Fancy Nancy Party!

Bonjour! Welcome to our Fancy Nancy Party!

I had this program on a Saturday, advertised as a family program. I had about 40 girls, one boy, and their adults attend.

We started with snacks:

I found some plastic champagne flutes at the party store and filled them with apple juice. They looked awesome and added an extra special fanciness to the proceedings.

While the girls (and one boy!) were snacking, I read Fancy Nancy to them. We practiced saying "bonjour" and "merci" and "de rien". "S'il vous plait" was a little harder, but we all tried together and everyone made a good effort.

We then moved on to stations (with the option to get more snacks if you wanted).

Stations: 

1 - Elegant Tiaras 

I got the base and the strings for the tiaras from Michaels and then cut out a bunch of shapes from sticky-backed glittery foam. 

2 - Photobooth

This was my second attempt at a photobooth (I also did one for my Frozen sing-a-long) and it didn't work as well as I hoped. I see so many lovely posts about photo booths and yet for some reason my families just don't respond to it. I'm pretty proud of my swirled ribbon background, though. 

3 - Embellished Confections (that's fancy for decorated cookies!)

Plain sugar cookies, pink frosting, and sprinkles. Yum!

4 - Beautiful Bangles (that's fancy for bracelets!)

Lots of beads, lots of colored cord... this one never gets old. I've had people make entire sets of necklaces and bracelets. This is one of my favorite types of activities, especially when other projects are more complicated and take more time. This one is self-explanatory, self-directed, and requires focus and concentration which keeps kids from running amok. 

And it turns out a lovely product that depends very little on skills.

5 - Butterfly Wings

Nancy wears butterfly wings in the book, so we made our own, too.

 I had 12x12 pieces of cardstock onto which they traced the template for the wings. Some sparkly sequins and embellishments added glamour. Then we punched four holes in the wings, threaded the yarn through, and put the wings on. They were lovely.

 6 - Pom Pom Boas

I'm of two minds with this one. On the one hand, it was a LOT of work. I actually involved the circ staff in making the pompoms with me. Then I went home and made a million more myself. And I gave my assistant a whole bunch of yarn to make some as well. So it took four people a significant amount of time to create enough pom poms. But, on the other hand, holy cow, was this one popular. And they came out AWESOME.

What I'd change: I would start the pom poms earlier and get ready whip and not cool whip for the parfaits. Because: sadness (or at the very least total lack of cuteness): 

And I had such cute bowls and spoons, too!

Even though the photo booth wasn't anyone's favorite thing, it did add a nice decorative element. Maybe I'll do it again, but without the labor intensive background.

Why I'd do this again: I liked that the program worked for the princess crowd, but also for the slightly older girls. The average age at the Princess Party was about four and the average age here was about six. Also, the girls (and one boy!) had a blast and learned some French. Tres bien! A la prochaine!

Flannel Friday: Lisa Can't Sleep!

This is a story I've been telling for years and it's always a hit; I use it with my toddlers and my preschoolers and for family bedtime storytime. It pretty much never fails me. 

I tried to find the original book, but I made this flannel while at another library and I didn't write down the source (bad librarian! No biscuit!). I'm guessing it's this one: 

And the good news is: you can buy a hardcover copy from a used bookseller for $223.20! What a deal! (Update! The book is now listed at $222.64 so get your copy today!)

Ok, so maybe the book isn't around anymore. But maybe you have it in your collection! And either way, the story is worth telling, I promise. 

It starts with Lisa going to bed. She pulls the covers up and puts her head down. But Lisa can't sleep so she calls out "MOOOO-OOOMMMM!! I need my bear!" So Mom brings Lisa's bear. 

Lisa grabs her bear, pulls her covers up and puts her head down. But Lisa can't sleep ... she wants her doll. 

Then she wants her dog...

And so on and so forth until she's got her bear, her doll, her dog, her sheep, her cat, her bunny, her duck, her lion, and her ball. 

But there's still a problem. Lisa calls her mom one last time and says "There's no room in the bed for me!" So Mom takes everything back except the teddy bear. Lisa hugs it tight, pulls her covers up, and goes to sleep. 

A few quick notes on the telling. These things work for me, but lord knows we all have different styles and methods and there are far far better storytellers out there, so feel free to make it your own.  

• I mime the pulling up of the covers each time and make sure my hands go higher and higher as the number of things in the bed increases.
• When I say "put her head down", I put my hands together and put my head on them. You know, the bedtime/sleep motion. I then lower my head and my hands together just a little bit before opening my eyes with a gasp before saying "But Lisa couldn't sleep!". I always put my head to the right when I do this. When Lisa finally does go to sleep, I put my hands and tilt my head to the left.
• I've alternated the object that Lisa first wants between the doll and the bear. Sometimes I'm feeling doll, and sometimes bear. Bear makes the most sense when I'm using it with a stuffed animal sleepover, but it can go either way.
• Speaking of which, another great benefit is that this story is as long or as short as you need. The lion and the ball may not make an appearance with the wiggly toddlers, but the kindergartners are usually willing to go along for all of Lisa's whims.
• Really milk the "MOOOOO-OOOOM!!!!" I even cup my hands around my mouth when calling out. It's everyone's favorite part. 

This week's Flannel Friday is hosted by Kathryn. For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the blog or check out Pinterest.

Preschool Science: Water

For this preschool lab, we tackled water. Well, not literally; that would be difficult. But we did spend the better part of an hour exploring different aspects of water (which, frankly, is fascinating. It's all around us yet defies most rules of physics). I was inspired by this and this.

I started out by reading Heather Fell in the Water by Doug MacLeod and Craig Smith.

Then we did a floating egg experiment, which not only allowed us to talk about "sink" and "float", but also set them up to experiment on their own when we went to the stations. 

I got the idea from here, though I simplified it to just be about an egg (click the link for other fun ideas!). We tried an egg in fresh water and then added salt bit by bit until the egg floated. While I poured and mixed, we talked about density and how much salt it might take to make the egg float. 

Once we got the egg to float, it was off to the stations!

Stations: 

To prep the stations, I put plastic tablecloths over each table and then layered a beach towel (from home) on top of that. (Hence the colorful pictures...). This kept the mess - or, in this case, the wetness - from going everywhere. Just remember to bring a bag to hold all the wet towels you'll be taking home to wash. 

1 - Swimming Raisins

Unfortunately for our first station, this one was a bust. Supposedly, a raisin will sink in regular water, but will rise and fall with the bubbles in sparkling water. We tried it a few different ways, but this one never quite took off. I'm gonna go with: it's the "learning about the scientific method" station...

2 - The Volume of Water

I put out a dozen plastic containers of different sizes and heights and capacities and asked the children to pour the water from one container to another. Even though the shape of the water changed, the volume remained the same. Also, pouring water is fun.

3 - Water Absorption

One of my co-workers donated a bunch of Talenti gelato containers and they are awesome! (Both the jars and the co-worker). I've used them for all sorts of things, but this time I put out sponges in different sizes and asked the children to put a sponge and a little water into a container, seal the container, and see if their sponge could absorb the water as they shook the container. 

4 - Sink or Float

This station was the most fascinating to the kids. I had bowls of water, a worksheet, and a ton of objects for the children to test. I also put out salt in case they wanted to try to make something float. This station got the best conversations between caregivers and children as they tried to guess what would happen and then tested it out. Also, as you probably already know, dropping things in water is fun.

5 - Water-resist Painting

I pulled out my white crayons for this one. The kids drew something with the white crayon on white paper and then painted over it in watercolor paint. Above, you can see the fish emerging through the paint. A lot of kids really liked this one, though they sometimes had their parents draw the first part because the white on white was too complex.

This was one of my favorite labs - simple concepts but all fun to play with (except the raisins) and minimal mess. I'll be repeating this one.

Charm Bracelets for Tweens

I'm always getting ideas from the Klutz books and this time around we made charm bracelets.

I had the original book, but that didn't have enough materials for my group of 20 kids (ages 10 and up), so I ended up buying 7 yards of bracelet chain, lots of eye pins, jump rings, some hook closures, two jewelry pliers, lots of Sculpey clay, and glaze. My toaster oven, a huge disappointment for my cooking programs, redeemed itself during this program and turned out some lovely charms.

So I put the clay on the tables, made the book available if they needed ideas, and let them go to it.

Here's what I learned:

This program took much longer than I thought it would. I had pre-cut and hooked the bracelets, so those were ready to go (highly recommended) but the actual baking and putting on of jump rings and glazing took forever.

I decided to do the baking in batches and the first batch went in at the ten minute mark, but while I had anticipated making two batches, we ended up making four.

Next time, I'm definitely blocking off 2 hours to get the entire bracelet made.

On the plus side, the results were very cute and individual in the best sense. I think the charms might be too big to comfortably wear on a daily basis, but the kids were very proud of their results.

Gumball machine and moon on the glazing rack. 

Proudly wearing the dragon he designed himself. 

More good news: since I bought the materials more or less in bulk, I have enough stuff to do this again. I definitely will.

Flannel Friday Round-up!

Are you planning your fall storytimes? Well, strap yourself in because this week's round-up is going to make at least one of those storytimes a breeze. Ready? Ok, here we go.

First off, we have Danielle at Library Danielle who has ducks, frogs, and a lovely flannel to go along with Little White Duck. (Why do good books go out of print? This is the question we all ask ourselves when we see a super-cute flannel that we now want to make...)

Mel, over at Mel's Desk also has ponds on the brain with a flannel about a lily pond. The tune is familiar, and I do love reversible flannel pieces, I do, I do.

Kathryn, from Fun with Friends at Storytime, has some colorful ducks for a fun "what's missing?" game - always a good time with the kids - and bonus! a paper plate duck that's simple and adorable. Perfect storytime craft.

Speaking of games, Lindsey from Jbrary has a version of the Little Mouse game with ladybugs and fancy fringed rugs (could her next career be as a decorator...?) and an easy and helpful early literacy tip to boot.

And just like that: your fall "Pond" storytime is planned. Thank goodness for Flannel Friday!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Learn more about Flannel Friday at our Facebook Page or on the blog.

Piñata Making

This summer I tried something new for me: three day camps. These sorts of things have never worked for me before because I could never count on the kids coming back day after day, but at this particular library, I've been seeing a good repeat rate so I thought I would give it a try. 

The benefit to the camp is that while I'm usually stuck with craft projects that can be finished in an hour, with a camp I could expand the possibilities to include more complex projects. 

Enter: the piñatas. 

Over three days, we papier-mache-d to our hearts' content and then decorated the results. 

Here's a quick breakdown: 

Monday: blow up the balloons and put on the first layer of papier mache. 

Tuesday: add cones and cups with tape then add another layer of papier mache. 

Wednesday: paint and decorate. 

For the record, the piñatas were awesome. 

Also for the record: it's sooooo much messier than you can possibly imagine. God help you if you have carpet. 

One more thing for the record: the kids LOVED it. 

Here are some of the photos I managed to take (when I wasn't in the kitchen mixing up flour and water):  

Adding party hats and cups to the piñatas.

Some kids had a very specific idea of what they were making (the one on the right will become a pig) while others just enjoyed adding points and cups to the basic round shape. 

More layers of papier mache. 

Painting! I also put out a box of fringed tissue paper for a more traditional look. 

Drying. I have a large number of foam squares and I put them all down on the carpet in a corner of the room.
The piñatas dried there every night. 

Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely. Will I make sure to do it right before we are scheduled to have our carpet cleaned. Even more emphatically: yes. 

Summer Reading Collaborative Art

This year, I revamped my Summer Library Program from the bottom up. I did away with plastic prizes (woo hoo!!) and now give out a free book, a fines coupon, and the opportunity to put a bookplate in your favorite library book. 

I changed from a reading log with only blank lines in it to a reading log with a three-pronged approach to the summer: read, do stuff, and visit the library.

I'll talk about the other parts soon, but today I want to focus on the "do stuff" portion. Each reading log has a two page spread of boxes with activities to do over the summer (36 in total). Some of these are library related (check out an audiobook, attend a program, etc), some are summer fun (play outside, go for a walk, make playdough) and some are superhero activities (help mom or dad with something, clean up a mess you made, do a good deed). 

Here's a jpg. (I hope this format works...)

Every time a child completes the activity, they cross off that box. Cross of three boxes and get a window for our superhero skyline!

What's that, you say? 

I'm so glad you asked!!

As part of our summer reading decoration, I put these buildings in the large windows in the corner of our children's room. I also bought some superhero decals and positioned them around the buildings for maximum "superhero skyline" effect. 

Here they are when I first put them up:

The buildings on June 21st, right when the program began.
The windows on the left are the sample ones I put up to see if this idea would work. 

The kids started reading and crossing off activities right away. I was surprised at how much they liked it, always asking "do I get a window today?" when they brought their logs in. 

Here are the windows a few weeks in:

July 10th. Windows begin to populate the skyline. 

One of the cool things about the windows is that we encourage the kids to decorate the windows as they please. I have some that are still blank, some that have names in them, and some that have elaborate drawings of kids or dogs or superheroes... we let them do as they please and the results have been amazing. 

Here's the skyline today, three weeks from the end of the summer program. 

July 30th

I spent a lot of unnecessary time and energy fretting about whether this idea would work, but so far it's been fun for everyone. It also serves as a conversation starter when someone wants to know how they can get a window for the buildings. Automatic summer program sign up!