great crafts ... less funding

this is the last week before summer reading truly begins. we'll be having about 3-4 programs a day and it will be complete and utter chaos. in this calm before the storm we're getting everything ready, and i decided to make a Gock prototype. Gocks are goth sock puppets, and we will be making them with the teens. i've heard about gocks for years now and i've always wanted to make them. i'm pretty pleased with the way mine turned out, and it was quite cheap to do.

i was able to buy a couple of 6 packs of socks at the dollar store for about $4 each (which is a good deal since that's 12 sock puppets per pack. i bought socks in black and turquoise). then, i used several buttons to make the eyes (we have a whole load of buttons just lying around). i purposefully used different sizes to give it a "freaked out" kind of look. i used a shell for the nose (which we also just have lying around), then i glued on a couple of feathers for eye brows (feathers purchased from oriental trading). i made a mohawk out of funky yarn that was also purchased at the dollar store (for only $1 per skein!) then i made a choker necklace out of some trim i got for free from materials for the arts. i wanted to goth it up a bit more so i used safety pins to make an eyebrow piercing and a tongue piercing (tongue is made out of felt). all these items were attached using a glue gun, but they could be sewn on or glued with craft glue.

admit it, this is a pretty awesome gock. you know you're jealous.

busy as a bee

oh, i am so busy with my clever cleverness. how can you stand to be in the presence of such greatness?

summer reading is upon us and let me tell you that all too often the fun is sucked out of summer reading when you have to "perform" and get high "numbers." number schmumbers. i'm more interested in facts and actions than numbers.

but here is the loophole that i am enjoying ... the powers that be come up with a number that they feel each branch should hit. this number is based on the number of registrations the branch got last summer. now, we were closed last summer. miraculously, i was still able to get kids to sign up for the summer reading program. but since we were closed our numbers were very low. so i've been told that we have already surpassed our number requirement for this summer. and summer has barely started!

so no need for little old me to worry about such useless things as statistics. i am free to concentrate on important things, like actually creating a fun and enriching summer reading program. yay!

so here's what we have brewing:

All About Butterflies - as i mentioned before, the children and i will be raising caterpillars and then releasing them into the wilds of the hood when they become butterflies. today we had our first butterfly meeting in which we discussed the butterfly life cycle and talked about proper caterpillar care, ie do not shake your caterpillar. then we colored in pictures of caterpillars and butterflies and decorated them with glitter glue. glitter glue! so much neater than regular glitter!

Indoor Playground - this week i went to a really interesting meeting about the importance of play. it was fascinating. all about how kids are losing their imaginations and their ability to think and reason because they are being robbed of their playtime. so i came up with this idea to play outdoor games inside. we will make masking tape hopscotch boards, play soda bottle bowling, etc etc. i've ordered several books on school yard games and i'm sure i can think of one activity per week for this. oh i am so brilliant.

Book Buddies - now, i will not try to take credit for coming up with the idea of book buddies. but i have this one teen who is really great (he wrote the Welcome to the Library section of the newsletter) and when he saw that i had story times on the summer calendar he asked if he could read to the kids. and i said, "that would be awesome. but i do the storytimes." but i told him i would figure something out. then i quickly made up a book buddy flyer and decided that we will have older kids read to the younger kids as part of the Jr. Summer Reading Club (grades K-3). then i showed him the flyer and he got all excited that i took his idea seriously and implemented it so quickly.
damned i'm good.

money, money, money, money

i have just been approved for a summer reading mini-grant! yay! that means i get extra money to spend on crafty goodness as i see fit. what will be my first order of business? googley eyes! i am going to spend $180 on googley eyes! just kidding. but there shall be googley eyes. most def.

every summer new york state comes up with a theme for summer reading. i personally always hate the theme. here are some sample themes of yesteryear:

new york is read white and blue (post 9/11 theme)

get a clue @ your library

you never know @ your library

tune in @ your library (we heart the @ sign!)

i don't want to hate the theme. sometimes they're okay. but mostly i think i hate the theme because it is one of those things where only librarians understand it. for instance, the kids never seem to understand that the entire summer is revolving around a theme. they are oblivious to the theme. and us librarians work our butts off trying to relate everything to this one theme. and for what? i have found i've had more success ignoring the theme completely, and just trying to have really cool activities. but this year the theme is catch the reading bug, and although i do not typically like bugs i do have a fun idea for a theme-related program.

i am going to use some of my mini-grant money to buy a butterfly growing kit. yay! we will have caterpillars shipped to the library and the kids will feed them and try not to kill them and then watch as the caterpillars make coccoons and then the butterflies will hatch (do butterflies hatch?) and we will release said butterflies into the hood where they will instantly be killed by pollution. yesssssss! i am so excited. i think the kids will love it.