I have a bit of an obsession with cookbooks. Not only do I love to look at pretty pictures of food but also the inspiration of new techniques and ingredients. And all the better if the approach is seasonal, vegetarian or health minded. (Or from the Barefoot Contessa! I adore her.) It must be a cookbook time of year because I have in my pending request list at the library manyanewtitle.
Janet Brocket offers ideas inspired by Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, the Borrowers, and the Chronicles of Narnia among others. The food inspired component could be a fun addition to a traditional book club, or a novel way to introduce many classic titles to youth.
Let candy be your new crafting material! Step by step instructions to create a chess set, spaceship, pyramid, woodland creatures, jewelry, as well as holiday ideas. The author claims that offering an alternative use for candy actually reduced the sugar consumption of her two young children. Use this resource to expand an existing Gingerbread House activity, or with a math, engineering and design bent for a hands on construction program.
For my latest summer reading club meeting for children in grades 3, 4 & 5, I decided to choose a popular topic... food!
We started broadly, filling out the food pyramid with the basic food groups. We discussed the meaning behind the food phrases, "You are what you eat," and, "Don't play with your food!"
Which we of course promptly disobeyed by playing a guessing game involving fruits and vegetables. Children volunteered to come to the front of the room and once blindfolded, had to guess which fruit and vegetable was placed in their hands. At the market earlier I picked up some easy to guess options like an apple, pear, potato and cucumber, as well as some trickier varieties like a fig, pomegranate, ginger and an artichoke.
Continuing on the sensory journey, each table of children next received a tray of numbered cups, topped in aluminum foil with small holes poked through. They took turns smelling each cup and contemplating the source of each smell among their group. Most of the items I brought from home, like vanilla, lemon, vinegar, fresh mint, garlic and a banana.
Next came dessert: chocolate, to be exact. Starting by asking where chocolate comes from, I read aloud a brief non-fiction title with informative photographs, From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate by Robin Nelson.
Additionally there are many popular stories about chocolate like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling and Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. I gave a brief booktalk on each, and shared a short selection from Charlie as it provided the perfect transition to our next activity. In the passage, taken from the first chapter of the book, it describes Charlie's poor family who, besides having a terribly cramped bed situation, often went hungry. The one thing Charlie longed for more than anything else was chocolate: he ate it only once a year, on his birthday, when he received one small chocolate bar that he would make last for more than a month.
After all this talk about chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, the natural progression was to finally eat some. But hold on a minute there! We weren't just going to eat chocolate... we were going to SAVOR chocolate. Each child chose from a selection of mini candy bars, and we all opened them at the same time. Once opened, we smelled the chocolate for a few moments and thought about how it felt to the touch. Finally, we took a bite -- but just a small one. We kept it in our mouths for a few seconds, considering how it felt and tasted while on the tongue. After this group process, children were invited to begin eating the chocolate, with an emphasis on taking as many bites as possible to finish the bar. The competitive encouragement worked, with a range from 19 to 80 bites!
And lastly, sweet met salty in our edible craft conclusion of magic wands. Take one long pretzel rod, spread chocolate frosting on the top half, and finish with a generous topping of sprinkles. Eat and enjoy!
These activities lasted about an hour, and the total cost was only $25 for 35 children. There are so many other food related programming possibilities. You could offer more chocolate tastings (different types of candy bars, white versus milk versus dark), even incorporating math and science concepts. Or go more crafty, making colorful Fruit Loop paintings.
Saxton Freymann's many books offer great inspiration as he captures such lifelike, convincing expressions using all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It would be fun to purchase a variety of foods and let the kids experiment.
For younger audiences, We Are What We Eat by Sally Smallwood has fun, playful photographs that create a food character. Whenever parents ask me for simple books about fruits and vegetables, I hand them this along with Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert.
A final word about safety. I always ask whether anyone has food allergies before passing out anything edible. Also check to see whether your workplace has any specific regulations regarding foods; for example, in my library we must only use pre-packaged items purchased from a store to avoid any possible contamination.
Oh hey, what's up? Long time, no see. Excuses abound – the last few weeks have been highly interesting and can be summed up with the phrase, “embracing uncertainty.”
First I received a layoff notice due to potential massive library budget cuts. Thankfully much of the budget was restored by the Mayor and City Council, so it has since been rescinded. Next I was temporarily transferred to a busy new library where I am planning Summer Reading Club on the fly. Mostly though, I’m just really enjoying my summer so the last thing I want to do after work is sit in front of a computer.
So back to the new library! I'm having such fun getting to know the community in this lively and highly used children's room. This library is the only one in Queens where the circulation of children's materials is significantly higher than adult materials, by a 3 to 1 margin. It is constantly crowded with families that visit the library for hours at a stretch and are eager to attend programs. A bonus is that the neighborhood is predominantly Latino so I often get to practice my newly acquired Spanish skills (thank you NYU continuing ed!)
I only learned at the end of June that I would be staying there for the month of July, which required planning and leading programs like, immediately. I've taken the approach of reaching into my programming bag of tricks which, believe it or not, includes hosting a Spelling Bee.
I've had great success with Spelling Bees in the past. They meet my general qualifications of accommodating a wide variety of ages, being highly adaptable depending upon the participants and requiring no to minimal budget. In the past I've usually had anywhere from twenty to forty school age children attend; last week, for my summer Spelling Bee over eighty kids showed up!
These are some helpful practices I’ve learned along the way:
1) Select words in advance.
I print off grade specific word lists for kindergarten through sixth grade (often from the website timeforlearning.com), along with lists of challenge words. I highlight the words I want to use then have volunteers write them on small slips of paper to be placed into containers labeled, “Kindergarten”, “1st grade”, and so on. When it’s their turn, children choose from their corresponding grade level, making the experience a bit more dramatic and clearly without favoritism.
2) Make it as "official" as possible.
I always set up a microphone to make it more formal as well as ensure the audience can hear the speller. I instruct the participants in the official spelling bee behavior of first saying the word to confirm they heard it correctly, spelling the word, then repeating the word one more time to signal their answer is final. I emphasize that the audience is not allowed to give clues or assistance and must remain silent until I announce whether the answer is correct or incorrect. And of course, no matter what the outcome, the audience claps for each participant.
3) Consider your community.
Most children love competition. It could be your neighborhood kids would prefer a cutthroat spelling bee with a clear winner. My approach with many new speakers of English is to focus on the experience, emphasizing trying your best in a fun, supportive learning environment. In my most recent bee I let kids choose any grade level of word they preferred; many chose the “Super Challenge” words, while some selected easier grade levels. In a different library where I offered regular Spelling Bees, children started spelling at their grade and with every round they passed moved up a level. Clearly there are many ways to organize this and it’s quite easy to play it by ear.
With so many children at the program last week, I gave everyone who came up to spell a sticker to put on their shirt so I could easily tell who already had a turn. If the word was spelled correctly, two stickers were given. I had envisioned that perhaps at the end I would be able to reward those who participated most or spelled the most words correctly based upon this visual system, but after an hour and fifteen minutes there was only enough time for everyone to spell one word. I did have everyone with two stickers come up to the front for special recognition and another round of applause.
Some related materials to display are:
How to Spell like a Champ by Barrie Trinkle, Carolyn Andrews and Paige Kimble Workman Publishing Group (2006) ISBN: 9780761143697
I Put A Spell on You by Adam Selzer Delacorte Books for Young Readers (2008) ISBN: 9780385735049
Spelldown by Karon Luddy Aladdin (2008) ISBN: 9781416916109
You can also recommended one of my favorite movies of all time, Spellbound. It's an amazing documentary that tracks eight finalists on their journey to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
So I may have temporarily neglected this blog. Oops. I blame vacation brain. But I am back now and more focused than ever! At least until the weather turns warmer. And summer reading club starts to kill me. But I digress...
Last week, freshly back from some time off, I lead an "Earth Day Everyday" activity for school age kids. I shared the books 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World by Melanie Walsh and We Planted A Tree by Diane Muldrow.
Next we played eco games; in Recycling Relay, teams had to sort items into their proper bins (don't be fooled by the yogurt containers!) while Go Green Hangman involved guessing green phrases such as "Take shorter showers" or "Bring your own bags to the grocery store."
We concluded with setting an environmentally friendly pledge, written on construction paper cut in the shape of a leaf and posted on a tree drawn by yours truly.
Here's a more detailed view. Recley meaning recycle, of course.
I still haven't visited the recently opened Battery City Park Library -- NYPL's first green library in Manhattan. I found the most eye candy here as well as a guided tour. I love the bright orange!
A follow up to my last post about programming over school break. For the Wikki Stix Workshop yesterday nearly fifty children, plus their parents and caregivers, crowded the children's room to make all sorts of lovely things.
The youngest children used coloring sheet templates to fill in butterfly or kite designs. Others made their own "drawing" on white paper.
Jewelry and tiaras were quite popular among the young ladies. Check out these rings.
Food was also an inspiration. Go carrot salad!
And my favorite (oops, probably not supposed to admit that I have one) were the many detailed miniature cupcakes created by our resident artist Margaret, age ten.
For the next week and a half, the public schools in New York City are on spring recess. A mere six weeks after taking a week hiatus for midwinter recess, mind you. Sadly there is no spring break for public librarians.
Rather my library is at its busiest when school is out of session, as families look for free, enriching activities outside of their New York City sized apartments. My approach is to offer programs on most days for both the sanity of the kids that stay for hours as well as mine.
During the school year the programming budget is very limited, so all of these suggestions are quite cheap or "free", using old supplies and left over summer reading club prizes. The targeted age range is kindergarten through sixth grade, to be as inclusive as possible. Attendance can vary from twenty to fifty children. So how exactly do we satisfy many children of different ages with little funding?
Family Film
Hey, it is school vacation after all! Showing a movie is one of the easiest activities to plan -- the most difficult part is finding something to (legally) screen. Weston Woods DVDs come with public viewing rights, and feature animated adaptations of popular books. Occasionally newly released DVDs will grant libraries viewing rights for a short period of time, as I’ve experienced with Wayside School and Pinocchio; otherwise, the fee to show a movie can be $75 and up.
Wikki Stix Workshop
Wikki Stix were truly one of the best summer reading club prizes EVER. Also known as Bendaroos, they are small bendable reusable craft sticks that can be used to create virtually anything. As we still have some left-over from last summer, my co-worker is leading a open ended workshop where kids can place them in designs on coloring sheets or just make whatever they choose.
April Fools’ Day Fun
Our program on April 1st will involve sharing tricky books and crafts. Some possible titles to share are Guess Again by Mac Barnett and What’s Going On In There? by Geoffrey Grahn.
Or you could go old school with the original trickster himself, Anansi.
There are many funny craft options: a trick cup that drips while drinking, an April’s Fool Day card that won't open, and a fake bug on a string to scare others. We’ll also pass out a word search that doesn’t include any of the listed words… let’s see how long it takes the kids to figure it out! All of the necessary materials we already had, such as construction paper for cards, Styrofoam cups, and plastic bugs left over from an insect themed summer reading club a few years past.
BINGO & Lanyard Crafts
Friday is fancy with two options depending on one’s grade level. For children in kindergarten through grade three, Number BINGO it is. There are some serious BINGO addicts at my library -- kids would happily play for hours if allowed. I suppose the simple, competitive element is what is so appealing. Our BINGO set allows up to thirty kids to play at once, and there are small prizes like stickers, tattoos, and erasers (again left-over prizes). My talented, crafty co-worker will be guiding the tweens in making lanyards in the auditorium.
Music & Movement Games
On the last day of break I’m leading Music & Movement Games, as by this time most kids are quite bored with restless energy. I’ve planned many possible activities to adapt according to the ages and interests of the children who attend. Musical Chairs is always popular, along with the similar Hot Potato, Duck, Duck, Goose, Simon Says, and LIMBO. Surprisingly even the older kids enjoy dancing to Jim Gill’s "Silly Dance Contest", or will try "My Bonnie" and "Knuckles, Knees." You could even do the more generic Freeze Dance using any popular CDs or the radio. If you need to bring down the energy level, some low key possibilities are seeing how many words can be made out of “It’s Spring Break”, playing Hangman, or memory games like Grocery Store.
And this is how I’ll be spending my “spring break”, with countless children, at the library.
I started working in libraries at age 16 and never stopped. After five years as a children's librarian, I am currently the Assistant Coordinator of Children's Services at Queens Library.
