{"id":2813,"date":"2011-08-24T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T04:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2011-08-23T00:02:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T04:02:12","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-a-sleepover-at-the-library-%e2%80%93-stuffed-animal-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/it%e2%80%99s-a-sleepover-at-the-library-%e2%80%93-stuffed-animal-style\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Sleepover at the Library \u2014 Stuffed Animal-Style!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In these times of shrinking budgets and tight schedules, it never
\nhurts to have a program in your tool belt that is a proven winner, low-cost, and relatively easy to pull off. This has been our experience with our Stuffed Animal Sleepover programs. Yes, that’s right! We have a sleepover at the library — but just for stuffed animals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sharing Books with our Stuffed Friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We read about this idea a little over a year ago on PUBYAC<\/a>, and thought we\u2019d give it a try\u2026 and it turned out to be a super-success!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tucking our Stuffed Friends into Bed for the Night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Basically, it works like this:\u00a0 children are invited to bring their stuffed animals to the library for a bedtime storytime.\u00a0 \u00a0During storytime, we encourage children to help their stuffed animals listen to the stories and say the rhymes together.\u00a0 As storytime comes to a close, we sing a lullaby and pass out board books for the children to read a bedtime story one-on-one with their stuffed friends.\u00a0 Finally, the children tuck their animals into \u201cbed\u201d\u009d (I spread a couple of blankets on the floor), say goodnight, and go home.<\/p>\n

The next day, children pick up their stuffed friends, along with a craft<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Racing Book Carts in the Great Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

item their animals \u201cmade\u201d\u009d and a memory book of their animals\u2019 overnight adventures in the library.\u00a0 \u00a0The memory book includes a link to more pictures we\u2019ve posted on the library\u2019s Flickr account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong — there is definitely some prep-work involved in this program.\u00a0 Brainstorming and choosing activities for the animals to do during their sleepover, gathering props, creating name tags, making sure your camera is charged and printer is working, creating craft items \u2014 these all need to be done ahead of time.\u00a0 And there is time required after the public leaves the building \u2014 posing the animals in different locations around the library, taking photos, printing out and putting together booklets, and posting photos to the library\u2019s Flickr account does take a little bit of time.\u00a0 But the payoffs are so worth it!<\/p>\n

The first time we held this program, I was amazed by the strong<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Princess Doggy and Her Memory Book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

reaction we got \u2014 from both children AND their adults.\u00a0 Children were excited to get their animals back, and to look at the pictures of their overnight adventures in the library. \u00a0They were very interested in seeing the different locations within the library their animals visited \u2014 one child even walked around the library with his photo-book, looking for the exact spot in which his animal\u2019s photos were taken!\u00a0 But the adults also expressed such gratitude for this program.\u00a0 Now, we\u2019ve just completed our third sleepover, and the positive reactions continue.\u00a0 Stuffed animals are very special to their owners.\u00a0 By showing that we cared for their stuffed friends, we also, in a way, showed that we care for the children themselves.\u00a0\u00a0 And we do.\u00a0 We care a lot.\u00a0\u00a0Just ask Princess Doggy and her friends.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Our guest blogger today is Kris Lill<\/a>, a Children’s Librarian at the Allen County Public Library<\/a> in Fort Wayne, IN, the coordinator of the ACPL Mock Caldecott<\/a> blog, and a frequent blogger on the ACPL Kids<\/a> blog. <\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these times of shrinking budgets and tight schedules, it never hurts to have a program in your tool belt that is a proven winner, low-cost, and relatively easy to pull off. This has been our experience with our Stuffed Animal Sleepover programs. Yes, that’s right! We have a sleepover at the library — but just for stuffed animals. We read about this idea a little over a year ago on PUBYAC, and thought we\u2019d give it a try\u2026 and it turned out to be a super-success! Basically, it works like this:\u00a0 children are invited to bring their stuffed animals to the library for a bedtime storytime.\u00a0 \u00a0During storytime, we encourage children to help their stuffed animals listen to the stories and say the rhymes together.\u00a0 As storytime comes to a close, we sing a lullaby and pass out board books for the children to read a bedtime story one-on-one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[134,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blogger","category-programming-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}