Little Scientists: Birds

This STEAM-based program usually starts with a story (non-fiction or fiction with factual elements) before we break up into stations to practice our STEAM skills. This program is for 2-5 year olds and lasts about 30 minutes. Here's what we were up to this time:

Worm Hunt- This station was just finding different colors of pipe cleaners in shredded paper and sorting them by color, by the younger attendees thought it was the greatest activity ever.

Bird or Bat? We used some pictures to decide if certain characteristics (fur vs. feathers, for example) belonged to birds or bats. This station was mainly for the 3-5 year olds but they had a good time sorting.

Bird Feeders- our take home activity was watching for birds in your yard (counting how many are on the ground vs in the air, etc.) so we made bird feeders to attract feathered friends. We used sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter to be safe.

Eat Like a Bird- This one was definitely geared for the older kids, but everybody had fun. I put out a variety of utensils (tongs, tweezers, a straw, a chopstick, etc.) and bowls of objects (large pompoms, small seeds, marshmallows, water) and kids tried piccking up each of the objects to guess what kinds of foods birds might eat. I hung up close-up pictures of the bird beaks/bills to give hints.

Finally, we used a microscope and magnifying glasses to examine bird feathers. I got a few at the poultry building of a county fair and my parents donated some molted feathers from their pet macaw. It was also fun just pulling apart the barbs and smoothing them back together.  

Little Scientists: Frogs and Toads

This session of Little Scientists was extra fun! This STEAM-based program usually starts with a story (non-fiction or fiction with factual elements) before we break up into stations to practice our STEAM skills. This program is for 2-5 year olds and lasts about 30 minutes. Here's what we were up to this time:

How many frogs can fit on a lily pad? We practiced our estimation skills by guessing and then testing how many frogs could fit on a lily pad (foam cutout) before it sank. Did it depend on how big the lily pad was or how close to the edge you put the frog?

Amphibian Hop- I researched a few different types of frogs and toads to see how far they can jump. Kids were then encouraged to jump as far as they could and see which amphibian they were closest too. The photos of each species was also roughly to scale so kids could see that even tiny frogs can jump very far!

We practiced our one-to-one correspondence by feeding frogs the correct number of flies.

Next, we practiced our skip counting (and more frog jumping) by hopping from lily pad to lily pad. Younger kids could count by twos and make smaller jumps while bigger kids could count by fives and make bigger jumps.

And my personal favorite station- We colored cut our frogs and used party blowers with velcro dots to try catching our own flies! Some kids got it right away and some kids needed practice, but adults loved seeing the kids try!

Name Art

This super simple program popped into my head when we found an entire pack of really big paper hiding in our back room. It was for K-6th grade (mostly 2nd-4th attended) and it lasted for 30 minutes.

We started by using painter's tape to mark out our names on the giant paper. One or two younger kids needed a little help with the curvy letters but most parents stayed and we also had a teen volunteer to help out:

Luckily the weather was amazing that day so we took our posters outside and painted them there:

A couple kids took theirs straight home but most took them inside to dry a little while they looked around the library. I made sure to tell kids to let their paint dry completely before they took the tape off. This was a super easy, super fun program that could easily be done with poster board or other large paper.

The Pigeon Goes Back to School

Book-based programs are always very popular at our library, so we knew we had to do a program celebrating Mo Willems' new book The Pigeon Has to Go to School. This program was for Pre-K through 2nd grade and lasted about 45 minutes.

We started out with my coworker (wearing her Pigeon Halloween costume) reading the new book:

And playing a felt board game (linked here):

Then we broke up into Pigeon and school themed stations:

Take a picture with Pigeon on a bus! This photo op stayed out through September and it was a HUGE hit!

Pin the Tail on the Pigeon (from a Mo Willems activity book purchased at Kohl's)

Feed a Real Bird- we made pipe cleaner and cheerio bird feeders to practice our fine motor skills and feed our feathered friends.

Count with the Pigeon- we used play-dough to practice counting and tens tables with the Pigeon.

Find the Pigeon- 3 cups with school buses and one has the Pigeon on board. Can you find guess which one?

Pencil Cup Craft- we used tea tins, tissue paper, and glue to make our own pencil holders for school.

Cooking Hot Dogs- We tossed felt hot dog shaped bean bags into hula hoop "frying pans".

Snack Time- although the duckling didn't visit, we had a cookie snack in his honor.

Baby Explorers: October 2019

Baby Explorers is the program I run for infants and toddlers 0-36 months, where we use activities, crafts, and early science experiments to explore the world around us. I try to include 4 activities per session: gross motor, fine motor, create (a craft or take home activity), and explore (a sensory activity). Here's what we were up to this month:

Fine Motor: Pipe cleaner threading- we used giant pipe cleaners and slices of foam pool noodles to practice threading. Of course some of us just had fun playing with the pipe cleaners!

Explore: Sensory bottles- I filled several bottles with a variety of objects to explore. Some were heavy, some made a lot of sound, and some were shiny. Adults were encouraged to talk about the colors, textures, and sounds they experienced.

Gross Motor: Ball pit- we filled our kiddie pool with balls from our play time set. The sides of the pool were nice for our babies who needed a little help sitting up and adults were encouraged to talk about the colors they saw in the pool (and also to talk to the other adults about how cute all the babies were!)

Create: Unfortunately I didn't get any photos, but our Create station was making bath tub clings. Kids or adults drew shapes on foam sheets and then cut them out. When they're wet, they cling to the sides of the bath tub! 

Baby Explorers: August 2019

Baby Explorers is the program I run for infants and toddlers 0-36 months, where we use activities, crafts, and early science experiments to explore the world around us. I try to include 4 activities per session: gross motor, fine motor, create (a craft or take home activity), and explore (a sensory activity). Here's what we were up to this month:

Explore: Spaghetti pool! This is one of my favorite Baby Explorer activities and perfect for the summer (when we can be outside to minimize mess). Families are encouraged to take off their shoes and squish around.

Create: Thumbprint art- Bigger toddlers could create pictures using their thumbprints while younger babies could play with the inkpads and paper or adults could help them create their art.

Gross and Fine Motor: Sensory walkway- Using foam floor tiles and an assortment of knick knacks (sponges, giant pipe cleaners, pom poms, etc.) we used our hands and bodies to feel different textures and see different colors. This activity was very cheap to create and was a huge hit!

Llama Llama Pajama Jam 2019

Apologies for the super late programming posts! We had a very busy Summer at the library, including this fantastic Llama Llama program! This program was meant as a celebration for the newest Llama Llama book, Llama Llama Mess Mess Mess (an Anna Dewdney book):

This program was also a great lesson in changing plans at the last minute. We submit our program plans so far ahead of time that we frequently need to change our plans. In this case, the publication date for Llama Llama was pushed back far enough that it was not published in time for our event! Instead of storytime first followed by activities, we went straight into our stations. We still had a fantastic time!

The biggest hit of the night was a visit from two alpacas! A local farm & petting zoo (who we've used for programs before) brought two of their friendliest alpacas for kids to pet and feed. Although they weren't technically llamas, our age group was young enough to not notice or care. They were a ton of fun!

For a bedtime snack, we mad Bedtime Trail Mix (chocolate chip "goodnight kisses", marshmallow "pillows", and teddy graham "teddy bears"). I've done this snack before and it's always a big hit.

I thought I took more pictures, but we also made our own Llama Llama activity books, color matched paper quilts, and played a pajama memory game.