No Bake Cooking

My colleague and I are big bakers and cooks so one program that we always wanted to do here was some kind of cooking program.  The glitch that we ran into is that we have no oven and our microwave and refrigerator are in the staff lounge and often in use.  This is how our no bake cooking program was born.   We assemble 3-4 recipes that require no cooking and can easily be made in 60 minutes or less.  Pinterest is great for looking for ideas, as well as looking through your library collection.  We have done it twice now and both times have been a success.

Registration
We register 25 6-12 year olds, although a significant portion were 7-9.  Because we are dealing with food and there are now a wide range of allergies and diets, we list all of the ingredients we will be using in the program.  We then leave it up to the parents to monitor whether or not this would be a good program for their child to attend and what they can eat/make.

As a side note, we did run the idea of food-based programs through our library insurance policy.  If you are going to do these too, this may be something that you want to do.

Before the Program
You will want to put out as many of the materials as you can before the kids enter the room.  Things that we have found helpful include paper plates, plastic silverware, dixie cups to hold various ingredients, and paper towels.  You will want extra paper towels.  We also make cookbooks so the kids can follow along with the recipes and take it home to try again.

The Program
Today Miss Kara led the program and I was the assistant.  (Personally, I love the days when I get to be the assistant as it just doesn't happen often).  The first thing we do as the kids come in the room is have them wash their hands.  Luckily we have a sink in our program room, but this still takes 10 minutes or so.  We did four recipes today and I will list them below, along with how much of the ingredients you will need for a group this size.

(I told Kara she was going up on the blog since she had the fancy apron!)

Recipe 1-No Cook S'mores 

1 1/2 boxes of graham crackers (14.4 oz)

1 16 oz. container of chocolate frosting

1 13 oz. container of marshmallow fluff

This is where the dixie cups come in handy.  We gave each kid a scoop (or a knifeful) of marshmallow fluff in one dixie cup and another with chocolate frosting.  They were able to spread the ingredients themselves to make their s'mores.  While we set up the next recipe, they could snack on their s'mores.

Recipe 2-Dinosaur Trail Mix

1 15 oz. bag of pretzel sticks (twigs)

2 boxes of raisins (berries)

1 12.5 oz. box of Honeycomb cereal (dinosaur footprints)

This is a really easy recipe as you just dump the ingredients in a large bowl and mix.  We did this as a demo and had kids come up afterwards to fill their Ziploc baggies with some of the mix.  Kara also talked about what other ingredients the kids could add for more pretend fun, such as white chocolate chips (rocks).

Recipe 3-Dirt Cups

1 pkg. (3.9 oz) Jell-o instant chocolate pudding

2 cups cold milk

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed

15 Oreos, finely crushed (or just buy a box of Oreo cookie crumbs)

1 worm-shaped chewy fruit snacks

**triple the ingredients above for a group this size

Beat pudding mix and milk in a large bowl with a whisk for 2 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Stir in Cool Whip and 1/2 cup of cookie crumbs.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.

This one required a little finagling because of the refrigeration.  We premade the pudding so all the kids had to do was to scoop it in their cups, add Oreo crumbs, and top with gummy worms.

Recipe 4-Ice Cream in a Bag

2 bags of ice (the large bags that you would buy for a party)

6 quarts of half and half

1 large bag of salt (we used rock salt as the bigger the granules, the better)

1/3 of a 5 lb. bag of sugar

4 oz. vanilla extract

25 pint size Ziploc bags

at least 25 gallon size Ziploc bags (you will want extra as some leak)

2 containers of sprinkles or other mix-ins

Each kid will:

1.  Combine 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 cup of half and half, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract in a pint-sized Ziploc bag and seal it tightly.  (It helps if you have an extra adult to help seal the bags.)

2.  Place 1/2 cup salt (we used 2 handfuls of rock salt) in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.  Add enough ice to fill the bag half full.  Place the sealed smaller bag in the gallon bag and seal.  Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes).  You will be able to feel the small bag to know when it is done.

3.  Take the smaller bag out of the larger bag, add in the mix-ins and eat right out of the bag.

Our notes:

-This would be an awesome program next summer for the science theme.  You could center the whole program around the ice cream and then have an ice cream social afterwards as the kids add in various toppings.

-You will need a place to dump the ice.  Personally, I would use a large bowl or bucket as large pieces of rock salt do not go down the sink drain well (and I was picking them out).

-Ice cream in a bag does not refreeze well.  It is best if it is eaten right away.

Summer Contests

Contests are a great way to do some passive programming in the midst of our busy summer reading schedule.  They are fun, relatively easy to do, and can be low cost.

How to Run a Contest
1.  Come up with a theme.  Below are a few that we have done:

• counting Goldfish crackers in a fishbowl
• counting die cuts around a department
• trivia
• guessing games
• name a stuffed animal/mascot

2.  Decide on your rules and be clear on those rules.  You will want the following:

• Ages (both maximums and minimums or you will get "gifted" babies entering trivia contests)
• Deadlines
• How many times people can enter?
• Who can win?  As an example, at our library we only give prizes that cost money to residents and their families  who pay taxes to the library.  We have many other people who use us though and they can still play for fun.

3.  Prizes!  You don't have to break the bank to come up with some quality prizes.

• Do you have an awesome dollar store near you?  Look for fun kids' things like beach balls, sand pails, water bottles, etc.
• Do you have left over summer reading prizes from previous years that are still in good condition?  Last year we gave away glow-in-the-dark stars that were really popular and would be fun to pull out again.

4.  Count your stats (these kids still participated) and advertise the winners.  Half of the prize for the kids is to see their name in print on our events board. 

Random notes:
-You will have better participation as the level of thought/time involved to play your contest goes down.  Counting Goldfish crackers in a bowl=high participation.  Trivia=low participation.  Neither is better than the other as they hit different kids that you serve.

What We Are Doing Here:
Just so you can see an example, I will walk you through what we are doing here.  We have three locations so each location is responsible for coming up with one contest for all of us to share.  Over our 6 heaviest weeks of the summer, we are running a different contest every two weeks.  The first was ours so I will show you what I did.

I am a big fan of pinning ideas on Pinterest, even if I don't have a use for them at the time.  I found this fun bulletin board and thought that the idea would work well for some sort of contest.  This is what I came up with.  Most are pretty easy for people who are familiar with children's books, but I do like to throw in 1 or 2 stumpers.  (I even stumped some of the staff here!)  

Our contest forms are on our table right next to our summer reading forms, which is one of the first things that people see as they walk into the library.  For our prizes this time, we will be giving away 3 butterfly nets that we have leftover from a previous summer's unclaimed prize pile.  Our cost for this contest is $0.

The fun part about this contest is that even though there are always kids who will know most/all of the answers, there are those who are using this as a scavenger hunt to look through all of the books in the picture book section.  To me, this is pretty cool as in their exploration, chances are they will find something new!

Next week's contest will be letters hidden on construction cones throughout our children's room.  Kids will have to find the letters and unscramble the phrase for their entries.

Inspired by Flannel Friday

As we are in the midst of summer reading here, I have just been preparing flannelboards that fit our story time themes this summer.  Luckily, Flannel Friday is a great resource for coming up with new ideas.  This week I am showing off flannelboards that I assembled based on other's posts.  Check out their originals for some great ideas!

In case you missed Five Little Fishes the first time around, check out Jane at Piper Loves the Library.  I loved her shark and finally had a reason to make my own when we did Under the Sea this week as our theme.  If you haven't seen her flannel style before, check out how she mounts her pieces on black.  It really makes them pop!

If you missed the original post at Loons and Quines @ Librarytime for Five Enormous Dinosaurs, you will want to check it out.  She shows us how to use a drawing book to create flannel pieces.  Using her idea, I made my own and changed up the pieces (our kiddos love t-rex so we definitely needed one of those).  Plus, the purple diplodocus reminds me of Dino from The Flinstones.

I loved the layering technique of Thrive After Three's version of Shape by Shape.  My only problem was that I am messy and would have a hard time layering correctly during story time.  To fix that, I added a book ring to hold it all together.  Plus, I can hook it to the top of my story time easel.

That is all that I have finished for the week.  I still have to make Five Trucks from Fun with Friends at Storytime, Dino Bites by Thrive After Three, and Tip Tip Dig Dig from Piper Loves the Library.

Mrs. Andre's Library is hosting the Flannel Friday round-up this week.  Stop on by for some great ideas!

Story Time Prep 101

In response to Anne's great post yesterday at So Tomorrow, below is the method to my story time madness.

How We Work It
My colleague (Kara) and I do nine story times a week through most of the year at our branch.  I do 2 Music and Movements for 2-4 year olds and 2 2 year old story times.  Kara does 3 baby story times (1 0-11 month and 2 12-24 month) and 1 preschool story time (ages 3-6).  Then, we both do one school age story time together.  On an average week we run 300 people through our story times.  Instead of planning 9 separate story times, we grouped them together in ways that make sense.  For example, 2 year old and preschool story times have a lot in common.  You can use some of the same books, although you would use less for the 2 year olds.  You can also use the same flannelboards, rhymes, and poetry.  To avoid burnout, 1 of us plans an entire story time session (6 weeks or so) of preschool and 2 year old story times.  That person also plans the school age story time.  They are responsible for pulling books, making or pulling flannelboards, and finding and prepping crafts for the preschool and school age story times.  Since Music and Movement and the baby programs are totally different, I plan all of the Music and Movement programs and Kara plans all of the baby story times.  I will admit that this works for us because we complement each other well.  I don't know how this would work with a different mix of people.

My Style
I will admit that since I have been doing this for 12 years, I tend to reuse my themes and plans 1x a year.  I used to set them up in Microsoft Word and include everything I would need for a theme-books, rhymes, flannelboards (and where they are filed), crafts, poetry, songs, etc.  Ever since Melissa at Mel's Desk posted on the ALSC blog about Evernote, I have been posting my plans there.  I am loving Evernote because I can access it from any desk with Internet (even from home!).  You can also add pictures (of your crafts or flannelboards) and web links of where you found ideas.

After coming up with (or reusing) a theme, I start off by looking for new or different books.  I will search our catalog, check my Pinterest account to see what I have pinned on that theme, and check what I have tagged in my Feedly account.  If you get stuck, the first place I would recommend checking is Storytime Katie's list of themes.  It is an awesome list!

Once I have my list of books for a theme/session, I pull the ones that we have at our location and put the rest of them on hold.  I try to start pulling books at least 2 weeks before a story time session begins as we have three locations and often duplicate themes.

After I have pulled my books, I raid my giant file cabinet to look for flannelboards, rhymes, and songs that I have stored.  As you can possibly see, I have a large collection.  It has gotten to the point where I add in Evernote where I have filed my various flannelboards and rhymes so I can find them again.

Our Story Times

On the morning of story time, we load everything we will need for the morning up on our cart and take it back to our meeting room.  Some mornings have three story times.  There is also one day where we have only a 15 minute break in between programs so everything needed is taken back to the meeting room first thing.

We use nametags for attendance.  These are put out in alphabetical order on tables.  As you can see above, we have three separate programs going this morning so there are three separate tables.  When we collect nametags back at the end of the program, we add mini stickers to them.

As you can see above, we don't have a separate story time room.  We run all of our programs in our meeting room that we share with the public.  The room can seat up to 100 chairs or 50 tables and chairs.  This gets a little icky when we have a 9:15 story time and the group the previous evening needed 100 chairs.  This means we have to add in furniture take-down to our morning duties in addition to setting up for story time.  We also have a lot of multi-children families.  It is not unreasonable to expect that we need space for 10 strollers in addition to seating for parents, siblings, and story time kids.

With a room this size, we ran into another issue.  Having an open room for a bunch of 2 year olds is asking them to run around.  There are no boundaries.  We solved this by purchasing a carpet from Demco where they sit.  Because of the natural rectangle outline, many of the parents will sit along the edge, either with their children or by themselves.  This also gives us a boundary for when older siblings attend the program.  We can tell them that they can participate, but they have to stay off of the carpet. 

For our programs, we register 15 babies or 25 in the other groups.  Part of this is due to what we can realistically handle and the other is due to the entourage.  It is not unreasonable to expect that in a 25 child 2 year old story time that there will be 60 people plus 10 strollers.

Above is our actual space where we do story time.  Personally, I am a big fan of having counters since we have so many young children coming through.  It allows me to set up, while being high enough that little hands can't grab things.

While setting up, I will go through our stack of story time books.  Since Kara and I work well together, I can trust in the books that she has chosen.  What I am looking for are 2-3 books without tons of words on a page for my 2 year olds.

Our big stack gets whittled down to what I am going to use for that particular program.  The rest of the books go back on the cart for the next program.  I like to prop the books up, because my kiddos are fond of guessing games (plus, they need really obvious clues).  We look at the books and guess what our theme will be for the week.  You may be able to see our cd player peeking out from behind the books.  While I prefer using my work iPod for programs, if we have a lot of programs in a morning, I will use a burned cd with all of our story time songs on it.

The other nice thing about counters is that you can set up your flannelboards ahead of time!  As you can see above, I have two flannelboards ready to go.  There are also folders of more flannelboards underneath in case I get desperate or we are having a super wiggly day.  While we have a story time easel, I don't pull it out all of the time.  I use it when I have flannelboards with lots of parts or when the kiddos are going to participate.  Otherwise, I will spend the whole 30-minute story time with kids petting the board.  I like my handheld boards also because we sit in a rectangle.  It allows me to move the board around the room so everyone can see.

I sit at the front of the room, right in front of the counter (kind of on the R square if you can see it above).  With the little kids, I do a better job if I am at their height.  It allows me to give them a better experience than if I am looming above them.  (As a side note, this also puts me right in front of the space under the sink.  I am able to catch the kids if they decide to dive under.  Yes, that has happened.) 

At the end of story time, all of the kids clean up.  This means that they put their shakers and nametags back in the box that I put on the floor.  Then they all get a stamp.  It is the same every week, even though I have a bunch of stamps from when Kidstamps was still in business.  The week I thought I would use Spot instead of Clifford, I thought we were going to have mutiny.  I use washable blue ink.  I have tried other colors, including red, but they just don't show up on kids' hands.

After the program, the shakers and cd player go back in the cupboards under the counter.  The stamps and cds go in one of the drawers.  At the end of all of the programs for the day, we roll up the carpet and are ready for groups to use the room.

Any questions???

Parachute Games-2013 Edition

I love summer, because we get to pull out some of our other fun programming, rather than all story times.  One of my favorites to do is Parachute Games.  Our kiddos love using the parachute, but our story times and program room (which doubles as a meeting room with lots of chairs and tables) are not conducive to using the parachute regularly.

How to Find the Music
Songs that work well with the parachute involve spinning, circles, jumping, bouncing, popping, or balls (just a few key words to get you going).  You can also use music with a good beat.  I also like songs that will lend itself to bouncing things on the parachute (ex. Five Little Monkeys).  The kids will bounce all day long if you let them, but I like to change it up for them and add in some extra fun.  I will admit that I am a big fan of using my work iPod and iTunes software to put together playlists.  As music that I order comes in, I add them to my iTunes and sort them into folders as to how they fit my programming (ex. Possible Parachute Games songs).  This makes it easy for me to actually sit down and plan the program as all of the music is in one place. 

Set Up & Registration
Parachute Games is one of those programs where it is handy to have registration.  You only have so many handles on the parachute.  While you can fudge the numbers a little, you don't want 60 kids showing up to play with a 20 handle parachute.  You also don't want only 1 child showing up.  We sign up 20 kids for our program (as we have a 20 handle parachute).  Normally a day or two ahead of time I will bump in an extra 2-4 kids as you will have kids who don't show up.  To make this decision, I look at how many siblings could possibly be available to pick up some slack in case a chunk of kids don't show up.

Our Playlist
1.  If You're Happy and You Know It-We started off by singing our first song.  I found it last week on Laughter and Literacy and have never heard it before.  The verses are:

 If you're happy and you know it, lift it high!

If you're happy and you know it, shake it fast!

If you're happy and you know it, shake it slow!

If you're happy and you know it, shake it low!

2.  Round the Village by Wee Sing on Wee Sing and Play-This is a good slow song to get going.  You get to go around the circle, go in and out, and turn the circle again.

3.  Old MacDonald by Mr. Eric & Mr. Michael on Bouncy Blue-You may wonder why this is a parachute song, but it has a good beat.  Plus, if you throw on some puppets, the kiddos can bounce the puppets.  For this one, you will need a cow, a dog, and a chicken.

4.  ABC Song by Rachel De Azevedo Coleman on Signing Time Songs, Vol. 2-We bounced again, but used giant foam letters.  This song has a good slow and steady beat which makes it perfect for bouncing.  Plus, it throws in some extra early literacy.

5.  Moving in a Circle by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael on Rockin' Red-This is a circle spinning song again.  It tends to slow the kids down as they get super excited about bouncing things.  You will get to walk, jump, and take baby steps with the parachute.

6.  Spin Around by The Fresh Beat Band on The Fresh Beat Band Vol. 2.0-This is one of those songs that will stick in your head all day long.  It is a fun and peppy spinning song.

7.  Ring Around the Rosie by Caspar Babypants on Sing Along!-I am loving Caspar Babypants right now, but am having a hard time getting it to catch on.  This is a circle song again, but you get to fall down.  The 2-4 year olds love to fall down and think it is the silliest thing ever.

8.  Juggling, Juggling, Juggling Balls by The Wiggles on Hot Poppin' Popcorn-I have a bunch of mini beach balls that I got as part of a parachute set from Oriental Trading.  Beach balls are great for the parachute because they "pop", but you can also deflate them to maximize your storage space.

9.  Family Train by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael on Outrageous Orange-We did this as a spinning song to slow things down again.  What is cool is that there is a shaking part at the end of each verse.

10.  Popcorn- by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights on I'm a Rock Star-It's time to bounce the parachute again.

11.  Rolling Ball by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael on Groovy Green-The original idea was to roll the balls across the parachute.  This didn't work as this group was too young so we just bounced.  You will need balls in the following colors-red, yellow, blue, purple, green, and orange.

12.  Popcorn by the Barenaked Ladies on Snacktime!-Nothing beats Popcorn as a finale song as it is super fast and you get to bounce everything.  If you have any balls or props left, throw them on the parachute to bounce.

Today's Happy Accident

I didn't plan this, but one of the kiddos asked if we could play with the beach balls after the program.  (I don't know about your weather, but right now in Michigan it is 90 degrees with 100% humidity so nobody is playing outside unless it is in a pool!)  I didn't have anywhere that I had to be right away so I said okay.  The kids had the BEST time ever playing with each other.  The moms and dads let the babies down so they could play too.  We had a newspaper photographer at the program and they stayed afterwards to talk to the parents and get even more pictures.  Plus, when they left, they cleaned everything up.  It was a great experience!

Random Notes

Normally I would pull off the props in between each song, but we had a really young group this time so I just left them all on.  Otherwise, every child would have followed me onto the parachute and it takes time to get them all back off and to find a handle again.  It didn't hurt anything to add stuff to our bouncing pile. 

Also, this is a fun and noisy program.  This sometimes scares kids, especially if they are younger.  They don't all want to hold the parachute.  With those kids, I sometimes give them the balls (and other stuff) to throw on the parachute.  It is a way to keep them involved, but it isn't as scary as making the parachute go up and down.

Wrap-Up
Parachute Games is a great low-cost program that you can run at your library.  Once you buy the parachute and any extras, they last a long time so they are a good one-time investment.  It also requires little prep time for a quality program.  Plus, with the bright colors of the parachute and the cuteness of the little kids, you know that parents will take lots of pictures to post online, which will show off your library well.

Flannel Friday-In the Boat with Me

I love it when I find a flannelboard with a lot of pieces so there are enough for most/all of the kids.  This rhyme and pattern is in The Best of Totline Flannelboards and is called "In the Boat with Me".  In addition to having a lot of pieces, it is also a countdown rhyme so you get to practice your numbers.

The first line of the rhyme is:

Five little sea stars who lived in the sea,

Jumped right into the boat with me.

The rhyme continues with crabs, fish, sharks, and a whale.

Amy at Catch the Possibilities is hosting the Flannel Friday round-up this week.

 

Summer Displays

If you have seen my displays in the past here, you will know that we have 1 display space in our building for kids' books.  It is kind of shoved in at the beginning of the jbio area, which is not a high traffic area.  During the school year, I highlight various nonfiction areas, which coincide with whatever reports the kids are doing.  Since it is summer vacation, I had to come up with something else.

Our summer display is called "I'm bored...What can I do on summer vacation?"  The nice thing about this display is that you can put any kind of activity book on it, which covers a wide range of nonfiction.  To create your own, check out some of these dewey numbers:

• 509-science experiments 
• 636-pets (I always look for How to Talk to Your Dog by Jean Craighead George)
• 641-cooking
• 688.725-Lego books
• 741-how to draw
• 745-crafts & hobbies
• 790-sleepover parties
• 793.8-magic
• 796-sports
• 917-travel (anything for families around your state?) 

This is a great way to highlight nonfiction, especially the stuff that the kids don't normally use for homework.  Think outside of the box!  Parents will love it too, because I don't know about you, but we get tons of parents the week after school gets out who have NO IDEA what to do with their kids for 3 months.  This gives them the tools to keep their kids busy.