Hey everyone! Here are some ideas to put in your back pocket for Tween programming at your library.
Paper Quilling
This is a form of art I had never done before, but fell in love with. I saw an example of a quilled rainbow, a great spring/St. Patrick’s Day craft, on the blog ArtsyCraftsyMom. I loved making the example, and it was really affordable. I purchased the quilling tools and the quilling paper on Amazon, though you can use any lightweight paper you have. A pack of 10 quilling tools, which provide a slot where you put one end of the paper before coiling, cost about $8.00. A pack of 1040 paper quilling strips in 26 different colors cost about $11.00, and we had tons leftover. The tools were a great investment as I plan to do variations of the program again, and it was nice to be able to purchase strips of paper already cut down to size. A tool, paper strips, cardstock for background, and plain ole Elmer’s glue are all you need for this simple or complex craft.
At the actual program, I displayed all the colors of quilling paper on a table, so the tweens were less interested in making the rainbow craft and more interested in creating their own creations. In the future, I will pull the correct number of colors per child for the craft to make it run a little more smoothly. Overall, it was a good program and good lesson to the tweens in dexterity and patience!
Fizzy Moon Sand
When I went to the ALSC Institute in Cincinnati last September, Amanda Bowden and Holly Jackson from the Portneuf District Library in Idaho gave a great presentation called Programming BeTWEEN the Lines. I was about a year into my current role as Tween Librarian in the Chicagoland area, and was really appreciate of all of their creative ideas. Fizzy moon sand was one of their science program recommendations for tweens, and it sounded super fun. The recipe I ended up using I found on a blog called Powerful Mothering, and she actually calls her concoction fizzy cloud dough. She has done A LOT of different things with her fizzy cloud dough—it’s a great site worth checking out for ideas.
Here’s the recipe:
Fizzy Moon Sand
½ cup flour
½ cup baking soda
2 tablespoons vegetable oilOil based food coloring (5 drops per bowl)
- Mix the oil and coloring in a bowl
- Next, add flour, mix, then add the baking soda
- Use your fingers to mix
- To get FIZZ, fill a squirter bottle with vinegar and let the kids go!
This was my basic room set-up:
Each tween got their own little container and got to choose what color they wanted their sand to be.
The vinegar was in the middle of the table, and the tweens used their eyedroppers or squirt bottles to make their sand fizz. Some ended up creating slime by adding A LOT of vinegar. Chemistry rocks!
(Photo Credits: Gretchen Schulz 2019)
Our guest blogger today is Gretchen Schulz. Gretchen is the Tween Librarian at Schaumburg Township District Library in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. She focuses on programming for 9-12 year olds, and does Baby Storytime. Both of which she loves! In her spare time, she loves reading, crafting, drinking coffee, kickboxing, and baking.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.
This blog post relates to ALSC Core Competency of Programming Skills.