The Parachute Song for the Ukulele

One year ago, I was at the first-ever Guerrilla Storytime at ALA in Chicago. It was there that I met IRL librarian Kendra Jones, who shared her parachute song with attendees in response to a challenge. I've used the song several times since then--it's simple, mentions the colors on the parachute, and gives something to move around to with the parachute. I just recently started playing the song on the ukulele when there are enough caregivers in a program to manage the parachute without me.

Live Blogging from #alaac14!

I'm in Las Vegas over the next few days for the 2014 ALA Annual Conference. I'll be attending plenty of sessions and events, and I'll be doing my best to share as many of those as possible over on the ALSC Blog, where I'm on the slate of live bloggers for the event.

So if you couldn't go to Vegas, or if you're here but looking for info on sessions your schedule wouldn't accommodate, head over to the ALSC Blog periodically to see what's been going on! I'll have a full conference recap here after the event, but you'll definitely want to check out the live blog during the conference.

Thinking Outside the Book: Soccer Storytime

Not too long ago, we hosted a Ballet Story Time at my library, to great success--lots of families were excited to attend a program with a real, live ballerina in attendance, ready for questions and pictures. So, of course, I wanted to figure out a way to replicate that same enthusiasm for another audience of library families. The result? Soccer Story Time.

The St. Louis Lions are a local soccer team in the Premier Development League, and our library district has worked with them on a number of occasions for special events in the past. They were happy to be able to come to my branch for a specialty program. Here's what we did.

Soccer players love to read, too!

Soccer Story Time

Welcome & Introduction
     I welcomed everyone to our event and reminded everyone about the summer reading program. Plenty of kids were already signed up for summer reading, and a handful had seen the Lions at our summer reading kickoff event earlier this month. Then it was go time.

Story: For the Love of Soccer! by Pelé, illustrated by Frank Morrison
     This story, and its illustrations, share a soccer tale that many kids can relate to. We see Pelé as both a young soccer enthusiast and as a professional player, enjoying everything about the game the entire time. The message that playing for the love of the game--as opposed to a love of winning--is a good way to conclude, too.

Soccer Time!
     We started with a chance for the kids to ask our four attending soccer players questions: about when they started playing, how much they practice, etc. After the questions had been answered, the players demonstrated a few trick moves for the crowd before breaking the children into groups for some basic soccer skills practice. The youngest in the crowd worked on kicking, older kids did dribbling and other moves. Then, we concluded soccer time with a good old-fashioned shoot-out. The professionals were the goalkeepers and the kids tried to kick goals. My, were they having fun.

Craft and Picture Time
     I had a simple soccer ball craft set out on tables at the back of the room to help keep folks interested as they waited their turns for autographs and photo ops. The craft used a hexagon template I created, which allowed kids to color in the hexes, cut them out, and glue them on a coffee filter. Ta-da! 2-D soccer ball.

Everyone had a great time at this program, with many of the attendees psyched to go see a St. Louis Lions game this summer. I think World Cup fever helped the interest level, too, as well as the general ubiquity of kids in soccer around these parts. All things considered, this was a straightforward and enjoyable way to tap another aspect of the community for a library program.

Creating Computer Games with MaKey MaKey and Scratch

Last week, I took advantage of two newer additions to my library district's programming supplies to offer a school-age STEAM maker program. I had sent to my branch one of our mobile computer labs--8 laptops, plus an instructor laptop, so those of us without dedicated program computer lab space can offer computer programs--and a kit of MaKey MaKeys, and a group of 9-12 year olds and I set to creating our own computer games with the added excitement of using the MaKeys to play them. Here's what we did.

Part I: MaKey MaKeys

To get things started, I introduced how circuits work; completing a circuit is key to getting the MaKeys to function properly, so the introduction seemed apt. From there, kids opened their MaKey MaKey kits and we started to attach the alligator clips to the board. With a MaKey MaKey, you can turn anything that will conduct electricity into a computer key. We used paper clips attached to an index card to help keep everything orderly.

Getting the MaKeys set up took a few minutes, but pretty quickly the kids were able to figure out how they could complete their circuits and get their MaKeys to function. They were experimenting with their setups and playing the default MaKey games before I knew it.

Part II: Scratch

After a half hour of MaKey setup and experimentation, we moved on to the portion of the program where we created computer games. We used Scratch--which, I found out during the program, about half of the kids had already used in school programs. Scratch is a free, web-based, visual programming platform created by MIT, and it offers lots of options for creating computer programs at varying levels of complexity.

We set out to create simple maze games in which the player avatar--called a Sprite in Scratch--navigates a pathway using the arrow keys until reaching the end and finishing the game. I had created a sample maze before the program, and I projected the game's scripts onto a blank wall to provide examples of ways to make a maze game. I moved from child to child for about 45 minutes, coaching them on creating their game backdrops; the next steps in their programming; talking about x and y axes; asking questions to help them think about how they could tell the game to do what they want, etc. After trial and error and lots of tinkering with their code scripts, the kids were able to get their games to do what they wanted.

Part III: Playing Scratch Games with MaKey MaKeys

Victory!

With the Scratch games in working order, the children plugged their MaKey MaKey apparatuses back into their laptops so they could use their paper clip keys to play their games. Several of the kids tried one another's games before their parents rejoined us in the room, at which point it was great to hear the kids explaining what they'd created and to see them guide their parents through playing their games. I heard lots of feedback that the kids would be continuing to experiment with making Scratch games at home.

That's a sign of success for a maker program, if you ask me--kids learn new skills and discover new interests that they'd like to continue to pursue.

Flannel Friday: Toads & Diamonds

One of my favorite lesser-known folk tales is "Toads & Diamonds," a Cinderella variant in which our good and deserving heroine ends up with plenty of lovely things and kind friends while her toad of a mean sister ends up with, well, toads, among other things. If you're unfamiliar with this story, allow me to recommend Charlotte Huck's version, illustrated by Anita Lobel.

When I adapted this story for a flannel board, I created flannel pieces to give a visual to the jewels and slimy creatures with which the fairy in the story "gifts" the two girls. That means that I'm doing straight oral storytelling for the setup of the story, with the flannel pieces starting about halfway in. I've found that this story is plenty captivating for most audiences preschool and older--a good story keeps you interested regardless of what there is to look at.

I will say, when I tell this story, I modify the ending a bit. Instead of the kind sister ending up getting married to a prince, the jewels her dowry, I tell a version in which she ends up venturing out on her own and finding true friends--people who respect her for who she is, not what she has. Let's call it my feminist re-envisioning.

 

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Hannah's blog Lovin' the Library.

Coffee Filter Camouflage on The Library as Incubator Project

I'm over at the Library as Incubator Project today sharing details of a camouflage program I offered at my library recently. We hacked the traditional coffee filter craft to add the science behind camouflage, and everyone had a great time.

Head over to the Library as Incubator Project to take a look at the full program plan!

The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair

Taylor, S.S. The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair. illus. by Katherine Roy. McSweeney's McMullens. 23 Sept. 2014. p. 384.

When we last saw the three West siblings--Kit, M.K., and Zander--they had had quite an adventure: discovering a treasure hinted at by a secret map given to them by their father; letting a bully of a young explorer take credit for finding the treasure; safely securing another secret map hidden at the cache; and gaining entry to the Explorers Academy. You'd think life might be somewhat calm after such an experience, but not so for the Wests. The stakes of success at the Academy are ever higher now that the threat of war looms for the United States and its Allied Nations, and Kit is struggling to crack the secret map he and his siblings discovered in Arizona. Some sleuthing leads him to discover that this map points him to a place called King Triton's Lair, but figuring out the location is only a small part of this new quest. You see, all ships trying to pass through King Triton's Lair have sunk. And if you try to avoid this treacherous stretch of sea, you'll still have to contend with the pirates.

It's been about a year and a half since I read Taylor's first installment in this Expeditioners series, and I found myself quickly pulled back into the reimagined modern world that she's created. It's full of interesting Newly Discovered Lands, strange and wonderful creatures, and a whole host of places and animals to discover--a perfect setting for any explorer. The feelings of a surveillance state and the warmongering in the government have only grown, with some of the Wests' immigrant classmates detained for questioning after an assassination attempt on a high government official. The mood created by this backdrop for the main story makes this second novel in the series equal parts adventure and menace--in other words, a story that will pull you in just like the mysterious forces acting in King Triton's Lair. I also particularly appreciate the character development in this sequel, especially with regard to Kit; Taylor could easily have just relied on the characterizations she created in the first novel, but she really allows her characters to mature in their relationships and their perspectives. A lot more is happening in their world and quest than the Wests ever knew--and it's a treat to ride along with them.

I have a handful of readers who absolutely loved the first novel, The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon, and I cannot wait to hand them this second installment. I think there's high demand right now for great adventure and exploration titles like this, especially considering the popularity of such series as the Superstition Mountain books, which are great readalikes for this title. The Expeditioners is an excellent steampunk adventure series with tons of heart and appeal.

Review copy provided by the publisher.