Picture Book Organization- Nature

Nature seemed like a natural category to have, with seasons and weather. I ended up with a few other subcategories. I ended up splitting food and plants up. Pizza isn't really a plant, but it is from nature, so. . . food! Creepy carrots could go in either, but since it wasn't really about growing carrots, and more about eating carrots it ended up in NATURE FOOD REYNOLDS.

These are the subcategories I used for Nature

Camping- we live in a touristy camping area.
Conservation- small, small section, but when Earth Day comes around they are easier to find.
Food-  food we eat, including plants that are being eaten or put in soups or on pizza.
Nature- water cycle, random nature love books, anything that doesn't fit into the other sub-categories.
Plants- Growing and harvesting go here, trees, flowers, and books about gardening.
Seasons- spring, summer, fall and winter are all here.
Weather- rain, wind, storms, tornadoes and other weather related books go in this section.

So where do those pesky apple books go? Seasons, food, plants? That is what I love about this organization system so much, it is flexible. If the book is not going out in seasons, I move it to food, or plants.

Super Hero Training Academy (Library Version)

Most of my programs are drop in, finish the activities as you wish, hopefully check out some cool books and go home.  Super hero training academy was no exception.When the kids came in they got a check list with all the activities. Their mission? Complete the checklist.

Station One: Generate your superhero name and create a badge.

Patterns from here and here. The names were goofy and involved food. Some kids did not think having a cute name like the Invincible Marshmallow was very cool, so they made up their own.

Station Two: Knock over the villains with Captain America's Shield

This could have been so much bigger. Kids love stacking cups and knocking them down and stacking them again. This idea was on several different websites.

Station Three: My ABSOLUTE favorite.

Krytonite Keeper came from a few different ideas I saw online. One was a lava trail made out of LEGOs and the other was a radioactive orange game our teen librarian did with the teens the day before. The teens had an orange on a spoon and they had to knock off other kid's oranges to win while staying in a circle on the floor. I did not want to do this with the younger kiddos. I also loved the idea of walking across hot lava which was actually LEGO. Krytonite Keeper is "walking across crushed buildings to save Superman from the Kryptonite". This was totally awesome. Barefoot, spray your LEGOs later with some disinfectant spray. I used three tubs of LEGOs from our LEGO Club.

Station Four: Shoot the villain with water guns filled with paint.

Another Pinterest find that I tweaked for super hero training. This would have worked better if the water guns didn't leak all over the place. I filled the guns with a paint/water mixture.One gun had purple paint, one had green.

BEST SUMMER READING PICTURE EVER!

Station Five: Web Spinning, a crafty project, you can't see it but this table is full of girls.

Station Six: Leap over a building like Superman

I found the idea for the building jumping with another link on Pinterest. I wrapped different sizes of boxes and used label stickers for the windows. The kids came back to this activity over and over.

This program cost $4.22 for the red plates and the Frisbee at the Dollar Store. I used a lot of stuff I had left from other programs (I am a hoarder at work). I had almost 40 people show up (over 20 is excellent for our small library)!

Penguins and Process Art

Penguin storytime! I love penguins, who doesn't?

The kids really seemed to enjoy the farting penguin. . .

I rarely do cute product oriented art with preschoolers, but I know that parents value cute art projects to stick on their refrigerators, so I came up with this project that I think everyone can enjoy! 

I cut out the black part of the penguin and taped it to black paper and let the kids paint their papers with feathers and white paint. When the paper was peeled off, the kids were left with a penguin. They had a lot of fun with this one, because they got to cover the entire paper if they wanted. Of course some had a hard time with that (think color in the lines), but the end result was a cute project the parents could enjoy as well. This is also a great art lesson about negative space, so parents can feel good about that as well if you even bring it up.

Painting with Feathers

End "cute" project.

We played March of the Penguins between books; as I waddled with the kids, we sang this penguin call and response chant (I found it helpful that parents stay at storytime and were familiar with a call and response chant). We sang it through twice.

Penguin Chant

I'm a penguin black and white

I can't fly but that's all right.

I've got feathers that's not fur.

I lay eggs like other birds.

"Now we are going to do some counting" (in time with marching)

CHORUS

Penguins, 1, 2 (make dramatic finger counting gestures)

Penguins, 3, 4

Penguins, 5, 6, 7, 8

Penguins, they're great!

I swim real fast to get my meals.

I watch out for leopard seals.

I'm from the south as you may know

Now it's time for me to go.

CHORUS

 

Kryptonite Krispies in a Cup

I got the idea for the Kryptonite Krispies here.

I saw the picture and knew it would be an easy snack to add to our school age crafting program (I always try to add an edible crafty snack).

What you need:

• One large styrofoam cup per kid (a bowl might work better, our cups tipped over sometimes)
• 4 big marshmallows
• 1/4 tbsp butter
• 2/3 C of Rice Krispies (or the generic kind is definitely cheaper, one box was enough for about 20 kids)
• Green & Yellow Food coloring, 1-2 drops per cup

I had the kids put the marshmallows in the cup, a volunteer portioned out the butter for them and they added that to the cup as well. Microwave for about 12-18 seconds depending on how fast your microwave melts stuff. The volunteer handing out the butter also supervised the food coloring drops when the kids added them. Stir with a fork, and eat with same fork. Super easy, super quick. I'm sure you could modify with Fruity Pebbles or other such cereal. I can't wait to modify this and use it again.

SRP Sweetness

I used the fabulous library hero signs created on the Hafuboti blog to make
Mini Candy Bar Wrappers. 

 

If you want to print them for yourself, you will have to download them as a PDF for it to print correctly, I'm not sure what's up with that. But these are going to make SWEET prizes at our SRP Kick Off Carnival!

Also, if you want some Super Awesome Capes to jazz up your suckers, check out this Blog.

Let the Summer Begin!