Design Challenge: Catapults

As an alternative to the typical arts and crafts programs we often see in libraries, I decided to do a little something different by creating a "Design Challenge" for the kids.  As opposed to simply creating something, the kids are challenged to build a structure using engineering skills and applied science concepts.

This week I decided to have the kids build catapults. I introduced the idea of catapults used for battle during the Trojan War of Greek Mythology, telling a short story about the Trojan War as background.  I like to tie the design challenge back to some literary elements whenever possible.  This also gave me the opportunity to offer books on Greek Mythology available for checkout at the conclusion of the program.

While I do offer a "model" structure for the kids to look at to base their own structure design on, I encourage them to experiment with different elements of the design to see if it makes a difference in its functionality.  For example, by offering the questions, "I wonder how we could make the catapult shoot farther?" or "What would happen if the catapult's base was wider?" or "Does the amount of rubber bands I use make a difference?", kids are prompted and encouraged to explore different design techniques and each child ends up with a unique and individual product.

Once the kids have built their catapults, it is time for battle!  I provided little colored pom-poms for them to load and launch from their catapults.  They can try to achieve different goals such as going the longest distance, shooting the highest, or hitting a specific target.  The possibilities are endless in this Design Challenge program!

November Crafts

I am a little late on this post but I was too busy stuffing myself with turkey this weekend to get to my blogging.  Since November is over, however, I thought now's the time to showcase my November crafts before it's too late!

One of the crafts I did was simple bears.  I wanted to do something that brought attention to the changing of the seasons, and used the "Teddy Bear" craft to talk to kids about how bears hibernate for the winter.  I also put out lots of bear books on display for checkout.  Who doesn't love a classic teddy bear book?

I gave the little ones a wide selection of multicolored "puff-balls" (I actually have no idea what those little buggers are called) so that they could be creative and make their teddy bears any size, shape, and color they wanted.  I ended up seeing many different types of bears!  It was a simple craft, only requiring glue, puff balls, and googly eyes.  (Number one rule of crafting: googly eyes make everything better).

For a Thanksgiving craft, I had the tiny tots make paper bag turkey centerpieces.  I really wanted to do something different than the old traced hand routine.  This was by far the best turnout I have ever gotten for a craft event, and kids and parents alike got really involved and had a lot of fun.

 I pre-made the turkey "bodies" by crumpling a paper bag, inserting that into another paper bag, and then twisting the top around to form a head; finally gluing that piece down.  I also pre-cut turkey feet, waddles, and beaks out of colorful foam paper.

Along with these materials, some feathers, and of course googly eyes, it was up to the little ones to decorate their turkeys as they saw fit.  And we ended up with some very gorgeous turkey centerpieces; even one with false eyelashes!  I hope the children proudly displayed them during their Thanksgiving dinners!

The Five Finger Rule

I get a lot of children and parents who come in and have no idea where to start in terms of picking out a book that is appropriate for the child's reading level. (The fact that the child is in "second-grade" tells me nothing... there is a huge range of reading ability at this age and frankly at any age).

This is especially frequent among those who are perusing the "Easy Readers" section, a section of books that is devoted to introducing children to reading on their own.  They are arranged in a chapter book format, with large font sizes and pictures throughout the book so as to not be too daunting for the early reader.  They also range in difficulty level from levels one through four.  When a child needs help determining his or her reading level, I like to introduce the "Five Finger Rule", something I found to be quite useful during my time student-teaching in a school library.

Basically, you tell the child to open up to any page in the book.  Have the child begin reading that page.  For every word that the child needs help with, the child puts up a finger.  Zero to one fingers means this book is too easy.  The reader should challenge him/herself a little more.  Two to three fingers indicates a "just-right" book: the reader will be learning new words without the book being to overwhelming.  Four or more fingers shows that this book might be too challenging for independent reading, so the reader may need a reading buddy to help.  I created a poster to put near our easy readers that would hopefully help our patrons with this "rule", which is not necessarily a rule per-say, but rather an easy way of determining a general appropriate reading level for beginning readers.

Thanksgiving in the Library

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Yes, it is because of the food and the fact that my mom is an incredibly good cook.  Thanksgiving dinner is the best meal of the year!  This wonderful holiday also gives me the opportunity to have all sorts of fun with construction paper.

For our large bulletin board, I created a "Cornucopia of Books".  This was especially fun for me because I got to showcase many of my favorite titles that I have read as a child and throughout the years... Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline, just to name a few! 

I also created little paper pilgrim hats for our library giraffes, Miss Mildred and Humphrey. Could they be any cuter?