Library Out Loud - Come draw with me

One of the programs that my predecessor had done was called Read, Scribble, and Snack.  I can't claim any responsibility for this program other than the name change.  It is fairly popular with my after school crowd though.

Now I call it LOL: Library Out Loud (get it? after our blog name!)  The premise is easy.

1) Offer a snack, as this IS after school.
2) Offer drawing paper, pencils, pastels or any other medium.
3) Put in an audiobook of the kids choice (or read to the kids).
4) Hang out and draw.

This week, we worked on Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (Newberry Award winner this year!) I brought in a couple different books to vote on.  The kids could draw from the book or from their imaginations.  Most of them had their own ideas of what they wanted to do.

You can see here some of the kids drawing, and even see my own creation - yes that is the squirrel named Ulysses from the book...or a reasonable facsimile!

I get a good mix of kids out of the main library space and into the meeting room, where they can hang out and chat with me about whatever, draw whatever, and fuel up (most importantly to them).  Not all of the boys enjoy drawing, so I allow them to play a quiet game off to the side if they would rather do that.  They want to be included but they also don't really want to sit and draw, and that is OK.  This is one of the after school programs the kids ask for, so I am happy to continue it.  Once you have these art materials (or get donations), the upkeep is light.

Some kids really like audio books, so why not include them into your programming?  The materials are right there on the shelf, and you might get one kid hooked on a book.  Go for it!

Bookworms Book Club - Fancy Nancy Sees Stars

My K-2 book club met this month to discuss Fancy Nancy Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor.

 

While the book is fairly simple and straightforward, I saw a lot of potential possibilities for activities to do with this group.  And stars are just so much fun!

 

First, we obviously had to eat star-shaped sugar cookies.  With frosting.  And sprinkles!  If Fancy Nancy eats them, we can too!  Of course, I forgot to take pictures, but they were pretty yummy.  I let the kids frost and sprinkle their own cookies, which they thoroughly enjoyed!

"Sprinkles make them sparkle." So true!

 

We read the book together once, and while the boys in the group were not thrilled about doing a Fancy Nancy book, they actually participated the most in the conversation! What I love about these books are the "fancy words," so we had some great discussion about vocabulary words. These words were all related to space and stars!

And there is a nice guide in the back of the book!

 

Next, we had fun with a game I made up: I split the kids into two teams, gave them each a felt board, and a bunch of felt stars.  Their task was to create a constellation out of stars.  The other team then had to guess what picture the constellation made.  This was so much fun, we did it three times!

This was my sample - can you guess? It's a house!

 

I also had a Fancy Nancy MadLib game, but we didn't end up having time for it.  You can find it, along with many other great teacher resources at Fancy Nancy World.



Our final activity was a simple, open-ended craft.  On black paper, the kids could create a constellation of their own with star stickers and white crayons.  They got really creative here and had a lot of fun with this!

This is my simple example - the big dipper!

 

This book club is so much fun to run, and fairly low-stress and low-prep.  These kids are so excited about books and reading, and I love being a part of that!

 

Next month is our last meeting of the school year - we're reading Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems!