{"id":4786,"date":"2012-09-14T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T04:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2012-09-13T21:04:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T01:04:57","slug":"over-the-rainbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/over-the-rainbow\/","title":{"rendered":"Over the Rainbow!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last spring, I knew that I wanted to have a preschool program all about colors and rainbows. Since I suspected that this program theme would be wildly popular and that registration would fill up, I wanted to be able to accommodate larger crowds than usual. <\/p>\n<p>That was when I decided to try an activity station program. <\/p>\n<p>Normally during my programs, I lead the group through the different activities that I have planned. This can easily lead to hiccups when I have two sets of kids: one set ready to move on to the next activity and the other set who wants to continue whatever they are currently doing. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wowsaidtheowl-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"Wow Said the Owl book cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4789\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wowsaidtheowl-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wowsaidtheowl.jpg 648w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> For my &#8220;Over the Rainbow&#8221; program, I began by reading some great rainbow themed books: &#8220;Planting a Rainbow&#8221; by Lois Ehlert, &#8220;Wow! Said the Owl&#8221; by Tim Hopgood, and &#8220;Color Dance&#8221; by Ann Jonas. This got everyone settled down, and introduced the theme. Afterwards, I explained what activities were set up at which tables and let the kids pick where they started. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/021-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Play Dough Mixing\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4787\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/021-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/021-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> My stations for this program were: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Beanbag toss with rainbow colored beanbags<\/li>\n<li>Book display, all about colors<\/li>\n<li>Bubbles\/scarves dancing<\/li>\n<li>Dough\/color mixing<\/li>\n<li>Rainbow streamer craft<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When the kids finished with one station, they were able to move on to another. I had teen volunteers staffing the tables that required a bit more instruction (dough\/color mixing station and the craft station) and that definitely helped me out!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/028-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Rainbow Craft\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/028-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/028-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> This was a hugely successful program and I had a lot of compliments from parents about their kid being allowed to work at their own pace. <\/p>\n<p>Since everything worked out so well, I&#8217;m trying a whole new storytime session this fall based on activity stations &#8212; I&#8217;m sure I will continue to learn about what works and what doesn&#8217;t. I&#8217;ll make sure to report back!<\/p>\n<p>Have you done activity station programs at your library? How have your patrons responded to them? Let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Katie Salo<br \/>\nYouth Services Manager<br \/>\nMelrose Park Library<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/storytimekatie.com\">http:\/\/storytimekatie.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last spring, I knew that I wanted to have a preschool program all about colors and rainbows. Since I suspected that this program theme would be wildly popular and that registration would fill up, I wanted to be able to accommodate larger crowds than usual. That was when I decided to try an activity station program. Normally during my programs, I lead the group through the different activities that I have planned. This can easily lead to hiccups when I have two sets of kids: one set ready to move on to the next activity and the other set who wants to continue whatever they are currently doing. For my &#8220;Over the Rainbow&#8221; program, I began by reading some great rainbow themed books: &#8220;Planting a Rainbow&#8221; by Lois Ehlert, &#8220;Wow! Said the Owl&#8221; by Tim Hopgood, and &#8220;Color Dance&#8221; by Ann Jonas. This got everyone settled down, and introduced the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"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":[120,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-katie-salo","category-programming-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786","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\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}