day of the Fair
I picked up bottled water on my way in for the school representatives and was at the library by 8:30.  We loaded our boxes up on carts and moved them downstairs to our auditorium.  Our library opens at 9 a.m. and there were schools already outside waiting to come in.  Schools had one hour to set up before the fair opened at 10.  Our fair ran from 10-noon.

We set up a library table in the hall.  As people came in, they picked up a free book for their child (leftover from a grant), a package of CMPL crayons, a booklet listing the schools, our folder filled with events and information.  They could also enter a drawing.

our table 

 book choices

crayons

Our craft table was right next to our first table out in the hall.  Many time, while parents filled out their drawing entry, kids would color their puppet.

Our prize drawing happened as a result of me cleaning out our supply closet.  We had a lot of spare tote bags, backpacks, puzzles, books, and placemats leftover from previous drawings and giveaways.

You may wonder about expenses.  I will be honest-the only expenses that I ever usually see are those that come directly out of my program budget.  The cost of this year's fair was $6 to buy 48 bottles of water for the participants.  That is it!  Places where you could add/delete expenses are:

• Letters to the schools could be emailed.
• You don't need prizes.  If you think you do, check out leftover summer reading prizes or things cluttering up your closets.
• Crafts-simple is good.  Even something like a coloring sheet would have been welcome today.
• You don't need to pass out free books or crayons.  The only reason we did is that we had them from another event.

How did it go today?  Start by remembering the my library is in Michigan, home to the second Polar Vortex.  At the beginning of the fair, we had a blizzard and it was -3.  We still had 71 adults and 42 kids who came out to check out our 20 local schools.  Not all of our schools were in our service area, but those that weren't, were in the next city.  Parents were really excited to check out the local schools and many came out with a glazed eye look (but plenty of information to go through at home).  Schools were really excited to participate, because not only were they showing off to prospective parents, but they got to check out the competition.  Plus, I know that I end up with good ideas, by checking out the displays.  For example, today's good idea is that if you don't have a library tableskirt for an event, use a parachute.  It looks great!

Now Onto Next Year
I will admit that I am an idea person so I already have notes on things to expand or delete for next year.  Plus, I did send out a survey to all of our participants asking about the date, timing, and other issues.

My big thing for next year (if our millage passes) is to make the library table look as professional as the tables in the actual fair.  I would like a tableskirt and/or these cool display things that I saw at one of the tables (personally, I would like both).

 This sign works like an upside down shade.

I would also like to add a bigger children's component to the day, if not to the actual fair.  We are looking to set up a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program and I am thinking that it would be awesome to kick it off on the same day as the Preschool Fair.  Plus, then I have justification to have a costumed character walking around.

Flannel Friday-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This past fall my library was given a grant to develop circulating early literacy kits.  As I was going through catalogs, I realized that I could make most of the felt stuff better myself.  This is my first completed prop to go along with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  I am really excited about it and will give you my tips and tricks below.

The original idea came to me from Twodaloo. I really liked the design and "wow" factor.  My only is that I wanted young kids to be able to play with it and small wooden circles and coconuts make a choking hazard (great idea for home, but not for a public library).  I also wanted it to be low cost as people will lose the parts.  I wanted to be able to easily recreate parts so we don't have to withdraw the kits as parts disappear.

My mom and I followed the instructions on Twodaloo to create the trunk.  I used my mom because I do not sew (and she does).  I thought that sewed trunks would make them more durable.  Just a note-1 yard of fleece will create 6 trunks.  Also, we added 1 inch extra around our arm as neither of us have thin arms and I wanted adults to be able to use it too.

While my mom sewed trunks, I cut out leaves.  I wanted a pattern for these as I wanted them to look as close to the real thing as possible.  One of my favorite sources for patterns is Making Learning Fun.  I used the leaf and coconut patterns from here and blew them up on the copy machine to 121%.  I used three different shades of green to make my trees fun.

For assembly, I hot glued 2 big leaves and 3 small leaves to the top of each tree trunk.  I thought that the hot glue would give it a little more durability for the public than tacky glue (my normal glue of choice).  It helped to glue the leaves more to the side than the top of the trunk as felt isn't super thick.  I didn't want falling leaves as I told my story.

Next came the coconuts.  I cut out 156 coconuts as I made 6 puppets (26 letters x 6 puppets).  I puffy painted the letters of the alphabet onto these.  I had to do them in two batches as I ran out of room for them to dry.

Once they were dry, I added velco to the back of each coconut and added them to my tree.  It was at this point that I learned that velcro doesn't stick well to fleece.  Luckily, it still works well on the felt leaves.

Here is a picture of the puppet on my arm.  Taking puppet selfies one-handed is a little difficult!

While I really like the finished product, if I was making another set of these, I would make the trunk in brown felt.  This would also mean that I would add more than an inch around my arm pattern as felt doesn't "give" the same way as fleece.

This week's round-up is being hosted by Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime.  You can always find Flannel Friday at the official blog, on Pinterest, and on Facebook.