Tweens, Teens, and Andy Mason!

Another fun and busy week has come to a close! Monday evening, the tweens watched the movie "Sky High" while working on the first phase of their papier mache masks.

You could kind of tell who had experienced papier mache before and who hadn't.

You could also tell, after they had been drying for a day, who had listened to the instructions about wiping away excess, and who hadn't:)

But either way, they all seemed to have fun! Can't wait to see the finished products!

***

Thursday evening, the teens played five games of Minute to Win It, including

transferring marshmallows from one bowl to another using chopsticks,

and eating fruit by the foot without using your hands. We were just going to have one person per team try it, but everyone decided to try this one. One young lady who shall remain nameless slurped down three while her competition was still working on one. We were all rather impressed in a horrified sort of way.

Tossing goldfish from one cup to another.

My favorite, "cookie face" - getting a cookie (or cracker) from your forehead to your mouth, without using hands. I told the kids I wouldn't post anything too embarrassing, which pretty much ruled out all my close-ups.

***

Finally, Friday we had our perennial favorite, Andy Mason - a.k.a. The Pizza Guy (I wonder if he ever regrets writing that song?)

We started off sitting and listening,

or even reading (I love this kid),

but then we got to giggling,

and he got us up on our feet,

and pretty soon there was a dance party going on!

Sometimes adding our own little twists to the moves...

The kids kept inching closer, and by the end, I thought some were going to crawl up into his lap!

One young man even got to go up front and jam with him at the end, leaving with his very own harmonica.

Sway with me, sis!

Thanks again, Andy, for another great show!

Once again, NOBODY IS LOOKING AT ME! What is the deal, here, people?!

Different Kinds of Heroes

As I explained to the kids last week, we are looking at many ways to be heroes this summer. Today we got to focus on people who help animals, especially misunderstood ones, with a visit from The Island of Misfit Morphs

They don't give ME that much attention. But then, I'm not wearing a tailless whip scorpion on my shirt.

This is Ebb. His girlfriend's name is Flow. (She couldn't make it today).

Miss Kim was FANTASTIC, explaining things in correct terms, but in ways all the kids could easily comprehend. I learned a lot, myself!

Two different pythons - discussing how, just like we all have different hair, skin and eye colors, they can have different colorings.

A really pretty (and blind) retic that I was tempted to steal - except I would have had to bring it back to her way before it reached full size (about 19 feet).

The kids really paid attention,

And asked lots of great questions!

Now we're talking! Black-headed python,

Blind in one eye, very active today. The kids got to pet him and Pearl, the ball python, as well as a sanguine blue-tongued skink that I neglected to get pictures of.

My spell-check says "skink" is not a word. My spell-check needs to get to a reptile program.

Shane couldn't understand why everyone wasn't there to look at him.

He just kept standing by the line, waiting for someone to tell him how cool he was. Poor guy!

And, Sheridan's parting words as they left the library...guess what she now wants for her birthday?

Huge thanks to Miss Kim and the Island of Misfit Morphs! I highly recommend her for anyone looking for educational programs in the area!

Explora Day at the Library

During our spring break, we visited the Explora Museum up in Albuquerque. So. much. Fun! I can't feasibly take every summer reading kid up there, so we did the next best thing, and brought Miss Erin and her travelling science fun to the library!

 Anything with electricity is always popular!

 As are the wind-powered cars:

Some of them were making it all the way across the room!

Kids could also make tops, experimenting with different sizes, weights, etc.

And, since it was nice out, we had a few experiments out there.

Creating patterns with mirrors:

Or, on top of them. Whatever worked.

Balancing nails on a string,

or popsicle sticks on a tennis ball (no pictures of that one, because I was too busy playing with it myself.)

I love when kids think outside the box, and thought this one was quite brilliant:

And then...there's my child.

You can take the girl out of the mountains, but...

That's my girl :)

Summer Reading Day Two

Because Day One was absolutely too nuts to have time to post anything.

We registered about 60 more kids, bringing our total so far to 880, and we gave out over 900 prizes. Each prize is equivalent to one day of reading for at least thirty minutes, so it looks like everyone is starting their summer off right! Almost 100 kids earned their shirt on the very first day.

Of course, the first day of prizes and programs was a perfect time for our entire system to go down. No checking in or out, no looking up or reserving books, no cataloging or changing item status, no computer reservations. So, everyone just stayed in the library and read their books there. All day. That's awesome, but it made for no down time for any of us!

Smallish groups (around 30) at the story times:

that number will probably go way up as the summer goes on, and word gets out. We have six story times each week, lunch (provided through the schools) five days a week, plus Tweens on Mondays and Teens on Thursdays. The Tweens had a special visitor last night:

One of these things is not like the other...

He brought free pizza!

After descending on it like locusts (I think I see six slices left back there), they made superhero capes.

Looks like fun! And there was food! There is always food.

How is your summer going? Are you participating in your local SRP? Reading anything good? Going anywhere cool? Relaxing with the family? Leave a comment!

Summer Reading in 3...2...

Whew! Seems like when I have the most to blog about, I have the least amount of time to actually do it.

We held our opening registration for the Summer Reading Program on the last day of school (May 22 here). It was PACKED!

At the same time, we had a visiting archaeologist in the next room, with lots of cool hands-on artifacts.

Yes, hands-on! I think the man is crazy, and I walked past those pots with my hands in my pockets all day - but, nothing got broken (even when my kids took a look - whew!)

Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we registered about twice the normal number of kids. That trend has continued so far, and since, in my experience, the kids who register at the beginning are very likely to earn their t-shirts...singing in an Anna voice, "Do you wanna be a sponsor?"

I sent out a mass mailing, and a couple businesses have stepped up to the plate. Papa John's actually approached us about bringing pizza to some of our teen and tween programs - score!

As one of our passive programs, we have had these "Who Is Your Hero" forms for kids to fill out. This one is, hands-down, my favorite so far:

The little art corner has attracted a few artists:

as well as Shane, who likes to throw the crayons everywhere, then stand there and say "Ohhhhhhhhh!" in a shocked voice - as if he has NO idea who did that.

My teen volunteers started this week. Looks like a good group so far! We are getting them comfortable with getting kids registered this week, before jumping into the craziness of prizes and programs this week. 

The free lunches have also begun, and the supervisor (who is new this year) almost had a heart attack when I told him we have 750 kids signed up so far. I reassured him that they do not actually all come in at the same time!

This lawn will be much more crowded this time next week!

At times it can seem like they are all here at once, however, so I am off to straighten the room for the umpteenth time today. See you all at story time!