Tag: activities

Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

How to Select Crafts and STEAM Activities

| ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers|Leave a comment
Kids doing a STEM activity with markers and a large piece of paper.

“2010 PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellows” by poptech is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. One of the best parts of being a librarian and librarian/information assistant is the programming opportunities that we bring to the public. We are flexible educators and literacy partners. We allow the time and space for children and their caregivers to learn, be creative, have fun or just be in a comfortable a library environment. By bringing creative and fun programming to the communities that we work in, we allow for more than one modality for children to get to the books. An example: Program: Building Bridges from building materials include Books that refer to engineering, building, science and technology. How do we bring fun and relevant crafts and STEAM activities to our communities? Here are a few suggestions: Ask the children and caregivers that come to your branches. They have really good ideas. Children are always happy…

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Blogger Jonathan Dolce

Earth Day STEM Day!

| Jonathan Dolce|2 Comments

Earth Day is April 22nd this year. However, I want to point out that April is also National Humor Month. I am making a large sacrifice here to bring you a post about introducing your youngest library patrons to citizen science instead of something rib tickling, side splitting or otherwise thigh slap worthy. So, here we go. No funny stuff. And just as an aside, please slap only your own thighs as to do otherwise is considered harassment and is actually frowned upon in many workplaces. A Trilogy of Cunning Plans For your consideration, three cunning plans to expose yourself and small children to STEM this Earth Day: Citizen Science, STARnet’s STEAM initiative, SciStarter, and Seed Libraries. For those of you counting along at home, that makes four (4), making this a poorly named overview of what’s to come. Actually, I think there’s five…oh, well. Citizen Science So, what exactly…

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Blogger Jonathan Dolce

Imagine Your COVID Summer Slide Story!

| Jonathan Dolce|Leave a comment
Darth Vader reading on a playground slide

Imagine Your COVID Summer Slide Story? Summer slide in the age of COVID.  I don’t think anyone can really imagine what this summer will look like in terms of a summer reading program for any age group.  The show must go on, though – so let’s imagine your story together! Scheduling Scheduling a time for your summer reading program is essential.  Pick you set of dates, beginning and ending, as well as your “big” program days.  You’ve had some practice with online programming by now.  Now, just do it bigger! Space Familiarity is critical for your audience.  It gives a sense of anticipation, a recognizable (or branding) setting, and a reassuring repetition.  If the space you’ve been using for online programming isn’t as polished as you’d like it, time to refine!  Sound problems?  Get them ironed out!  This is crunch time! Supplies Your list of supplies this summer is going…

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