Insta-SRP

Here's what I was up to the past month: Summer Reading prep.  SRP started on June 1, so it has been a very busy week.

Summer Reading started this week!

We put together 300 beaded superhero bracelet kits!

The samples of the beaded bracelets.

Bulletin Boards at one of the branch libraries.

We are asking the kids to tell us who is their favorite superhero.

The children's area desk at one of the branch libraries.

 I cut so many cityscapes with my Cricut that I ended up dreaming about cutting items for work! 

Adding a Summer Learning component to Summer Reading.

All ready for children's and teen registrations!

The adult display at one of the library branches.

This year's theme is great for my collection of superhero t-shirts!

Got Prizes?  We do!

The teen area at one of the branches

I "stole" this photo from Miss Brindi.

Upcycling old comic books to make bookmarks at a program.

Superhero Bingo! This is for an upcoming teen program.

Insta-SRP

I have my last program of the summer today (a T-shirt Lab).  Yay!  In honor of Summer Reading programming being officially over for me, here is a peek at summer at my library locations - as originally shared on Instagram. 

Prize Robots (for children)

 

Science table

SRP Registration has begun!

Bulletin Board display (designed by Brindi)

TFIOS/Nerdfighter Gathering

TFIOS/Nerdfighter Gathering

TFIOS/Nerdfighter Gathering

TFIOS/Nerdfighter Gathering

Light Saber Training

Minecraft Mania (for Tweens)

Guess Who - the Doctor Who version

Photo Booth at the branches' SRP Finale (for children)

T-Shirt Lab (for teens)

Garden Gang

River rock helps with drainage.

 As part of the Dig Into Reading theme for Summer Reading, we are offering a monthly series of programs called Garden Gang.  This week we held our first program.  Afterwards I typed up some notes.

This month we planted seeds to take home and plants to grow at the library.  We hope that next month there will be some tomatoes to harvest and share as part of the program. 

Story:

Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens
 

Getting top soil for the pots.

Activities:

• Plant basil plants, tomato plants and mint plant into containers for the “patio” area.
• Take home: biodegradable seed cups (egg cartons and toilet paper rolls) with seeds (basil and marigold) sown.

Funds spent: $67 (plants, seeds, soil, river rock, planters, hand spades…)

Number of Attendees: 15 - ages 5-11.

Making a hole for the plant.

Notes:

• 16 registered.
• Definitely do this program outside!  Too messy for inside.
• Three 40-pound bags of top soil are just about perfect.  We had some soil left over, but used it with the leftover seeds.
• One packet of seeds is plenty!
• Each child was given six marigold seeds (for egg cartons) and four basil seeds (for the TP rolls). Two seeds were put in each.
• We had three each tomato and basil plants (different varieties) and one mint plant.  We put the kids in small groups to work together planting. 
• We had the kids put about 1 ½ inches of river rock in the bottoms of each pot.  This was to help with drainage.
• The TP rolls had mixed results.  The thinner rolls did not work as well as the thicker ones.
• TP roll an egg carton planters found here.
• We lined a delivery crate with a disposable plastic tablecloth and put the top soil in it.  Next time have at least two crates done this way. 
  

 Each child was given a handout with the following information:
 

Planting basil.

Things to remember:

• Watering your plants once a week should be enough…however check in on your plants to be sure. They should be damp, but not wet…you want them to grow, not rot. To keep the water from making a mess under the planters, place them on a plate.
• Keep the planters warm and out of direct sunlight.
• In about two to three weeks you should be ready to transplant them into the ground or into a regular planter!



Making pots from toilet paper rolls.

• The best thing about using these cardboard based planters is that once the seedlings are large enough to be transplanted you can actually plant the container as well. There is no need to fuss with removing the plant from the container…it will biodegrade in the new pot or in the garden.

Marigolds:

•  When the plants are two inches high, they are ready to be transplanted.
• These flowers love the sun! 
• When transplanted into the ground, place the plants eight inches apart.



Planting seeds in egg cartons.

• Flowers should arrive in 30-45 days.

Basil:

• Basil plants need at least six hours of sun a day. Be sure to transplant them where they will receive lots of sun.
• Space plants about 10" apart. They will bush out. Begin pinching the tops off once the plants reach about 6" in height. If you don't pinch or harvest, the plants will grow tall and gangly, with few leaves and will bolt to seed.

The library's patio garden.

I dig it, do you?

Summer Reading is nearly here!  My coworker, Brindi, and I spent last Friday afternoon putting together our "tree" board.  About a year ago, Brindi made a tree out of cardboard.  It has been in the corner our wall of bulletin boards ever since then.  We collaborate on the board for a seasonal display.  Since this year's Summer Reading Program (SRP) theme is Dig into Reading!, we decided to make an underground scene.  Or, a partial one.  

We made the tree a bush.  All those leaves? They came from the poet-tree I made in April. I cut a shovel blade out of a cardboard and covered it with aluminum foil. The handle was made out of thinner cardboard and painted with brown tempera.

I think this might be my favorite board so far.

 Last week Brindi and I also had a Pirates and Princesses Party for preschoolers. (How's that for some alliteration?).  One of our crafts was a pirate hat.  Of course we needed a model for the hat.  He is going to be the branch's mascot for the summer.  We call him The Dread Pirate Captain Greybeard!

Arrrrgh!!

Supernatural Survival Skills 101

The theme for the teen summer reading program this year is Own the Night. Of course, creatures such as vampires, werewolves and zombies come to my mind when I hear this theme. That is why I planned the Supernatural Survival Skills 101 program for the tweens and teens. 

At our smallest branch location we had nine kids register for the program. Eight of them came. This was the perfect size group, since there are only 8 chairs in the teen area! We went through several quizzes on topics such as vampires, ghosts and werewolves and went through a PowerPoint about various supernatural creatures. For snacks we munched on powered donut eyes, sour patch zombie victims, witches’ fingers (Bugles), witches’ broomsticks (mini-peanut butter cups and pretzel sticks), ghost poop (mini-marshmallows) and had zombie juice (dyed lemonade) to drink.

 After the quizzes, PowerPoint and snacks, I gave the kids face paints so they could make themselves into zombies. We then went outside to have a Zombie Apocalypse Drill. The Zombie Apocalypse Drill was essentially a game of tag, but instead a person being tagged as the new “it”, each person tagged also becomes a zombie until no one is left. The kids really enjoyed this part of the program! They played several rounds, coming up with new ways to make it more of a challenge, such as the zombies having to crawl, walk slow or even hop. The youngest of the group – a fourth grader – was the fastest. He also was great at the whole “human body shield” concept of surviving a zombie apocalypse. 

 

A lot of the ideas I used for the program are ones that I found on Pinterest.  Of course, I made a whole board just for planning this event.  

Out of the World - Picture Book Promos

Summer Reading madness has begun!   My first preschool storytime theme for the summer was Out of the World.  Our craft was a spaceship made out of various shapes with ribbon flames.  

I read three stories:

 
Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli

The Aliens are coming! By Colin McNaughton
I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

I'm trying something new...sharing my storytime plans on the blog.   

 

Summertime...and the livin' is...busy

I’ve been a busy bee lately…just not posting about what’s keeping me occupied.

At the library, we are gearing up for Summer Reading (Be Creative @ Your Library). In fact, tomorrow is our first official Summer Reading Program – a kick-off event at one of the branches. We have a fun filled evening planned:

• Steel Drum music by Tropical Breeze – one of the available musical acts from Pan Yard, Inc. in Akron, Ohio. We have hired groups from this company several times in the past four years. They always put on an excellent show.
• Face Painting
• A “Be Creative” Craft – design your own treat bags (cloth bags purchased from Oriental Trading) with fabric markers
• Refreshments – hot dogs, chips, cookies and punch
• Sidewalk Chalk (weather permitting – and right now it doesn’t look like that permission is coming from Mother Nature).
• Prize drawings – six library bags stuffed with lots of fun prizes.

So, if you live in the NE Ohio area and are looking for something to do on June 4, drop me an email for more info.


I’ve been reading a lot lately, too, having finished five books that I need to write about. Maybe by this weekend I’ll finally get around to that post.

SRC kickoff event

Tonight we had one of the kickoff events for Summer Reading Club. As I said before, the theme this year is Catch the Reading Bug!

The program included 2 crafts (caterpillars and butterflies), a music performance by a local musician, refreshments (pizza before the music, ice cream sundaes after), and prize drawings.

The crowd was decent - especially for such a beautiful day. The program was a lot of fun!

For the crafts:

Caterpillars

materials needed: clothespins, pompoms (about 6 dime sized per caterpillar), mini-googley eyes, glue, magnet strips

glue the pompoms onto a clothespin.
glue two eyes onto the 1st pompom
affix magnet strip (cut to appropriate size) to the back of the clothespin.

Butterflies

materials needed: bingo daubers/dot art daubers, coffee filters, pipe cleaners (cut in half)

decorate a coffee filter with the daubers.
scrunch middle of coffee filter
twist pipe cleaner in the middle.

Photos of the crafts can be provided upon request!

The musician - Chip Richter - was great! He sounded wonderful, and was very personable - both with the audience and with the staff. I would hire him again (if budget allows).