Harry Potter Celebration

This past week has been all about the bit Harry Potter Celebration! I was part of a winning team for a contest Scholastic held to commemorate 15 years since Harry Potter was first published. (Read about my excitement here!)

Erin and I have been working really hard to put this thing together. Tuesday was the big day and to our amazement everything came together perfectly. It was so much work and I was exhausted by the end of the day, however we both agreed that it was worth it and it made us love our jobs!

Now for your enjoyment, here is what we did throughout the entire celebration.

In an effort to hype it up I made a bulletin board display. I used some white oak tag and made a giant ticket to the Hogwarts Express. I drew the designs on the ticket with a brown sharpie and used my trusty silhouette machine to cut out the letters. To announce the program I made a proclamation board listing the program information. Above these items it says "Get Your Ticket to Hogwarts"

The display also features some of the contests we have going on, Book cover design contest and the Horcrux Hunt.

I came across the Horcrux Hunt on pinterest. It reminded me of our Where's Waldo contest that was quite a hit. I also thought it was a genius idea and tied into the series quite well. If you are in the midst of reading Harry Potter and not familiar with Horcruxes this may help. (Warning potential spoilers) So I printed out pictures of each of the notorious artifacts that became horcruxes and I hid them around the room. I made some entry forms and sent the kids on a scavenger hunt. Its a lot of fun to watch kids walk around the room trying to find them while I tease them with hints.

As a part of the 15 year anniversary Scholastic has re-issued the books with new cover art. I thought kids would also want to put their own spin on cover art. We made up a blank template and let kids make their own covers. Each submission is going into a raffle to win a copy of the book.

They had to enter via Platform 9 3/4

So we had the promotional stuff done, we needed to figure out the specifics of the program. Luckily our winning essay had it all mapped out but we just needed to iron out the details. Since we wanted to keep a maximum amount of kids entertained at the same time, we decided that we would 'sort' them into houses upon check in. Margaret was really awesome doing this job because she made lots of funny little jokes just like the real sorting hat! Then the kids stayed with their houses and then were sent to a station and they were able to mingle throughout the program. The stations we came up with were:

Honeydukes (food fun time)
Olivander's
Divination
Hogwarts a History
Quidditch
Movie Magic

Honeydukes was all about the food. A program with this much activity, needed sugar! The kids were given butterbeer, cupcakes, gummy frogs and Erin worked really hard making some fizzing whizbees. To add some fun to it we also divided up some of the Bertie Bots Every Flavor beans and kids did a blind taste test and had to figure out what flavor they were eating. I was told soap was very popular.

In the background, you can see some of the book covers the kids designed!

Olivander's is the place where every Hogwarts student gets their wand. I thought it appropriate to name our own wand craft station after the shop. This wants were really simple to make. Kids were given a chop stick and covered it in duct tape. Air dry clay was also available so kids could add some embellishments to their wands. We also used a tiny bit of glitter to make it more magical.

For the divination station the kids made fortune tellers to predict the future! These are the same fortune teller you probably made in middle school to try to figure out which classmates had crushes on each other.

Hogwarts a History was the station that I was in charge of. It was all about Harry Potter trivia. Most of the questions were from my ol' noggin, but when I wasn't sure what to ask I used the book of Harry Potter Trifles, Trivia and Particularities. I stumped the kids a few times, but most of them were experts!

I have tons of PVC pipe in my garage so I put it to good use. I made a hoop and the kids got to play a little quidditch, the favorite sport of wizards everywhere. I brought in my broom and kids had to 'ride' it while hurling a ball at the hoop. It took quite a beating.

Over the summer a motion picture museum did a few programs. When they noticed our advertisements for the celebration, they offered their services. They brought a green screen, and kids got to pretend they were flying around in a quidditch match. I had a lot of fun with this myself.

While kids were mingling from station to station, the room was decorated to the max! We hung starry gossamer and hung stars from the ceiling. We also found some pretty cool posters hung those around to (thanks internet!) To add more ambiance, we decorated each table with some potion bottles. (here's a tutorial)

There also some great photo opps, I made a frame modeled after Sirius Black's notorious wanted poster. Kids were able to make to stick there own faces in it! That was a fun hit, because a lot of staff members made use of it. We were also lucky to borrow some other items for great photo opportunities. A few years back, the local high school had a Potter themed prom (I was so jealous!) so we were able to borrow some of the pieces to decorate the building.

Towards the end of the program, all of the kids took their name tags and put them into a cauldron and we drew some prizes. On their way out, each kid was given a copy of the book.

It was so amazingly fun and I'm still excited that we were one of the 15 libraries chosen. I couldn't have done it with out Erin and all of the other staff there to help. Seeing all of those happy faces and the kids just as excited as me makes me so happy that this is my job. Harry Potter has a very special place in my heart, not just because its awesome fantasy nerdness. When the books came out, I wasn't the greatest student and I hated to read. After goofing on someone for reading it, they replied, don't knock it until you try it. I did and I have been reading every since. Those books made reading magical.

Doctor Who - Library Life

In the Spring time while we were still planning programs for the summer, the teen librarian asked if I would be interested in holding a Doctor Who program. I nearly fell off the reference desk with excitement. I partnered up with another librarian and whovian, Monica and together we made a pretty awesome program. Here is what we did....

We couldn't have a proper Who program with out a TARDIS. We had a ton of PVC pipe in my garage so I had Timbo cut it up to my specifications. He did it because I am klutzy and not to be trusted with power tools.  After all the pieces were cut I took it to the library then began assembly! I wrapped it with blue butcher paper and used my silhouette machine to cut out most of the details.

Other than the TARDIS we had different stations for the kids to take part in while roaming around the room. This included bow-ties, making t-shirts, putting the Doctor's in order and a snack of 'Fish finger's' and custard. Afterward we tested their knowledge in Who trivia.

For the bow-ties, we used felt and ribbon. We assembled them using the glue gun. I have some pretty gnarly burns from helping them, however they all did a good job. I gave them each a safety pin so they can wear it. One kid passed up the bow-tie because he said he already has too many Whovian bow-ties.

The t-shirts did not go over so well. This was mainly because only one kid listened to our reminder phone call warning about brining a shirt. I showed them how to make the t-shirts at home. For the stencils I cut out some Who themed shapes.

With a program like this, these kids are going to need food. I didn't want to do something lame like pretzels. It had to be Who-themed! I came across this recipe for 'Fish fingers' and custard. The 'finger fingers' were actually cookies and the custard was vanilla pudding. Monica is quite an accomplished baking so she handled that. They came out pretty awesome and they tasted really good with the pudding.

I wasn't sure how the kids were going to do putting the Doctors in order. Most of the kids are Who newbs and are familiar with 9 and on. However they surprised me and with some team work they got it! This idea Monica got from this Teen Librarian Tool Box.

After all the bow-ties were made, the fingers fingers were eaten and the doctors were put in order, it was time for trivia. Monica and I had been working really hard to come up with some good questions. I think we did pretty good because we stumped some of the most die hard kids! One of my favorite stumping questions was: What do the Doctor Who actors, Freema Agyeman, Karren Gillian and Peter Capaldi all have in common? Answer: they were all in Doctor Who episodes before being cast as main characters.

Monica and I weren't the only ones dressed up. We invited kids to come in Cosplay. A few looked great, while the others opted for Doctor Who t-shirts. 

This program was so much fun and based on the reaction we most certainly are going to do it again in November for the 50th anniversary. I'm grateful for the help from Monica, the kids that came and the fact that I get to do things like this for a living.

Much Ado About Joss Whedon

I have been quite the busy lady latley and have been up to all sorts of crafty things. This past week I did something really cool and super nerdy. I participated in Much Ado About Joss Whedon at the West Hampton Free Library. I packed up my supplies and was off on a crafty adventure!

If you don't know who Joss Whedon is and you consider yourself a nerd, you're doing it wrong. This is a man that has touch so many wonderful amazing things in pop-culture. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and more recently the Avengers. He was even one of the writers of the original Toy Story! Do your nerd homework and consume all of the the things he has touched.

In conjunction with the release of Whedon's version of Much Ado About Nothing, West Hampton Free Library had an entire weeks worth of Whedon based programing! Some of the programs which included a retrospective of his work and Shakespeare and Shwarma.

I was called in to help with Wednesday's program, Dr. Horrible and T-shirt making. The idea was that while we are viewing Dr. Horrible, program goers will get to make their very own t-shirt featuring something from the Whedon-verse! I put my trusty silhouette machine to work and made some great stencils featuring some great Whedon characters. I used my trusty old freezer paper stencil technique. Here are the stencils patrons got to choose from.

I set up an assembly line type station. It came out looking pretty cool. The shirts came out pretty great, however some of the paint bled a little bit, so that was a bummer. I used this t-shirt paint spray for the first (and probably last) time.

It went pretty well. Matt and Caitie even came out to show some support! I met a lot of cool people that love this nerd stuff as much as I do. Here are some of the results of the night.

Posted with Blogsy

Comic Con 101

Today was an exciting day for me. I was lucky enough to showcase some of my crafts for some Suffolk County librarians. It was all a part of, Comic Con 101. An event for librarians to share ideas to create a Comic Con like experience at their own library for their teen patrons. I was glad to meet so many fellow librarians (and nerds). I was so honored that Barbara Moon asked me to participate. I even won a prize! I won this nifty Dave Roman picture!

Any way onto what I did. I focused my area on three different fandoms, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Zombies.

Last May 4th (May the 4th be With you) I held a very successful Star Wars program. It was so much fun and I was glad to see that the Yoda ears were a big hit among the librarians. Here is how you can make your own Yoda ears or Leia Buns.

Materials:
Green Card stock (Yoda Ears)
Brown card stock (Leia Buns)
White oak tag (head band)
Stapler
Markers
Gems (optional)

Instructions

• I free handed a template for some Yoda ears and made a bunch. Be sure to leave a flap (this gets folded and stapled to the head band, so your ears are all floppy) 
• The buns are just big circles 
• the head bands measured 1 1/2 inches x 21 inches 
• Trace and cut out all of your pieces! 
• The kids can decorate the ears/buns before assembling. You can use markers or gems to really glam up those Leia buns 
• Take the strap and measure it on your head then staple
• For the ears fold those flap (as mentioned earlier) and staple them to the headband
• You are ready to use the force! 

You can read about my complete Star Wars Day experience, here. Theres more info on light sabers, snacks and even some games! If your looking for more Star Wars stuff check it out! 

I was really excited to see that a lot of librarian's not only recognized the Doctor Who stuff but they loved it just as much as me! If you aren't familiar with the Doctor here are some quick facts:

• Doctor Who is a BBC series that has been on the air since 1963
• The Doctor is an alien, a Time Lord, from the planet Gallefrey. He is the last of the Time Lords and has two hearts
• He travels through time and space righting wrongs and fighting evil. This includes Daleks, Cyber men and the Angels
• He Traves via TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space). It has a perception filter making it look like a blue police box and it is bigger on the inside. 
• The Doctor hardly travels alone and has companions
• The Doctor's weapons of choice include, books, his wits and Sonic Screwdriver

I made some shrink plastic key chains as a craft example. They are quite simple and come out looking so great! Here is how you can make your own:

Materials:

• Shrink Plastic (better known as Shrinky Dinks) are avaible in blank or printable sheets.
• Sharpie Marker
• Colored Pencils 
• Scissors 
• Brown grocery bag
• Toaster Oven 

Instructions

• Do some digging online for images you want to use. Here is what I found: 

• Be sure to make the images bigger than your desired finished size (because they do shrink) I resized and configured the images in Publisher. Also the instructions of the shrink plastic inclue a sizing ruling to help you determine how small and image will become.

• Trace and color your images on the shrink plastic. Trace the image with sharpie marker (on the glossy side). Flip the plastic over and color with colored pencil on the other side (you can also use paint and markers as long as they are NOT waterbased! 
• Cut out your images. Punch a hole if you are creating charms
• Pre heat the toaster oven to 325 degrees
• While the oven is pre heating, take the brown grocery bag and cut out a rectangle shape. 
• Place plastic, colored side up, on top of rectangle shape and place it in the oven
• Be sure to keep an eye on it so it won't melt. You will see the plastic shrivel then flatten out. Once it is flat you can take it out of the oven and let them cool down

Zombies 

In October I held a zombie program for tweens and helped the teen librarian do a similar program for the older teens. This involved zombie make-up, a zombie fashion show and trivia questions. I also made a zombie survival game in which I presented the kids with a zombie senario with options. Their survival depended on which choices they made. For the tweens everyone survived, for the teens they all got infected and learned that the zombie apocalypse was caused by bad mayo.

The teen librarian also made up some Zombie standees and the kids used nerf guns and did some target practice. The teen librarian even volunteered as a walking target! The zombie target practice was a big hit so I brought the standees and a nerf gun to demonstrate.

Star Wars Day!

Me and Morgan rocking some awesome star wars head gear!

Last Friday was May 4th...STAR WARS DAY! Last year at the library we did a book display for Star Wars day and it was so popular and I thought that'd make a great program! So let me take you through what the kiddies did!

I welcomed then into the room, while the Star Wars soundtrack was playing. (which stopped working during the program ugh!) Then we played a game of "Jedi Says". Its pretty much Simon says, but with fun things like - do the jedi mind trick, walk like C3PO, breath like Darth Vader and so on. Then I asked them some trivia questions. I tried not to make it too hard but they got all of them!




Then it was time to split them up and go to each of the stations that I set up: Yoda Ears & Princess Leia Hair, Light Sabers, Dark Side Battle & The Cantina.

Yoda Ears & Princess Leia Hair


While looking for craft ideas I did an image search of Star Wars stuff for some inspiration and it hit me! Yoda Ears! I took some green oak tag and made an ear shape, it was folded to face out then stapled them to an oak tag strap. I also put out some crayons for the kids to decorate their ears. I also wanted to factor in the girls that would sign up so I cut out some brown circles, decorated it then stabled it to the strap.

Light Sabers

I came across this craft on Family.com. I used their light saber template and collected tons upon tons of paper towel tubes. The kids decorated the templates then taped them to the paper towel tube. We then took a piece of construction paper, rolled it up then taped it to light saber. The kids had serious fun with this some kids even made double light sabers!
I would recommend to use a heavy card stock and not construction paper. It just isn't that durable and the kids wanted to do some serious light saber dueling. So I had to deal with broken light sabers all afternoon. A few times the kids got crazy with the light sabers so I told kids to meditate like Jedi's. 

Dark Side Battle

I printed out some pictures of Star Wars baddies on card stock. I taped them up to stand up then gave the kids some rubber bands to flick at the bad guys.

The Cantina

One thing that is needed for any successful kids program is food! Luckily I already had the Star Wars cookie cutters from William Sonoma. So the night before I baked those bad boys up. I also made some royal icing in different colors, the kids then got to decorate their cookies. I also wanted to accommodate kids that have food allergies, so I gave them a pretzel rod which they could decorate with frosting, to make a 'light saber'. They were also given some Yoda Soda. It is just seltzer and lime sherbert. And it was really good!

It was sooo much work but worth it. The kids had a great time and kept asking when we were going to have this program again. This will most likely turn into a May 4th tradition. Also a very special thanks to Morgan Brett who helped me with the program! She is also took these great pictures!

Dr. Seuss & Truffala trees!

In the Children's library world March is associated with a very special birthday, Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss)

This year I got to do a few special things. First I made this super awesome bulletin board.
I found this Dr. Seuss quote and loved it, it also fit in the library perfectly. Then I referred one of the Cat in the Hat books and sketched a mock up. I gave to Port Jefferson Library's resident artist, AnnMarie and she make a large scale version and TA -DA! it looks pretty neato

My Dr. Seuss March madness did not end there! If you must know the Lorax feature film was recently released (which I really hate what cinema has done to some Dr. Suess classics but that's besides the point). I figured it would grab the attention of some kiddies so I did a Lorax program! And if you don't know the Lorax.. why he speaks for the trees! So I decided we should make some Truffala trees.

You can to it's really easy! All that you need is:
Construction paper (I used yellow and red)
Glue
Tissue Paper
Stapler

• I took the red construction paper and made two circles measuring 6 inches
• Then I stapled them together in three spots and left and opening on the bottom
• Then kids then decorated the red circle with different colored tissue paper squares (this is the top puffy part of our tree)
• Then they got to decorate the yellow piece of construction paper that was 8 x 11 inches 
• After decorating the tree trunk we rolled it up and stapled it then place the puffy part on the top
• Instant truffala tree!

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