Make Your Own: Hunger Games Parachutes

We're lucky at our branch to have an excellent Young Adult Librarian. Miss. Tea is enthusiastic, full of great ideas and absolutely loves working with the older kids who, to be honest, intimidate me a lot of the time. I don't usually help her with programs since I'm normally covering the desk in the children's room, but I can help with the prep.

We're approaching a week filled with Hunger Games programs and activities, getting children and young adults even more pumped up for the movie and hopefully pushing some books. Tonight I helped out by making Hunger Games style parachutes for use later this week. And now you can too!

We start with an origami box. There are instructions for these all over the internet, but where I have the edge on those instructions is that I, unlike most origami instructions, don't care about precision. Get it close enough and it'll look just fine.

1. Start with a construction paper square (I take a normal piece of paper and fold one corner over to make am isosceles triangle with a little bit extra hanging off, then I cut the extra bit off and voila! a square)

2. Crease the square in half both ways and across both triangle directions. The square should now be divided into 8 equal triangles. The important thing with steps 2-5 is to get a good crease. The more defined the crease is, the easier the folding will be later.

3. Fold each corner of the square into the center to create a smaller square.

4. Fold the left and right sides of this square into the center to create a long, hot dog bun style, rectangle.

5. Fold the top and bottom up to once again create a square. Notice how messy my square is. And it doesn't even matter!

6. Open the square back up and undo your folding until you reach this point:

7. And now the only tricky part. Looking at your paper you now have a rectangle with a triangle on top and on bottom. Reverse the fold at the top on the rectangle to pull up the walls of the box.

8. Repeat on the other side of the triangle

9. And fold down the top piece over the folds to create the third wall of the box.

10. Repeat on the other side and BAM! origami box made. See how well it turned out even though we're using thick construction paper and weren't too particular about everything lining up exactly?

11. Repeat steps 2-10 lots of times, with all the Hunger Games colors.

12. Our amazing teen volunteer created some beautiful designs on funnel shaped coffee filters with glue and glitter.

My favorite is the Peeta one with bread made out of gold glitter. Girl really knows what I'm looking for in my Hunger Games! Once the glues dries we'll use these as the top part of our parachutes, but for now we'll continue with plain filters.

13. Punch holes in the middle of each side of the box and corresponding ones (4 total) on the funnel filters. Using yarn, preferably in Hunger Games colors, connect the filter to the box. The important thing here is to make sure that each piece of yarn remains roughly the same length, even after you've tied them. This will make the top hang evenly.

And there you have the Hunger Games parachutes! Miss Tea will use these as bowls for some of the snacks at different programs, to hold small prizes and as the targets for our rubber-band shooting approximation of archery.

Theme Thursday: Down on the Farm

Yee-Haw, and giddy up partners. Last week we hung out on the farm and learned all about the different noises that animals make and the different equipment that farmers use to make the plants grow!

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Poem: Baby's Fingers
Flannel: Alphabet Soup- FARM

Flannel: When Cow Gets Up in the Morning

When cow gets up in the morning she loves to say good day
When cow gets up in the morning she loves to say good day
She goes "moo moo moo moo"
That's how she says good day

cat... meow
dog... woof
duck... quack
rooster... cluck
pig... oink

Poem: 10 Little Fingers

Book: Punk Farmby Jarret Krosoczka

Song: Old MacDonald
Song: Shake the Sillies Out

Book: Tractors and Farm Vehicles (Mighty Machines)by Jean Coppendale

This was the first time I've tried a non-fiction book with my story time kids. This particular book has great pictures and pretty simple text, but it was definitely written for an older audience so I paraphrased and abbreviated heavily.

Book: Mrs. Wishy-Washyby Joy Cowley


Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's Getting to Know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Animal Masks

Supplies:
-Animal mask template (half a paper plate with eye holes cut out and yarn tied into hole-punch holes on the side) Prepared before hand
-Animal parts (I had things to make roosters, pigs and cows) Prepared beforehand
-Gluesticks
-Crayons

Process:
I introduced the craft before the last song and met the kids at the craft table afterwards. I spread out the animal parts on paper plates ( all the cow pieces together, all the rooster pieces together and all the pig pieces together). Unlike other crafts this one required more instruction and attention so I moved between kids and their caregivers helping them figure out where all the different pieces went. The kids colored the paper plates and enjoyed gluing the pieces on. Some made mutant animals with different pieces from all the animals and some just enjoyed gluing the pieces on so they could rip them off.

Overall I think this craft may have been a bit ambitious, and most of the kids are still too young to understand the concept of tying something to their face. But the few kids we did get into the masks looked darn cute. Until they ripped them off.

Time:
Prep took about 45-50 minutes. This was one of the more prep heavy crafts I've done and if I had had more time I may have done more, going to far as to glue the correct pieces to individual masks. I think that may have been too much effort for the end result though. The kid crafting time was about 15-20 minutes with my more hands on instruction.

Model Craft: I made a cow


And Action shot!

Revamping the Blog

You my have noticed last week that I went off my usual Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule.

You may have noticed that it has continued this week.

And if you're really perceptive, you may have noticed that my "About This Blog" page has changed pretty dramatically.

From my new and improved "About This Blog" page:

Some would say 4 months is too soon for a blog to need a new voice. To those people, I say "HA, just watch me."

For those of you who were reading for my scandalous tales of misbehaving youth, I'm sorry. Send me an e-mail and I'll tell you lots of good stories. Promise.

For those of you who were reading because you love my craft projects oh so much and can't wait to see what I'll devote way too much of my free time with next, I'm starting a new blog for that. Again, send me an e-mail and I'll hook you up with the url.

As always you can reach me at inthechildrensroom@gmail.com or on Twitter at @lucymaudm

Why the new direction? Well, I had a series of interviews over the last few weeks for a position in a different library system. I didn't end up getting the job, which was heartbreaking in itself (a lot of my very close friends work there and it would have been wonderful to see them every day and to learn from them as I continue growing professionally.)

But worse than not being offered the job was the feeling that I wasn't showing them all I could do. I answered their questions and even did a sample story time but I felt like it wasn't enough. I wanted to tell them about this blog. To show them the flannel board sets that I make and how they work within the context of a story time. To show them the book reviews and the projects that we try to do with our kids. But there was a lot of cursing. And so many of my side projects.

The blog as it was didn't offer a cohesive look at what I'm capable of in a library setting. It didn't serve as a portfolio. Hopefully, with these few changes I'll have something that I'm proud to show potential employers, will chart my growth as a librarian, and will serve as a resource for other librarians looking for ideas.

And if you read all of that, thank you and welcome to the shiny new version of In the Children's Room

Flannel Friday: Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Dog Gone?

Little Mouse, Little Mouse is the hit of story time. I've got parents bringing in their kids early to tell me that it should be included since it's their extra special favorite (how I feel about pushy parents and their encouraging these feelings of entitlement are a completely different story). After story time I let the kids play around with the flannel pieces and if we haven't done Little Mouse there's always a request for me to go grab that set. Basically it's a big deal.

So I wanted to introduce a similar flannel board game, one that has a few different hiding places (so we can work on our vocabulary) and an even cuter protagonist. After all, who doesn't love dogs?

We start by singing the first verse of "Where, oh where, has my little dog gone?" which is great because most of the parents/caregivers are already familiar with it.

I added my own second verse that goes like this:

Is he hiding under the bed?
Or right there behind the stairs?
Where, oh where, has my little dog gone?
I sure hope he knows I care.

And then we play the game:

Little dog, little dog what did you decide? Do you think the ____orange staircase___ is a good place to hide?

No, he's not behind the staircase. Where shall we look next? The green cabinet? Okay, let's all ask together "Little dog, little dog, what did you decide? Do you think the green cabinet is a good place to hide?"

We found him! Yay!

Close up of my dog. He's based off a Jules Feiffer illustration of George from Bark George.

Right now I have a purple flowerpot, a yellow sofa, an orange staircase and a green cabinet for the little dog to hide behind. I'd really like to add at least one more object to the set but I can't think of anything else inside a house where he could hide. Does anyone have any suggestions? My attempts at making a bed were disastrous and I'm afraid that a chair would look too much like the sofa.

Theme Thursday: Cars! Cars! Cars!

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth
Flannel: Little Mouse, Little Mouse
Flannel: Alphabet Soup- CAR
Song: We're Driving Very Fast (to the tune of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain)

We're driving very fast, very fast
We're driving very fast, very fast
We're driving very fast
We're driving very fast
We're driving very fast, very fast

Additional Verses:
We're driving very slow
We're driving in the rain
We're waving out the window

Book: My Carby Byron Barton



Poem: Windshield Wiper

I am a windshield wiper
This is how I go
Back and forth
Back and forth
In the rain and in the snow

Song: The Wheels on the Bus
Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Song: Grand Old Duke of York
Book: Cars Galoreby Peter Stein



Flannel: Lots of Cars by Nancy Stewart

Cars are based on Bob Staake's illustrations from Cars Galore

I didn't care for the Nancy Stewart song/rhyme in practice, it didn't work particularly well with my style or my kids. We did talk about the biggest and smallest car and all the different colors that cars can be. When I reuses this flannel set here's the rhyme I'll be using.

One little car who just happened to be blue
Met another car, now there are two

Two little cars racing down the street
They saw a third car, oh what a treat!

Three Little cars headed to the store
Found a car in the parking lot and now there are four

Four little cars returned home at last
And there was the fifth one, he'd run out of gas!
Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's Getting to Know Myself

Make and Take Craft:

Car Puppets!

Supplies:
-Car body puppets (prepped beforehand)
-Black wheels (black construction paper circles)
-Leftover summer reading stickers
-Crayons
-Glue Sticks

Process:
Before we sang the Turn Around song, I introduced the craft and showed my example. After story time was over the kids gathered at a table where I laid out the glue sticks, stickers, crayons and wheels. I then gave each kid a puppet and let them decorate. Caretakers helped the smaller ones with getting the wheels on right, but the stickers and the crayons were all them.

Time:
Prep took about 40 minutes with cutting out the car shape and gluing each one to a Popsicle stick. Again, total craft time depended on how into decorating the car each kid was. It ranged from 3 to 12 minutes and some took home extra wheels or even puppets (in the case of the kid who tore his first one) to work on later.

Not Quite Flannel Friday: Karma Karma Chameleon

This was my first attempt at a folder story.

I love Leo Lionni's A Color of His Own and used to get really good reactions when I did it at story time. Our library's only copy though is a board book and not suitable for sharing with bigger groups.

It's a pretty standard folder story. The only thing extra I did was cover the outside of the folder and the bottom of the first few pages inside with black construction paper. That way the second chameleon can stay hidden until it's time for the first one to meet him.

"Everything has a color of its own. Except
chameleons. When they're standing on
lemons, they're yellow..."

"...In heather, they're purple. And standing on
a striped tiger's tail, they're striped. Just like the tiger."

Here's our hero, standing in the spring's
green grass, meeting the older and wiser
chameleon who is standing in pink flowers
for the purpose of my folder.

And they lived happily ever after.

Theme Thursday: Colors

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to do more themed story times and parents have started asking for more make and take crafts. It's a lot of extra work to come up with and prep a craft that works for birth-4 for every story time, but I'm pretty sure I can manage one a week.

And that's how Thursdays have turned into Theme Thursday here at the library.

I made a list of everything I thought I could possibly plan a story time around and am going to work my way through it over the next 21 weeks-- that's how many themes I came up with, although I'll probably try to space out "bears" and "teddy bears."

After a Valentine's Day Extravaganza two weeks ago we continued our new routine last Thursday with a story time about colors.
Color Story Time

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Alphabet Soup "COLOR"
Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Flannel: Mary Wore Her Read Dress
Rhyme: Big, Big, Big
Song: Color Dance Song
Song: Heads, Shoulder, Knees and Toes
Flannel: Rainbow Poem
Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Book: Color Dance by Ann Jonas

Song: Turn Around by Hap Palmer from Getting to Know Myself

Make and Take Craft

The dancer's in Color Dance use gauzy sheets to demonstrate color mixing and making new colors out of primary colors. For our make and take craft we made our own Color Dances.

Supplies:
-Color Dance Frames (prepped before hand, white computer or construction paper with a colorful construction paper "frame")
-Colorful tissue paper cut into different shapes
-Glue Sticks
-Crayons

Process:
After story time I let the kids go and anyone who wanted joined us at a table where I spread out tissue paper shapes all over the table and handed each child their own color dance frame and enough glue sticks to share. Some kids drew with crayons and then glued down paper on top, others just got really into layering the tissue paper.

Time:
Prep took about a 20 minutes before story time began and the craft ranged from 5 to 15 minutes depending on when the kids got bored.