Snowman Make-n-Take Craft

Since the schools around here get out late, program attendance has gone down a lot. I have a few after school activities that start around 4:15pm, but some kids don't get home until almost 4:30pm. Instead of planning crafts for 20-30 kids, I was planning for an unknown number that usually ended up being 5-10 kids. If I'm going to spend a lot of time planning and gathering materials, I want a bigger turnout than 10, so I started scheduling programs that wouldn't take too much prep and it wouldn't matter if I had 2 kids or 35 kids. This is when Make-n-Take Crafts were born. I have been doing them for 2 years and I can have them anytime, even if I'm not in the library! 

I print instructions, put them in plastic displays and leave them out on the tables in the Children's Area. The materials for the crafts are kept on a table in front of the Children's Desk. The staff member (if there is one) can monitor the materials and keep track of how many people are making the craft for statistics. I put a disclaimer on our paper and online events calendar that supplies are available on a first come, first serve basis. If I'm not in the library, I will be able to tell how many people made the craft by how many supplies are left and this takes the pressure off staff working that day.

I have been scheduling Make-n-Takes at night from 4pm-8pm or all day Saturday 10am-5pm. The most I've had for a Make-n-Take is 63 people and its great because that's more than what I would have in a craft scheduled at a certain time because I'm restricted by space. The set up for this month's Make-n-Take was snowman themed with these directions on tables:

 I don't like to make samples because it sometimes restricts creativity, but I usually make one for the Make-n-Takes since I might not be working that day and I don't want the staff to really be bothered by the craft. So here's my Make-n-Take Snowman:

 The only materials I left out were glue sticks, crayons (which are always out on the tables with coloring sheets), scissors, white paper, circle patterns, and printed black hats to cut out. 
Very easy craft and I'll probably cut circles out for a snowman craft with my story time kids.

Get Well Story Time

Since everyone is feeling ill with something around here, this week's theme was all about Getting Well and Doctors.

The Books:

Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson

Llama llama home with mama by Anna Dewdney

My Cold Went on a Vacation by Molly Rausch & Nora Krug

Favorite: As always, Llama llama home with mama was the favorite. I wish there was a llama book for every holiday and theme.

What was in the Memory Box? 
A box of tissues! I don't know how I crammed this in the box, but I did without the lid popping off. 

Activity: Winter Clothes flannel board complete with song "Boots, Jacket, Scarf and Hat" to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" from Mel's Desk! She is another of my favorite resources for anything Early Lit or Story Time-related. I just used clip art for the jacket, hat, scarf, mittens and boots, covered them with contact paper and added Velcro stickies to the back. I had a small story time group (because everyone was sick?) so everyone had a chance to put one of the items on the felt board.

Craft: What do you do when you're sick? Go to the doctor! Trying to find a craft that went with these stories was a little difficult. I came across a fancy doctor bag complete with supplies to color, but as usual, it was from a "members only" site so I could only see the tiny thumbnail image. I decided to make my own materials for doctor bags.

Doctor Bag

Inside Doctor Bag

I kept it simple because when I have a lot of gluing, the kids really just want to color with the glue sticks instead of the crayons. I didn't want the whole project to be sticky, so I limited it to medicine, thermometer, band-aids & cotton balls. Some kids just had band-aids, some just medicine. It was really funny to see all the finished projects. Everyone was very proud and thought it was funny that I was calling them all Dr. So-and-so!

I haven't gotten sick with anything yet, knock on wood, but I know there are lots of "doctors" that will be able to fix me up in no time if I do get sick. Being around these kids really does wonders for my immune system!

Jan Thomas Story Time

I was pressed for time and found this week's theme from what was on the bookshelf in my office. Jan Thomas is an author I revisit a lot for fun story time reads. I grabbed the books I had, made up a quick craft using the activities available on her website and I was ready for story time!  

The Books: 

Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas

Let's Count Goats! by Jan Thomas & Mem Fox

What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas

 Favorite: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? was the favorite by a landslide. I actually had this on my bookshelf to make it into a flannel board story when I had the chance. 

What was in the Memory Box? 
I was going to hide a couch from my childhood dollhouse, but I forgot to bring it in on story time day and used a felt cow instead. The kids always think it is going to be whatever they saw last week!


Craft:  
I used the activity "Draw Some Faces" on Jan Thomas's website and made it into a book. The parents liked the craft because they all agreed with disgust and laughter that their kids would totally eat ice cream that was covered in hair/licked by a dog.  

 

Story Time: Driving my Race car

Since it isn't really feeling like winter yet in New Jersey, I decided to put off those winter themed story times another week and went with a theme from one of my very first story times... 6 years ago? OMG. The craft is the same, I just changed the books.

The Books:

Let's Go for a Drive! by Mo Willems

Who Is Driving? by Leo Timmers

In the Driver's Seat by Max Haynes

Favorite: Who is Driving? by Leo Timmers. Matching up the vehicle to the driver = mayhem. I wish there were more to this book... which means I will probably add more later or make it into a flannelboard story the next time around. The kids really like guessing who was driving (or flying in one case) and they started getting really silly by claiming the LEAST OBVIOUS animal must be the driver. Hilarious time.

What was in the Memory Box? 
I hid a green felt tractor in the Memory Box this time, just to throw them off since my last few weeks of objects were easy. One of the vehicles someone is driving in Who Is Driving? is a green tractor and it really stumped the kids. Besides insisting that I had the egg in there again, I got everything from a firetruck, elephant, barn, until I gave the hint that a pig was driving this in one of the stories. Then of course, they all had to pass the tractor around and marvel at how they just saw the same one in the book! 

Activity: Surprise! I'm usually so lazy, but I actually prepared this in advance to have an activity. I remembered seeing paper plate steering wheels used with In the Driver's Seat on one of my favorite librarian blogs Storytiming and I knew I had to do it with my group! 

I made 30 since I figured the kids would want to keep them. I'm now left with 9 steering wheels since the rest went home with kids, but they were easy enough to make for when I might need them in the future.

Craft: 
Construction paper race cars with moveable wheels!

To make the shiny hubcaps, I cut circles from foil. The kids were really confused by the foil circles and were very fascinated by being able to glue this to their car to look like "real wheels". These race cars were a big hit since the wheels spin and the kids were zooming off to show off their race cars  around the library when they checked out their books.

Story Time: Happy Birthday!

For the first story time of the year, I wanted to do something different. Instead of jumping right into snow, snowmen, and the usual winter themes, I thought we should say a "Happy Birthday" to 2013!

The Books:

Happy Birthday, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff

A Birthday for Cow! by Jan Thomas

Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr

Favorite: Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr. The kids really enjoyed the "secret" being kept in the book because the animals were talking to the reader! I read this book second for both Toddler Time & Preschool Story Time and got the same reactions in both sessions, which is great since they are too different age groups. 

What was in that Memory Box? 
I hid a tiny balloon in the Memory box for this story since there were a lot of balloons in the stories. The first time I did the Memory Box, the hidden item was a plastic egg and every week, the kids think it will still be an EGG! They can't get over the egg for some reason. Its been 8 weeks of story times since I hid the egg! 
The balloon was a big hit because I had blown it up a little so it would still fit in the box, so there were many questions about how I fit a balloon in there. They thought it was magic.


Craft: 
I didn't expect more than a few kids, if any at all, because I scheduled it for January 2nd. I just planned to have them color an easy birthday cake coloring page.  Simple coloring goes over big around here.