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So when someone at the library says, "I'm typing up the calendars for the next two months; can you send me all the topics you're doing so I can put them on?" I think, "REALLY? But what if one of these topics is WRONG? I MIGHT NOT KNOW UNTIL TOO LATE!" (Note: I pick the topics. I do the programs. It's a totally internal miscommunication problem). So I look at my own calendar-- "I still need something for Library Explorers on March 10"-- then I, usually, look at the calendar at Brownielocks to see what obscure or at least slipped-my-mind holidays might be going on about then-- "Oh that's the first day back after the Spring Ahead time change"-- and then I see if that gives me any ideas-- "So something about changing the clocks, OH, TIME TRAVEL, that's a cool topic"-- and I type it in and send it off, and then a couple weeks before the program in question starts I finish prepping everything else that happens before then so I check the calendar to see what I'm working on next and say, "...what?"
So I posted a plea tothe HiveMind Twitter to help me brainstorm
And then I let that percolate. For another week or something. Still didn't know what I was doing, but I had VAGUE IMAGES in my head.
Then last Wednesday I see my coworker who had once done a "which of these inventions/concepts were used by the Ancient Romans?" quiz with teenagers (my program is for elementary students, but what) and ask if she still has it around. She does. I'm actually on my way home, but I put the page with my Stuff For Doing Next. I'll edit it down to make it more elementary friendly, and then...
...and then I'll come up with a simple page of questions/activities for a BUNCH of times and places! And I'll put it with a bunch of books about each placetime... no, time capsule, a BOX of books and activities and... STUFF.
This box from Viking Times is full of snow! ("Why is there foam in here?" said a literal-minded girl. "It's SNOW!" I said, "because there's lots of SNOW where the Vikings are!" "It's not snow, it's too big. And it's not cold. And..." "It didn't actually come from Viking Times, either, but we'll have fun with it anyway." "And it smells like bread, and look, it breaks...")
I spent all my Thursday evening shift gathering LOTS AND LOTS of books off the shelves-- fiction, nonfiction, whatever fit the theme of each box-- even though the school district happened to be having a huge festival there around me, which my son was also attending, so I kept running off to check on him between boxes ("Hey, Sam, how a--" "I'm good, you can go back to your work now!" "Oh, okay.") Then I spent all Friday, my long day at work, digging through all our storage rooms to gather ephemera. It was shocking how much thematic stuff I found just lying around in storage! Some things were stretches-- a velvet gown in the costumes now belongs to a wealthy Titanic passenger-- others-- a set of plastic covered wagons and cacti-- pure serendipity.
This dino won a laurel wreath!
I found a whole box of Chinese New Year junk, which would have been nice to know about when I did a Chinese New Year Program a month ago, but their presence now in the Ancient China box proved very popular.
And there was a chess set where all the pieces were made to look like Romans. I figured the kids could play with them like little figures, like the covered wagon set in the Old West box. Instead, they played chess. Oh, kids.
I wrote a few challenge questions for each box: "How would you design the Titanic so that it wouldn't sink?" "What do you need to survive in the Old West?" "What inventions came from Ancient China?" --so on. Then I made labels for the boxes that showed a map of the location and the approximate date.
This dinosaur kept the label from its box.
I gathered a few more bits of Stuff at home, and arrived yesterday at work half an hour before the program was to start. And I thought, "All I have is a pile of boxes. I NEED A TIME MACHINE." Contrary to Sophie's "going with the obvious" reply to my brainstorm tweet, I doubted this crew* would even recognize a TARDIS if it was made of a proper police box, let alone a blue plastic tablecloth from the storage room; but then I remembered that there's a new Mr. Peabody movie coming out. Shoot, if these kids were going to recognize any fake time machine, that might just be it! And, I admit, I have more geeky loyalty to Rocky and Bullwinkle than I do to Doctor Who. So I quickly printed up some signs and dials and was still taping them on when the guests arrived!
(Actually, the time machine I feel the MOST geekly loyalty for is the DeLorean, but there was no way I was going to pull off building one of THOSE in half an hour).
(And yes, I was well aware that time wouldn't have been an issue if I'd ACTUALLY built a time machine)
"Let's go in it!" say a few kids. "It's NOT REAL," says the literal-minded girl who scoffed at my Viking snow, "she just took the boxes from out of it." Actually the boxes weren't anywhere near the time machine in reality, but hey.
What can you take from this for your own programs?
1) Your storage rooms are AWESOME. Just dig around in there sometime.
2) My group runs young-- the program is for K-5, but I mostly get kindergarteners and first graders, with a couple 2nd and 3rds thrown in. This age group was REALLY into the STUFF in each box, mildly curious about the books, and ignored the activity page/question thing entirely. Doing it again for them, I'd focus more on the stuff I put in the box-- if I'd started gathering stuff, say, MORE than a week before, I could have found some really nice artifacts. I'd have also chosen less books for each box, ones that clearly blared their High Interest Level. I'd have skipped the activity questions.
3) But FOR an older group, I'd make those questions the focus. This could be a fun motivator for beginning a research project. I don't know if it would work in school what with crazy schedules and standards and junk, but maybe it will work for a homeschooling group, or a public library program if you KNOW you get kids 3rd grade and over who won't freak out if you give them a pencil and tell them to write something.
4) Never give up. It IS possible to make I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing look brilliant and well-planned. You work in a library after all. You can always find SOMETHING useful.
*(Half the moms didn't even recognize the songs on the Hits of the '60s CD I put in the 1960s box. WHAT?! It wasn't even one of my weird psychedelic things! It was THIS collection! Even the reviewer on that site calls the selections "predictable"!)
So I posted a plea to
And then I let that percolate. For another week or something. Still didn't know what I was doing, but I had VAGUE IMAGES in my head.
Then last Wednesday I see my coworker who had once done a "which of these inventions/concepts were used by the Ancient Romans?" quiz with teenagers (my program is for elementary students, but what) and ask if she still has it around. She does. I'm actually on my way home, but I put the page with my Stuff For Doing Next. I'll edit it down to make it more elementary friendly, and then...
...and then I'll come up with a simple page of questions/activities for a BUNCH of times and places! And I'll put it with a bunch of books about each placetime... no, time capsule, a BOX of books and activities and... STUFF.
This box from Viking Times is full of snow! ("Why is there foam in here?" said a literal-minded girl. "It's SNOW!" I said, "because there's lots of SNOW where the Vikings are!" "It's not snow, it's too big. And it's not cold. And..." "It didn't actually come from Viking Times, either, but we'll have fun with it anyway." "And it smells like bread, and look, it breaks...")
I spent all my Thursday evening shift gathering LOTS AND LOTS of books off the shelves-- fiction, nonfiction, whatever fit the theme of each box-- even though the school district happened to be having a huge festival there around me, which my son was also attending, so I kept running off to check on him between boxes ("Hey, Sam, how a--" "I'm good, you can go back to your work now!" "Oh, okay.") Then I spent all Friday, my long day at work, digging through all our storage rooms to gather ephemera. It was shocking how much thematic stuff I found just lying around in storage! Some things were stretches-- a velvet gown in the costumes now belongs to a wealthy Titanic passenger-- others-- a set of plastic covered wagons and cacti-- pure serendipity.
This dino won a laurel wreath!
I found a whole box of Chinese New Year junk, which would have been nice to know about when I did a Chinese New Year Program a month ago, but their presence now in the Ancient China box proved very popular.
And there was a chess set where all the pieces were made to look like Romans. I figured the kids could play with them like little figures, like the covered wagon set in the Old West box. Instead, they played chess. Oh, kids.
I wrote a few challenge questions for each box: "How would you design the Titanic so that it wouldn't sink?" "What do you need to survive in the Old West?" "What inventions came from Ancient China?" --so on. Then I made labels for the boxes that showed a map of the location and the approximate date.
This dinosaur kept the label from its box.
I gathered a few more bits of Stuff at home, and arrived yesterday at work half an hour before the program was to start. And I thought, "All I have is a pile of boxes. I NEED A TIME MACHINE." Contrary to Sophie's "going with the obvious" reply to my brainstorm tweet, I doubted this crew* would even recognize a TARDIS if it was made of a proper police box, let alone a blue plastic tablecloth from the storage room; but then I remembered that there's a new Mr. Peabody movie coming out. Shoot, if these kids were going to recognize any fake time machine, that might just be it! And, I admit, I have more geeky loyalty to Rocky and Bullwinkle than I do to Doctor Who. So I quickly printed up some signs and dials and was still taping them on when the guests arrived!
(Actually, the time machine I feel the MOST geekly loyalty for is the DeLorean, but there was no way I was going to pull off building one of THOSE in half an hour).
(And yes, I was well aware that time wouldn't have been an issue if I'd ACTUALLY built a time machine)
"Let's go in it!" say a few kids. "It's NOT REAL," says the literal-minded girl who scoffed at my Viking snow, "she just took the boxes from out of it." Actually the boxes weren't anywhere near the time machine in reality, but hey.
What can you take from this for your own programs?
1) Your storage rooms are AWESOME. Just dig around in there sometime.
2) My group runs young-- the program is for K-5, but I mostly get kindergarteners and first graders, with a couple 2nd and 3rds thrown in. This age group was REALLY into the STUFF in each box, mildly curious about the books, and ignored the activity page/question thing entirely. Doing it again for them, I'd focus more on the stuff I put in the box-- if I'd started gathering stuff, say, MORE than a week before, I could have found some really nice artifacts. I'd have also chosen less books for each box, ones that clearly blared their High Interest Level. I'd have skipped the activity questions.
3) But FOR an older group, I'd make those questions the focus. This could be a fun motivator for beginning a research project. I don't know if it would work in school what with crazy schedules and standards and junk, but maybe it will work for a homeschooling group, or a public library program if you KNOW you get kids 3rd grade and over who won't freak out if you give them a pencil and tell them to write something.
4) Never give up. It IS possible to make I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing look brilliant and well-planned. You work in a library after all. You can always find SOMETHING useful.
*(Half the moms didn't even recognize the songs on the Hits of the '60s CD I put in the 1960s box. WHAT?! It wasn't even one of my weird psychedelic things! It was THIS collection! Even the reviewer on that site calls the selections "predictable"!)
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Amazing!
Date: 2014-03-11 09:11 pm (UTC)From: