Pirate Party!

A couple of days ago I had a "Pirate Party" to celebrate our Summer Reading Program's theme of "Make a Splash" at your library. Kids love pirates, of course their idea of pirates are the Pirates of the Caribbean type not the Somali type but nonetheless they love them. I had a whole passel of kids, mostly boys out to the library and I had pirate names for each of them on name tags. I found a pirate name generator to come up with the names but I had to edit them because many of the pirate names it came up with were naughty like "Bessie Slovenly Wench."

First we had a pirate storyteller come out, Pamela Hanks, you can find her at this site. She dressed in full pirate regalia and had the pirate "accent" down.

Then we divided the group in half and half went on a treasure hunt around the library and the other half made pirate crafts. I made six different treasure hunts around the library leading the kids from clue to clue until they got a word which they would take to the Reference desk to get a bag full of goodies. Of course this led to kids running around yelling "there's the next clue!" and dragging their parents along. Devising 6 separate hunts with 9 different clues was quite a task and I don't plan on doing a treasure hunt again in the near future. The party was fun but I think this "Admiral Slovenly Wench" is going to take a break for a bit.

Dye Disaster

It's been a while since I've posted. First I went on vacation and then the DAY that I was supposed to return I got a jury summons and out of 40 people they summoned they were to pick 8 for the jury and lo and behold they picked me. So finally, today I returned my normal schedule.

This afternoon I had a "Be Creative with Food" activity. I love food crafts and think as many crafts as possible should be edible. So I pulled four of them together for a giant craft feast. First, were marshmallow sculptures, very simple, just different sorts of marshmallows and toothpicks. Then I bought red licorice strings online and gave the kids cheerios, fruit loops, and life savers to make their own candy necklaces. Another station was corn syrup mixed with food coloring that makes an excellent paint that you can lick. Finally, the most complicated project was a "make your own" gum kit.

The "make your own" gum kit had food dye gel in it to color the gum. I had never seen food dye gel and did not know its potency. Apparently cake decorators use it in icing and they only put a tiny drop in to color a whole lot of icing. Well, the kids used a lot more than drops to color their gum. We had four small vials of it and one child dumped a whole vial of blue gel in her gum and then chewed it getting blue all over her hands, lips, hands and the table. Of course there were spills and blue and red streaks were over the table that I (stupidly) forgot to cover with a tablecloth. Blue and red were streaked on children's hands, lips and it got on my skirt which I still haven't gotten out.

Of course the children didn't care that they were messy, they were having a ball. But I'm sure some mothers will be mad at me as they struggle to get blue dye out of their children's clothes tonight. When the children left I was faced with a blue and red streaked table only armed with chlorox wipes. I wiped and wiped until my arm was sore but there is still a blueish tint to it. Oh well, perhaps with all the other stains from all the other projects I've done on that table not many people will notice. But next time, definitely a tablecloth.

Publicity is Publicity

I had a simple summer activity this week: provide the children with chalk and popsicles and let them decorate our library sidewalks. This was the easiest and most UN-elaborate activity I had this summer yet the local paper called and asked if they could come to the activity and photograph it. I told them it was basically an "open house" of kids coming to draw and eat popsicles and suggested a more involved and exciting activity coming up soon they could attend yet I suspect there was a deadline involved.




So they came late AFTER most of the kids had left and after I had left for a meeting. Thus they had to gather the kids who drew the art back from inside the building to pose in front of their art. They later called me for a quote which I had to give them while a patron stood in front of the desk, staring at me, waiting for help. Oh well, publicity is publicity.

The Power of Storytelling

During the end of May I visited the local elementary schools to talk up our Summer Reading program. I visited around 3800 students at various assemblies around the area. With me I took the very accomplished storyteller Rachel Hedman to get the children excited and then I gave the "boring" part of the assembly where I talked about the summer reading program and what they needed to do to sign up.

Where children are endlessly entertained by videogames and TV I was not sure that sitting still and listening to someone tell a story would go over well. But these children were entirely riveted to every word that Rachel spoke. When she gestured to the back of the room and spoke of a "glowing book" "far in the distance" half the children's heads turned to the back of the cafeteria to see this imaginary book. It was great to see the YouTube generation sitting so quietly, hands in their laps, eyes forward, listening to simple, well-told stories.

Go, Worm Go!

Our summer reading program, and the summer reading program of many libraries is all about bugs. For an activity this week I wanted to have a "worm day." We would have a worm craft, worm snack (chocolate pudding, oreo 'dirt' with gummi worms), and I wanted to attempt a worm race. My boss was a little worried how he would put "worms" on the purchase request slip that we turn into the county. He didn't need to worry because worms are 'dirt' cheap. You can get two dozen for three bucks.

So I bought the worms and after the large gaggle of children had eaten their chocolate 'dirt' I told them we were having a worm race. I didn't know how this was going to go, I didn't even know which was the front or the back of the worm. I made several concentric rings on a large sheet of paper and had the kids each pick a worm. I thought the kids would be squeamish about touching worms but they reached in and dug their hands into the big squishy pile. They each put their worms on the outer edge of the circle and then with as much fanfare as a worm race could have I said "Go!" The worms, not realizing this was a race, squiggled and some tried to race off the table. But a few valiant ones made their way to the center. Soon it was a neck in neck race between two pink worms. Who would win? The kids were wide-eyed in anticipation. Finally we had a winner and the kid with the worm held it aloft like an Olympic torch. Who knew that worm racing could be fun?

Snakes in the Library

A couple of weeks ago for our summer reading program we had an animal expert bring an assortment of wild life into our library to show the kids. He brought scorpions, a tarantula, a skink, monitor lizards, tortoises, and other fun bugs. But what the kids were really salivating for was snakes.

He asked for a volunteer and a girl about aged 10 raised her hand. He then brought out a large albino boa. He wrapped it around her neck. The girl froze. She wasn't expected to be a volunteer for this. The boa's head kept creeping up to her face and she kept hitting it down again. I was getting really nervous. I didn't think it was good to hit a boa in the face. She continued to do this 5-6 times. The animal expert did not notice she was so nervous and she was swatting the boa in the face. The audience was gasping. Finally, he saw that she was petrified and took the boa off. She didn't volunteer again.

Disaster was averted that time but then he brought out a ten foot reticulated python. He had eight kids stand up and hold the python from head to tail. They were okay for about three seconds. Then the python started moving and the girl at the front dropped its head. The other kids couldn't support the weight of the heavy python and they started falling. The kids were desperately trying to hold onto this python while they were holding themselves up but then they fell into the black backdrop hiding the other animals and knocked it down dropping some of the ten foot python on the floor. Luckily, this particular python was a professional and did not attack anyone. I don't know if any of those kids from the audience will be volunteering at any more animal programs any time soon.

Tarantula Tales

The last three weeks have been very busy for me, my coworker and our library's pet tarantula Charlotte. We have been going to schools to talk about our Summer Reading program. The theme is all about bugs so we bring Charlotte in, (I wear gloves in case the kids scare her as you can see in the picture above), give ten interesting facts about tarantulas, and then give our spiel about summer reading. The kids have just eaten it up. But there have been some interesting times with Charlotte...

Once I took Charlotte out and put her back in but did not completely close her cage. I thought there was no way for her to escape because she never had before. Then she started creeping up the side of it as I began giving facts about tarantulas. The kids interrupted me and started shouting, "she's getting out!" I said "she can't get out" and continued on with my program. They continued to shout and Charlotte crawled higher up the cage. Then as I wasn't looking she completely crawled right out of her cage a few feet away from some of the children. The room was filled with screams of terrified children. I had to act fast and grab her and put her back in. I bet that was all they talked about in school for the next WEEK.

Another time I took Charlotte out for the kids to see her and she started walking up my arm, she went up and up to my elbow, my shoulder then down my back. The kids were screaming. I couldn't see her down my back to put her back into her cage. I didn't want to push her off and drop her because tarantulas are very fragile. My coworker, who is frightened of spiders had to rescue me because no teachers were even thinking about coming to aid me. She gingerly grabbed Charlotte and put her back in the cage. She was not too thrilled about that.

Finally, one time when we were doing grade level after grade level back to back I reached in to pick up Charlotte and then she reared back and bit me. I was quite surprised, she had never done that before. Luckily I was wearing gloves but she put a nice hole in the leather. I liked telling some of the kids that Charlotte bit me, their eyes would always widen and some would say "No way! You didn't die?"

I told my coworker I don't know what I'm going to do next year for Summer Reading to top holding a tarantula. The only way I can top this is if I jump in there and light myself on fire. Although I don't think that fits with next year's theme.