At #pla2026, the Kansas City Public Library shared their tween and teen makerspaces’ summer programs. These programs incorporate connected learning, integrating personal interests, supportive relationships, and access to opportunities into their program’s content. They also reinforce the Four Cs of 21st-century learning: communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. The programs are based out of the Kansas City Digital Media Lab (KCDML), which offers things like digital art, music and podcast production, bike repair, button making, and more. Some programs that were shared and really caught my interest were: Throughout the sessions, presenters Marcus Brown and Kiesha Collins talked about their programs being ‘varsity moments’ for kids who are artistically inclined. Athletes get their moment, and the KCDML makes sure the artsy kids do too! Laura Hargrove (she/her) is a senior Public Services Librarian at the Davis Library, one of the Plano (Texas) Public Library locations. She enjoys bird watching…
Category: STEM/STEAM
Eat Healthier: Nourishing Curiosity with Library Programming
This year, I’m viewing “traditional” New Year’s resolutions through a library lens. In February, we focused on creating movement-friendly library programs. In March, we explored living life to the fullest with messy play and learning. This month, we’re focusing on the resolution to eat healthier. While libraries may also have opportunities to feed bodies, the work I’m focusing on is feeding minds and growing a child’s natural curiosity.
Live Life to the Fullest: Why Messy Play Matters in Libraries
This year, I’m viewing “traditional” New Year’s resolutions through a library lens. In February, we focused on creating movement-friendly library programs. This month, we’re focusing on the resolution to live life to the fullest. While it’s easy to think of this as doing more, more isn’t always what our libraries need. Instead, we’re looking at ways to be just a little bigger and just a little messier.
Northern Lights: Magic in the Sky
Seeing the Northern Lights had always felt like an out-of-reach bucket list item to me. Traveling to the Arctic Circle? Probably not going to happen. But when that magic in the sky occurred right over my suburban Chicago home? I felt beyond fortunate.
Great Graphs!
I love using graphs during my outreach storytimes. Graphing isn’t just a fun activity. Graphs are a great storytime tool. Creating graphs incorporates math, specifically data science, into storytime and develops unique skills.
Teach Coding with Scratch!: STEAM Programming for Kids
Every program season, I try to incorporate STEAM into my after-school program season, from Codebreakers to STEAM Storytime. I had previously done a coding program for tweens during the pandemic and I decided to give it another shot this year. This Fall, I started a Scratch coding program and so far, it has been quite successful! In this post, I will highlight the format of the program, as well as some resources I have used to teach coding with Scratch at my library.
Follow Up to Summer Reading Burnout? Try Letting Go!
I wrote for the ALSC Blog in June about changing our Summer Reading Program to be actual programs rather than a take-home program or a score-keeping program. Here are the results! We hosted parties for the kids based on our sustainability theme of Branching Out. Each party focused on a different biome and featured five major elements that used to be included in our take-home program: We hosted 6 parties, which were themed as Readers’ Reef (Friday @ 10 AM), Planets & Pages (Thursday @ 6 PM), Jungle Journey (Friday @ 11 AM), Arctic Adventure (Tuesday @ 11 AM), Just Deserts (Thursday @ 7 PM), and Backyard Bash (Monday @ 2 PM). We registered patrons in advance for these programs but allowed walk-ins up to a certain number due to supplies. Our largest party was Planets & Pages with 76 kids in attendance and Backyard Bash coming in second with…
Gardening STEAM Activities for Toddlers
In June, I brought back my Tiny STEAM program, a hands-on early learning series I’ve shared about before. This time, the theme was gardening—a perfect fit for the season and a great way to connect science, sensory play, and nature-based learning. Families with young children explored a variety of gardening activities designed to encourage open-ended exploration, fine motor practice, and curiosity about the world around them. Below, I’m excited to share all the stations we offered during this garden-themed session, along with a few tips for setup and engagement.