Doodle Day: A Children's program

I recently held a program form some young-ins at the library and it was very successful! So I decided to share it with the world!

 A while back I ordered this book, Doodle Day by Ross Collins. It was a silly little story and I loved the concept. It's about a little boy, Harvey who loves to draw. His Mom discourages from drawing on this particular day because it is Doodle Day! And everyone knows you should not draw on doodle day. Harvey thinks she's a little nutters, and draws anyway. To his surprise his little doodle comes to life. He tries to draw more doodles to get rid of the others but it ends in the near destruction of his town.

I liked the story so much when I read it I decided to create a program out of it! The idea was real simple, read the book, give the kids paper and colored pencils and let their imaginations run wild.

It was fun to read the story aloud. I got the kids to interact for example I asked "if they were in Harvey's shoes what would they draw?" They gave me all sorts of silly answers and they enjoyed it. After we read the story it was doodling time. But before they sat I joked, " Just be careful what you draw on Doodle Day." F.Y.I. I get a lot of flack for my bad jokes but to those 8 year-olds I am like George Carlin.

Getting back to the program, the kids loved it. And it was the most simple thing and little to no prep time. A lot of programs are usually very involved and we have to going over a big step-by-step process and kids get so caught up in making their craft look EXACTLY like the sample. Which is not what kids crafts are about... its about them doing their own thing and exercising their minds and imagination (which is hard to do in the digital age) It was nice seeing them do what ever they felt like. They created all kinds of master pieces. A lot of kids wanted to make monsters and robots (kids after my own heart). I also put out some How-To drawing books and they grabbed those to use.

I was also able to tie the program into a contest that google is having. A Children's librarian at work, Sandy, brought the contest to our attention. The contest calls for kids in grades K - 12 to redesign the google logo (also known as a google doodle) and this years theme is if "If I could travel in time I would go..."

Here is a sample I made! We are handing out forms at the reference desk and encouraging kids to make some great doodles! The contest goes until March 20th. For more info check out there website.

-Sarina