I have a confession to make. Despite my desire to work with kids and my training as a Youth Services librarian, I am not crafty. My attempts at crochet have so far all ended up as lumpy, unfinished afghans and scarves. Thanks in part to learning disabilities, I’m not gifted at visual arts and I can’t draw. Those of you with experience in libraries will be able to see the problem here. Most of the youth librarians I know are artists of various kinds: knitters, card-makers and painters who use their skills to plan educational programs for children and teens. Recently, I led my first teen program at Minneapolis’ Roosevelt Public Library, where I volunteer on a weekly basis. Having regained my confidence somewhat, I worked with the librarian at Roosevelt to come up with a list of programs for spring 2009. Because other people’s online resources were vital to me in this project, I thought I would post my list here.
Sensory tables: http://www.childfun.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=147. Most preschools have sensory tables that allow young children to touch, smell, hear and taste objects while they learn to count, pour, measure, etc. The Roosevelt librarian and I were talking about sensory tables, and how we could adapt them for a very small branch library with no dedicated programming space. The challenge is coming up with items that aren’t prohibitively messy. My research revealed that sensory tables can use almost any kind of item, and Lisa is incorporating them into toddler storytimes now.
Lanterns for Chinese New Year: (January) http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/. I’m doing this one as part of a themed storytime in January.
Pinwheels/kites (March): I have no specific plans for this yet, but I’m hoping it will be pretty easy when the logistics are figured out
Origami (March): This is a teen event, aimed at using up the extra paper from the mini-journal workshop.
Altered book collages: http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/artscrafts/altered.books.html (April): Also a teen event. I’m hoping it will be a creative way to turn weeded/discarded books into a craft project.
December 29, 2008 at 6:15 am
I’m not a librarian but I think the ideas are good creative activities. I wonder if you would be able to do a teen event that allows a teen to volunteer to do a performance reading to the other teens. Maybe you could even pick a children’s story, but encourage the teens to re-write the story using some of their favorite characters from any other media (movies, games, etc.)?