Inspired by Jbrary’s Book Character Roundup, I decided to do a Laura Numeroff Party after school. I read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake because it was the only game that required direct knowledge of the story. Then I setup four stations to accompany each book:
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Memory Game: Homeschool Share has a ready-to-go Cookie Flip game.
If You Give a Moose a Muffin Tin Challenge: You just need a ping pong ball, a muffin tin, poster board (semi-optional).
If You Give a Cat a Cupcake: I found a downloadable game at First Grade a la Carte. I already had dice and game pieces hanging around.
If You Give a Pig a Pancake Relay Race: I have instructions for all the games here: Numeroff Party Instructions
What other fun Numeroff activities have you done?
For more school age programming ideas, check out the monthly roundup on Thrive Thursday’s schedule, Pinterest board, and Facebook Group! This month’s roundup is celebrating its 1 year anniversary!
I’ve done a series of successful Book vs. Movie programs with grades K-6. Here’s another one to celebrate the spooky season! This one is a little different. The book and the 10-minute film are virtually the same, so there aren’t enough differences to create a game. Instead, I found pictures to do a picture bingo. Read the picture book Room on the Broom aloud, and if you have enough time you can show the short film. (It’s actually really cute!) To make this super-holiday fun, I gave out small cups of candy corn to use as Bingo markers. The kids loved eating them at the end!
I’ve done a series of successful Book vs. Movie programs with grades K-6. Here’s another one to celebrate the 75th anniverary of Madeline! Read the picture book Madeline aloud. That way there is no requirement to watch the film to participate in the program. If a word, phrase, or character comes up that they didn’t hear in the picture book, then it came from the movie.
Here’s a Power Point you can use to call out the Bingo words and phrases: Madeline Books vs Movies
To play:
Give each child a Bingo Card, a red crayon and a green crayon.
Choose a category and number value in the Power Point presentation to reveal a word, phrase, or character. Have the children decide if it came from the book or movie.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box red.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box green.
You can offer prizes for the first child who has an all red Bingo, an all green Bingo, and a “Blackout” Bingo (where every square is colored). You can also play T’s, U’s or X’s.
I created a Bingo game to go with the summer reading theme, Fizz, Boom Read! This interactive Smell-a-Rama Bingo is easy and on the cheap side. I used a lot of ingredients I already had in the house and around the library, and asked co-workers to bring in some stuff I didn’t have at home.
What You Need:
Styrofoam cups (The Styrofoam holds the smells in a lot better.)
Prepare each cup for a unique scent. Rub the fruit/herbs/etc. around inside the cup. Rip pieces of aluminum foil to cover the lid and secure with a rubber band. Prick a few holes in the foil so the smell can be unleashed.
How to Play:
Hand out Bingo Cards and crayons.
Pass out one cup at a time and let the kids smell the cup. Have them color a square of that scent if it’s on their bingo card.
Give out clothespins for each bingo a child gets so they can hold their nose.
I will be doing a Musical Melodies program this summer with my school agers. Since the setup is a little time consuming, I have done it ahead of time.
You’ll Need:
5 glass bottles (12 oz.) (Since we don’t drink much of anything except water, I asked the local package store for clear, glass bottle donations and they gave me free, empty Coronas.)
Water
Measuring cup with ounces
Food coloring
Optional: rubber gloves and newspaper (if you’re clumsy like me and spill food coloring all over) and a skewer to stir food coloring
Wood tipped drumsticks
Optional: Bottle capper, bottle caps, can opener (Again, I’m lucky because my husband has some cool tools around the house. You can ask a local brewery if they could do this for you, or you can purchase the capper and caps for about $20.00. Or, you can setup an hour before the program. I made four sets of five and it took about 45 minutes from start to finish. I will use a bottle opener to open the bottles before the kids walk in the door.)
Colored Bottle
Amount of water
Food coloring drops
Red
11.4 oz
5 red
Orange
7.8 oz
1 red + 8 yellow
Green
6.6 oz
3 green
Blue
4.8 oz
3 blue
Purple
3.6 oz
2 red + 1 blue
1. Measure the ounces into each bottle.2. Place drops of food coloring in each bottle. Stir with skewer.3. Optional: Cap bottles and store until you’re ready for the program!
I will have some easy songs for the children to learn how to play, using wood-tipped drumsticks:
This month’s roundup features an array of active program ideas you can use right away:
First up is Librarian Out Loud. She’s sharing her Teen Anime Cafe program where teens learn to make a Japanese dish. I’m getting hungry just looking at these pictures!
Marge’s Kids Programming Class completed a final project and The Secret Agent Book Club is a real winner! A mix of book club and activities is sure to bring kids back to the library each week for book discussions and awesome activities such an invisible ink and fingerprinting. Not to be missed! This is going in my steal pile for the fall.
Marge is writing one herself on summer reading and…NO PRIZES! Yes, she’s a genius and a trailblazer. I love how she’s trying to get the importance of library programs ALL YEAR, instead of just in the summer. It’s catching on.
The Cheshire Public Library in Connecticut is sharing an amazing Art Bot program that you can use with this summer’s theme. Complete with in-depth instructions and photos, you can build an amazing robot with supplies found at the dollar store. You can also check out their other Mad Scientist programs for additional ideas complete with video clips.
Ms. Kelly at the Library knows I love acronymns and shares her ATLAS (At The Library After School) program about backyard games. Movement + multicultural = SUCCESS!
I’m sharing my first Story Mob and am still blown away by how great it turned out. Check out my instructions and complete video of the children acting out Press Here!
If you need a little inspiration to keep at it with the school age, read Be the Competition and think of all the important things you do for the families in your community!
Finally, Marge and I are sharing the results of the school age programming survey we did last month. Lots of useful stats in here and here, including budget, types of programs, outreach, staffing size.
I’ve done a series of successful Book vs. Movie programs with grades K-6. Here’s another one: Read the picture book Where the Wild Things Are to the children. That way there is no requirement to watch the film to participate in the program. If a word, phrase, or character comes up that they didn’t hear in the picture book, then it came from the movie.
Give each child a Bingo Card, a red crayon and a green crayon.
Choose a category and number value in the Power Point presentation to reveal a word, phrase, or character. Have the children decide if it came from the book or movie.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box red.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box green.
You can offer prizes for the first child who has an all red Bingo, an all green Bingo, and a “Blackout” Bingo (where every square is colored).
As I am taking the plunge into the school age programming pool and trying to get others to swim with me, I am noticing a trend…Some youth services librarians don’t think what they do for a living is important. (Amy, storytime ninja at Storytime Underground, wrote about this, too.) There are a number of reasons why some librarians do not want to test the waters in the school age arena:
Afraid of drowning: Trying something new is scary! Every time an adult patron asks me to help with genealogy I hope they don’t notice the sweat that soon covers me and soaks through my shirt! But I try my best, which is really what any of us can do. Plus, I like the variety in my duties (working with preschool, school age, teen and adults patrons all in once day!). I truly learn something new every day.
Afraid of getting water up the nose: No matter how seasoned we become at working with a particular age group, it is inevitable that we will fail every once in a while. We all have bad days, the kids have bad days, the weather will effect everyone, the activity we planned will not work. This happens. It happens in storytime, it happens while teaching computer classes, it happens working the circ desk. I don’t let it get me down. I keep a diary of “cute kid stories” that cheer me up, and I have drawings and thank you notes posted on my desk when I have the occasional bad program event.
Afraid of being the only one in the water: When I started doing school age programs, I had a handful of children attend. I was ecstatic! I had the same amount of patrons that the adult book club averages each month. I embraced the “small” group of children! I was so happy that they wanted to spend their time with me talking about books and doing activities. Their parents took time out of their day to get their children to and from the library. How awesome it was to be part of the community. Of course, my numbers have grown and yours will naturally, too. You’ll adjust to the different types of groups that come to your programs just as you adjust to the different types of preschool crowds you get attending different events. Even though I average 30 children at a program now, I still enjoy the times I get a small group. We really get to know each other during that hour. (And can you imagine telling your director that you are going to cancel the adult book club because only a handful of patrons showed up? No? Good. Why do we think that way about children’s programs?)
There are too many pools: A lot of librarians don’t want to “compete” with sports, scouts, leadership, etc. I don’t understand this. Our culture relies on menus of options. By not offering an option to families you are essentially telling your community that you / the library / literacy / reading / lifelong learning is not important. You are saying to your community that extra-curricular school activities, sports, scouts, and fill-in-the-blank is more important. You may not reach children who love sports and sign up for multiple sports each season. You may not get children whose parents think our society is too scheduled. But you’ll get children who need a safe place to spend time, and you’ll offer a whole slew of benefits to these children. (See S.A.F.E. practices for more info.) Plus, I’ve never heard of libraries not offering preschool programs because they don’t want to “compete” with preschool programs.
The children already know how to swim: Don’t stop offering programs after the preschool level. You already have a base of library users from preschool storytime. If you offer programs when they get into school, then become teens, and then adults you’ll have lifelong library users, supporters, and donors. They will grow up seeing how important libraries, literacy, and lifelong learning is to themselves, their families and their community. And, they will bring their own children to the library.
You are doing important work! Don’t forget it. So dive in! Who’s with me?!
Marge Loch-Wouters (school age blogger extraordinaire and teacher at UW-Madison) and I have created a school age programming mini-survey to take the temperature of our youth services colleagues on what YOU offer school age kids.
Please take a few minutes to answer this quick – and very informal – survey to give us a snapshot look at programming where you work!
I’ve done a series of successful Book vs. Movie programs with grades K-6. Here’s another one: Read the picture book The Lorax to the children. That way there is no requirement to watch the film to participate in the program. If a word, phrase, or character comes up that they didn’t hear in the picture book, then it came from the movie.
There’s a great website to generate your own Bingo cards. Here’s the link of ready to print unique cards: Lorax Bingo Cards
Here’s a Power Point you can use to call out the Bingo words and phrases: Lorax Book vs Movie
To play:
Give each child a Bingo Card, a red crayon and a green crayon.
Choose a category and number value in the Power Point presentation to reveal a word, phrase, or character. Have the children decide if it came from the book or movie.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box red.
If the word, phrase, or character came from the book color the box green.
You can offer prizes for the first child who has an all red Bingo, an all green Bingo, and a “Blackout” Bingo (where every square is colored).
![Numeroff_Game_with_Instructions[1]](https://i0.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_game_with_instructions1.jpg)
![Numeroff_Mouse[1]](https://i1.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_mouse1.jpg)
![Numeroff_Moose[1]](https://i0.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_moose1.jpg)
![Numeroff_Muffin_Challenge[1]](https://i1.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_muffin_challenge1.jpg)
![Numeroff_Cat[1]](https://i2.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_cat1.jpg)
![Numeroff_Pig[1]](https://i1.wp.com/thriveafterthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/numeroff_pig1.jpg)
If You Give a Pig a Pancake Relay Race: I have instructions for all the games here: Numeroff Party Instructions
