Unfortunately I haven't always kept track of my programs and don't always remember to take pictures, but this is as comprehensive a list as possible. It starts with my most recent programs first and links to a separate blog post when I have pictures to add. Thanks for stopping by!
Summer 2020
*I was on maternity leave May-August, but my coworkers were wonderful enough to run my programs in my absence!
Cook From a Book: Beach Party
2-5 Years
*This month, we read Chu's Day at the Beach by Neil Gaiman and made beachy pudding cups (similar to these)!
Cook From a Book: S'mores
2-5 Years
*This month, we made our own toaster oven s'mores!
Cook From a Book: Cupcakes
2-5 Years
*This month, we read The Mixed-Up Truck by Stephen Savage and decorated mini cupcakes!
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
*Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
*Big Hero 6
*Aladdin
*Despicable Me
Spring 2020
Cook From a Book: Green Eggs and Ham
2-5 Years
*This month, we read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and made our own lucky eggs (dyed deviled eggs, recipe found here)!
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
*Trolls + troll hair-do headbands (craft kit purchased from Amazon)
Baby Explorers
0-36 Months
Meet a K-9 Officer
K-4th Grade
Cook From a Book: Pizza Party
2-5 Years
*This month, we read Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party by Kimberly and James Dean and made our own English muffin pizzas!
Kids in the Kitchen: Summer Treats
K-2nd Grade
Cook From a Book: Taco Tuesday
2-5 Years
*This month, we read Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and made our own nachos with a selection of toppings!
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
*Tangled + paper lanterns (similar to these)
*Toy Story + sheriff's badges (template found here)
*Beauty and the Beast + stained glass bookmarks (similar to these)
*The Lion King + lion masks (these with the middle cut out for a mask)
*Brave + jumping bears
Winter 2019/2020
My First Thanksgiving
0-18 months
*Classic turkey handprints combined with photos from our photobooth. Always a hit!
Presents for Pets
K-4th grade
*We made shrinky dink collar tags, dog toys (similar to these) and cat toys (similar to these). Everybody was encouraged to make extras for pets at our local Humane Society. My coworkers were kind enough to donate all the t-shirts we needed for the dog toys!
Make Your Own Calendars
K-4th grade
*I put together some blank calendars and bound them using our book binder. I made up a list of holidays (regular and silly) and printed out some ideas for DIY calendars.
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
-Lady and the Tramp & noodle necklaces
-Anastasia & decorated paper snowflakes (template from here)
-Monsters, Inc. & personalized bedroom door hangers
Cook From a Book: Vegetable Soup
2-5 years
*We read Bear and Chicken by Jannie Ho and made vegetable soup in the instant pot! I wish I had started to heat the pressure cooker earlier (so it didn't take so long to come up to pressure) but otherwise the program went smoothly.
My First Valentine's Day
0-18 months
*Very similar to My First Thanksgiving, we took pictures in our photobooth and made fingerprint/handprint art.
Cook From a Book: Pancakes
2-5 years
*This month, we read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff and made our own pancakes on the griddle! We used a single-serving pancake recipe, so every child got to mix their own pancakes (some with grown up help) and I did the cooking. We also had a bunch of toppings to choose from.
Fall 2019
2-5 years
Keychain Crafts
K-6th grade
*We made classic (to me and my coworker) bead and lanyard keychain crafts. The lanyard style was a little difficult for younger attendees, but everyone had a ton of fun. This one definitely required one librarian for each station, even with most adults staying.
0-36 months
2-5 years
Summer 2019
5 years & under
2-5 years
Babywearing Dance Class
0-18 months
*No new photos, but similar to the class from last winter, found here.
K-6th grade
Pre-K-3rd grade
0-36 months
18 months- 5 years
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
- Wall-E & straw rockets (from this blog)
-Inside Out & emotions bracelets with colored pony beads
-Zootopia with thumbprint shadow paintings (we did foxes and rabbits, but they were similar to this idea)
-A Bug's Life & firefly suncatchers (from this blog)
Spring 2019
0-36 months
2-5 years
2-5 years
Baby Prom
0-36 months
*Tissue paper corsages, the bubble machine, dancing, and prom photos using our library's photobooth.
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
All Ages
- The Land Before Time & geometric paper dinosaurs similar to these
-Peter Pan & crocodile paper bag puppets (template found here)
-Finding Nemo & watercolor jellyfish (template found here)
- Moana & paper flower necklaces
Winter 2018/2019
My First Thanksgiving
0-18 months
*Classic turkey handprints combined with photos from our photobooth. Always a hit!
2-5 years
Holiday Gift Workshop
0-5 years
*We made magnets (using photos taken with our photobooth and our button maker), ornaments (using wood slices, ribbons, and ink pad handprints), cards, and gift wrap. We had some donated boxes to wrap it all in before kids left.
Make Your Own Calendars
Grades K-5
*I put together some blank calendars and bound them using our book binder. I made up a list of holidays (regular and silly) and printed out some ideas for DIY calendars. The handprint/footprint ideas were most popular.
My First Valentine's Day
0-18 months
*Photos from our photobooth combined with fingerprint crafts.
Make Your Own Valentines
Grades K-3
*I used Publisher to shrink free coloring pages down to fit on greeting card templates. We also made our own envelopes using a template printed onto colored paper.
Perler Bead Bonanza
Grades K-6
*Kids dropped in over a 2 hour period to create anything they wanted out of perler beads. I had a station set up for ironing (which I manned) and a bunch of pattern ideas (printed for free from the internet).
0-18 months
2-5 years
Fall 2018
Haunted Escape Room
Grades Pre-K-K & 1st-2nd
Using a set of lock boxes from Breakout EDU, my coworker and I led two groups of kids through a series of puzzles to rescue a group of library ghosts (similar to these).
Ages 2-5
Ages 5 & under
Similar to last year's grandparents day program, we read a story, had a snack, and used our photo booth to make a craft (this year we made magnets).
Halloween Card Spooktacular
All Ages
Similar to my Friday Morning Movie & Craft (but on a Thursday night), we made Halloween cards and bookmarks then watched Hotel Transylvania. Using a greeting card template on Microsoft Publisher and making the front of the cards out of free coloring pages made set up extremely easy. I plan to do something similar for Valentine's Day 2019.
Little Scientists at Night
Ages 2-5
Summer 2018
Ages 0-36 months
Ages 2-5 years
Ages 0-36 months
Ages 2-5 years
All Ages
Ages 0-36 months
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-The Princess and the Frog & decorated frogs with party blower tongue (similar to here)
-The Hunchback of Notre Dame & paper plate tambourines
-Trolls & troll jewelry (pipecleaner and button bracelets)
-Tarzan & paper chain snakes
Ages 2-5 years
Spring 2018
Little Scientists: It's Raining, It's Pouring
Activities included shaving cream cloud experiments and the take-home activity was a water cycle in a bag experiment.
Ages 2-5 years
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
Pocahontas & "colors of the wind" suncatchers (paper cut out shapes filled with scraps of tissue paper and laminated)
All Ages
PreK-4th Grade
Instead of a story, kids voted on whether or not an egg would break when dropped on different surfaces (grass, pillow stuffing, concrete, etc.). The take-home activity was a bouncy egg experiment- put a raw egg in a cup of white vinegar and see what happens!
Ages 2-5 years
Happy Birthday Pete!
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Pete the Cat book being published, Pete-themed stations included retelling I Love My White Shoes, a Pete memory game, pin the shoes on Pete, decorate a birthday hat, and meet the cat himself.
Ages 5 years & under
Llama Llama Pajama Jam
We read the newest Llama book (Llama Llama Loves to Read) and broke into stations, which included designing your own pajamas for Llama Llama, matching colorful squares onto a quilt, and making a bedtime snack of teddy bears (teddy grahams), pillows (marshmallows), and goodnight kisses (mini chocolate chips). You can find the signs I used for each station here.
Ages 18 months- 5 years
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-The Incredibles & toilet paper tube superhero cuffs (i got the idea here, but spray painted them before cutting the slit and did not lace them up with yarn)
Winter 2017/2018
My First Thanksgiving
*Classic turkey handprints combined with photos taken in our library's photobooth
Ages 0-36 months
Make Your Own Calendars
*I pre-printed 2018 calendars and pre-bound them using our library's book binding machine. Most kids decorated their calendars using their imaginations or some of the ideas I found on the internet, but a few families brought pictures from home as well.
Ages 0-3rd Grade
Winter Crafts & Games
*Printable games and simple crafts the day before Thanksgiving. This year included QR codes on the instructions for each game so families could find them online if they wanted their own copies.
All Ages
*A story, science experiment, and activities all about snowflakes and ice
Ages 2-5 years
Grades PreK-3rd
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-Frozen & snowflake paintings
-101 Dalmatians (the original cartoon) & puppy origami
-The Mighty Ducks
All Ages
*A story, song, and fun stations featuring make-your-own English muffin pizzas
Ages 1-6 years
Little Scientists: Up, Up, and Away!
Ages 2-5 years
*A story about airplanes (how they fly and what it's like to fly in them) followed by stations all about balloons and airplanes.
My First Valentine's Day
Ages 0-18 months
*Pictures using our library's photobooth followed by decorating frames with handprints and footprints.
Little Scientists: Sweet Science
Ages 2-5 years
*Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Pea followed by math games and science experiments using candy hearts.
Fall 2017
*A story, song, snack, and craft with grandparents. We used our library's photobooth to take pictures and then used our button maker to make personalized buttons
Ages 2-5 years
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-The Lego Movie & lego man masks
-Ratatouille & paper chef's hats
-Monsters, Inc. & doorknob hangers
-The Little Mermaid & seashell necklaces
-Up & 3D paper houses (and balloons as long as our leftover helium tank holds out)
All Ages
*Story and song followed by fun stations like an indoor corn maze and jack-o-lantern suncatchers
Ages 2-5 years
*Story, song, science experiment and activities about shapes and spiders
Ages 2-5 years
Summer 2017
Kids in the Kitchen: Totally Toddlers
*A "cooking" program for toddlers. I seriously regret not taking pictures of this one, as it was extremely cute and parents & kids all loved it. We mixed up our own baked potatoes with toppings (I pre-baked them at home), put together yogurt & fruit parfaits, and mixed our own ranch dip for carrots. I also had a display for kid-friendly cookbooks.
Ages 18-36 months
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
- Muppet Treasure Island & paper pirate hats
-Brave & paper lunch bag bear claws
-Cars & woven race flags
All Ages
Race Into Space
*A collaboration with The Children's Museum of Cleveland
Ages 2-5 years
Story Time From Space
*Story Time from Space is a collaboration between NASA and the Global Space Education Foundation. (Check out their website here) We listened to Rosie Revere, Engineer written by Andrea Beaty and read by Astronaut Kate Rubins. We also used our library's photobooth to take photos so we could make our own NASA i.d. badges.
Ages 2-5 years
My First Summer
*This is the third time I've run this program to great success. We use our library's photobooth to take photos and decorate cardboard photo frame holders and make handprint art.
Ages 0-18 months
Very Messy Thursday
*Activities this Summer included: a kiddie pool filled with spaghetti noodles one week and cloud dough another, edible finger paint made with yogurt, sidewalk chalk, and frozen ice cube painting.
Ages 0-36 months
Spring 2017
Friday Morning Movie and Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-Beauty and the Beast & "stained glass" bookmarks
All Ages
*A coworker and I threw a 10th birthday party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggie series. We read I Am Invited to a Party!, sang happy birthday, then ate cupcakes and played party games.
Ages 3-5 years
My First Spring
*We used our photobooth to take pictures and decorated frames with springy handprint art.
Ages 0-36 months
Road Trip Ready
*We made our own "Road Trip Kits" full of fun activities and games for the car
Ages 4-7 years
Winter 2016/2017
*Done in the hopes of distracting use from our awful long winters. We did a short beach-themed storytime followed by beachy stations. Our stations included make your own hula skirts, paper leis, making a beachy snack, and dancing to beachy music. We also managed to give away all the luau decorations we had taking up room in our storage closets!
Ages 2-6 years
Cabin Fever Crafts
*We made paint chip color books and put together our own activity books.
Ages 18-36 months
Friday Morning Movie & Craft
* This is a drop-in series we've been running on Fridays when we don't have storytimes. Families with kids of all ages come in to make a craft and stay for a movie.
-Lilo & Stitch & paper leis
-Tangled & paper lanterns
-Happy Feet & paper bag penguin puppets
All Ages
Kids in the Kitchen: Holiday Gifts
*We made giant chocolate covered marshmallows (chocolate melted in a slow cooker) and cinnamon sugar popcorn jars. This session I had kids bring their own clean, empty jars and it was much more affordable.
Ages 5-10 years
My First Thanksgiving
*Classic turkey handprints combined with photos taken in our library's photobooth
Ages 0-36 months
Winter Craft Free-For-All
*A drop in program the day before Thanksgiving. We managed to use up a lot of random supplies that weren't enough for their own program but too much to throw out.
All Ages
Fall 2016
Hocus Pocus Movie Night
*Families arrived for half an hour of sherbet & sprite "witch's brew" and make-your-own Oreo "witch's hats" followed by a showing of the movie Hocus Pocus.
Ages 4-8 years
*A program full of Daniel-themed stations, including Katerina Kitty Cat's Yarn Toss and a photobooth opportunity with a kid-sized trolley.
Ages 2-5 years
Grandparents Day Celebration
*A grandparents-themed storytime followed by a snack and bookmark craft featuring photos from our library's photobooth.
Ages 2-5 years
Twinsburg Speaks Spanish Craft Night
* As the final children's program in our Spanish-Speaking initiative, we made mola (folk art from Panama), banderitas, and ojo de dios.
All Ages
Summer 2016
Bilingual Story Time
*Part of a library-wide, year-long initiative to encourage learning Spanish. In this session we read one story entirely in Spanish, one story in English with Spanish vocabulary throughout, sang songs in English then the same songs in Spanish, and made tissue paper banderitas.
All Ages
DIY Summer
*A series of infant and toddler programs where we made our own crayones, sidewalk chalk, slime, and puzzles.
Ages 18-36 months
My First Summer
*Another session of one of my favorite programs.
Ages 0-18 months
Spring 2016
*For this program, we told the story together using a felt board set I made, had a butterfly-themed snack, and made our own caterpillar headbands & coloring books.
Ages 2-5 years
Bilingual Storytime
*Another session as part of our library-wide Spanish-speaking initiative.
All Ages
Winter 2015/2016
Baby Yoga
*I did a session of this for infants and a separate one for toddlers. Our library has since found a certified yoga teacher who comes in for programs, but this was a lot of fun while it lasted. The first round of them in Summer 2014 is what really got me hooked on programming for infants and young toddlers.
Ages 0-12 months (or non-walkers)/13-36 months (or walkers)
Tooth Fairy Appreciation Day
*One of my more whimsical ideas. We read The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy by Martha Brockenbrough, wrote letters to the tooth fairy, and decorated boxes to keep our teeth in under our pillows. I also had kids write their addresses on their letters and wrote back to them as the tooth fairy (shh!).
Ages 4-8 years
Mini Masterpieces
*An arts & crafts program for babies & toddlers. Over 3 sessions we made our own paper books, pasta necklaces, and cornstarch play dough.
Ages 0-36 months
Kids in the Kitchen: Holiday Gifts
*In this session we made soup mix in a jar and chocolate-dipped spoons to stir into coffee or hot chocolate. We melted the chocolate in a slow cooker, which worked well, and the jars for soup mix were a little pricey but kids brought their own jars for a later session and that helped with cost a lot.
Ages 5-10 years
Winter Craft Free-For-All
*A drop in program the day before Thanksgiving. We put out some ideas for crafts but kids mostly made whatever was on their mind.
All Ages
*We got a very large shipment of new board books this Winter, so I arranged them into categories and put them all out on display for families to peruse.
Ages 0-36 months
Cabin Fever Crafts
*A program to give parents of toddlers ideas for activities they could do indoors during the cold weather. This session included a shape-matching game, playing with frozen shaving cream, a paper plate ring toss game, and a shapes scavenger hunt.
Ages 18-36 months
Summer/Fall 2015
Presents For Pets
*We made shrinky-dink collar tags (shrunk in the toaster oven) and dog/cat biscuits to bake at home.
All Ages
My First Summer
*Using our library's photo booth, we took pictures and decorated picture frames for them.
Ages 0-18 months
So You Want to Meet a Firefighter?
*For Fire Safety month, we read a story, sang songs, and made a craft all about firefighters. Then our local fire depart brought a fire truck to our parking lot for a meet-and-greet.
*Ages 3-7 years
Spring 2015
Kids in the Kitchen: Mock Foods
*We made peanut butter and banana "sushi" and fruit pizzas.
Ages 5-10 years
Saturday Morning Move & Groove
*Music and dancing for older toddlers and preschoolers
Ages 2-6 years
Summer/Fall/Winter 2014
Baby Yoga
*The first in a series of yoga for infants and toddlers (and their parents). Although I'm not a certified yoga instructor, parents were happy to have a quiet time to bond with their babies.
Ages 0-12 months/non-walkers and 13 months/walkers-36 months
Mini Masterpieces
*A baby and toddler craft program. We did things like painting in a bag and making our own sidewalk chalk.
Ages 0-36 months
Kids in the Kitchen: Pumpkins
*We toasted pumpkin seeds in the toaster oven and made no-bake pumpkin cheesecakes.
Ages 4-9 years
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