Thrive Thursday August Round Up!

Merlin's beard, you guys! The participants in this month's Thrive Thursday roundup have so many outstanding ideas for school-age programs and activities, all of which are that magical combination of interesting and engaging. And, cherry on top, these colleagues are happy to share their successes so that other librarians might not have to reinvent the wheel in order to offer a range of school-age programs. I love this profession.

Before I give you the round up of awesome programs, remember that you can look through past round ups at Thrive After Three. You can also stay engaged with the Thrive Thursday community between round ups by following the Pinterest Board and Facebook group!

And now for those glorious ideas:

Nikki at heytherelibrary offered a program that was all things caves, from cave paintings to exploring caves as habitats to making hats. Very cool.

Over at In short, I am busy, Jennifer and her kiddos enjoyed a Mad Scientists Club titled "What Floats? What Flies?" Here attendees made and then tested both paper airplanes and craft boats. Great STEAM program, ahoy!

Lindsey of the Jbrary duo put together a round up of all the book character parties she's done, seen, or heard about on the interwebs. If you're always scrambling to find ways to program around that large costume character you've ordered, look no further.

My fellow Missourian and Cubs fan Sarah of GreenBeanTeenQueen offered a somewhat impromptu, but fully heroic, Batman Day at her library. I'm more of a Marvel girl, personally, but I think her program is sensational.

Lisa at Thrive After Three has been knocking it out of the park with science programs this summer, all accompanying the CSLP theme "Fizz Boom Read." One program in particular is especially egg-celent...

No decoder ring necessary to read all the bits and details about the Spy Night hosted by Angie of Fat Girl Reading. Stealth skills optional.

Awnali at The Librarian Is on The Loose recapped her Big Nate program, which looks like it would be terrific fun for all those Big Nate fans. The program--or, I think, unprogram--offers self-guided stations so every kid can get what they want out of the program.

Over at The BibliOBrien Blogs, Alison has been sharing her series of programs based on NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. The linked program included an activity to build a hurricane-resistant structure. What a great way to showcase that science is interesting and relevant to life.

The titular Kelly of Ms. Kelly at the Library has two excellent school-age science programs to share this month:

• Candy Science, which makes me want to go grab a bag of M&M's
• The Science of Forces, which included such hits as balloon rockets and paper airplanes

Bryce of Bryce Don't Play talked about her library's new weekly series to help with the summer day camp craziness. Her program is based all around Sasquatch, and she also hosted her colleague Lindsay's light painting program in the same series. What lucky day campers they have up there in La Crosse!

Looking for scavenger hunt ideas that get kids moving about the library? Catherine at Z Before Y has you covered.

Over at The Neighborhood Librarian, Brytani detailed her Harry Potter Birthday Party, which she offered a whopping three times. That's a lot of butterbeer. Fifty points to your Hogwarts house, Brytani.

Kary Henry shared a program description as opposed to a whole blog post. It's enough to pique interest and inspire you to take her ideas and run with them, that's for sure!

I co-hosted a STEM program on Illinois mammals to go with our Paws to Read SRP theme. We borrowed a kit from the IL Department of Natural Resources full of pelts, skulls, replica tracks and replica scat. Young patrons, ages 5-9, and their grown-ups, went from station to station with a passport, where they could record information and draw pictures. Mid-way through we read a book, and to finish we played a True/False game with facts about mammals.

And, if I may humbling share my own program, I will direct your attention to an Origami Hour program I offered in July. It required minimal setup and materials, utilized plenty of library books, and was engaging for kids at every level. I loved seeing the kids' origami creations at the end.

That's the August round up for Thrive Thursday! Make sure to watch Ms. Kelly at the Library for information about the September round up, and keep writing about your programming for school-agers! We all love it when you share.