Tween Book Club Adventures: Lunch Lady Style

Last month, author Michael Fry visited our tween book club to discuss his novel Odd Squad: Bully Bait.  Kids and parents both enjoyed the experience.  For September’s tween book club pick I looked for a book that:

·        was related to the start of school year

·       reminded the kids about our wonderful author visit at the last book club meeting

·       was an easy read that tweens could get through painlessly while getting used to school/homework again

·        superheroes!

Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta is Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s third graphic novel in the popular Lunch Lady series. I highly recommend any of the Lunch Lady books.  In Author Visit Vendetta, a world famous writer with evil designs visits Hector, Terrence, and Dee’s school.   The lunch lady/superhero in disguise must get to the bottom of his sinister plans and save the school from attack bunnies.

The tween book club loved this month’s pick.  The tweens engaged in a extensive conversation about lunch lady’s super evil fighting gadgets such as spork phones, fishstick nunchucks and spatu-copters.  A few of the kids verbally designed their own elaborate kitchen utensil gadgets in super awesome detail.  The club also had a interesting discussion about what evil superpower they would give attack bunnies.

cyclops bunny

While we were talking and snacking on graham crackers, the club members made their own “attack bunnies”.  I borrowed this idea from DC Public Library's graphic novel club . Attack bunny shapes were cut out of felt using a peep template .  Craft supplies (sharpies, sequence, glitter, glue, etc.) were then set out on the tables and the kids went to town constructing their own diabolical attack peeps. 

We do have a young tween book club participant who does not like crafts.  For the kids who preferred an alternate activity, I set out Lunch Lady finish the story worksheets.

In the book, the lunch lady and students defeated the evil bunnies by throwing stinky socks at them. I devised a "stinky sock bomb game"  for the kids to play.   Evil bunnies were hand drawn on three sheets of construction paper.  Then they were cut out and attached  to three empty water bottles with superglue.  The kids took turn throwing rolled up socks (yes, they were clean and not "stinky") and knocking down the diabolical bunny bottles.



I ended the book club by passing out October’s book club pick.  We will be reading Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. I showed this book trailer to get the kids excited about reading it:

Library Iron Chef

I have seen Iron Chef teen program ideas floating around the web for a few months now.  I decided to borrow this idea and make an Iron Chef completion for the tweens at our library. You can't go wrong with food, kids, and library programs.  If you feed them... they will come.

Age Range: 8-12 (limit 20 tweens)
Time range: 1 1/2 hour
Supplies:
·         Plates
·         Aprons and Paper Chef Hats (from Oriental Trading)
·         Bowls
·         Plastic Silverware (lots!!!!)
·         Saltines
·         Graham Crackers
·         Whip Cream
·         Sprinkles
·         Chocolate/Strawberry Syrup
·         Grape Jelly
·         Sliced Cheese
·         Taco Shells
·         Ice Cream Cones
·         Bananas
·         Maraschino Cherries
·         Bread
·         Butter
·         Lunch meat
·         Marshmallows
·         Candy Pieces
·         Canned Fruit Cocktail

Room Set Up

5 tables for cooking station (for 5 teams of 4 children)

1 table for food station against wall

1 small table and chair for microwave station (with a volunteer/staff member to monitor)

White board to post rules

Some chairs against the wall for parents to sit

Approximate time table

2:00–2:15 --Check-in / distribute hats & aprons / review cookbooks on the table for meal ideas

2:15–2:25 -- Rules / ingredient unveiling / secret ingredient

2 25–2:35 -- Break into teams / make-up team names

2:35-3:05 -- Cooking time

3:05-3:15 -- Judging

3:15-3:30 -- Count votes / award prizes

The tweens choose their “team” by picking an empty seat at one on the tables. We then went over:

Iron Chef Competition Rules

No running 

One person per team at the food table at any one time

One person per team at the microwave at any one time

Only one microwavable bowl and plate may be used per team 

Each course must include the secret ingredient

Each team has to make an appetizer, entrée, and desert

Teams cannot vote for their own creations

If a spoon or fork goes into your mouth do not reuse it!!!!!!!

No finger licking or sampling until voting time

“Library Iron Chef’s –“GO!!!”

After I explained the rules, I unveiled the “secret’ ingredient.  Saltine Crackers!  A local business donated some of the food items including three of the biggest boxes of saltine crackers I have ever seen.  Our poor tween book club ate crackers for two months of meetings after this program.

The teams went to work planning and composing their dishes.  I asked a couple of parents to walk around the room and play sanitation police (SP).  There were several children who kept trying to double dip forks/spoons and lick fingers.  The SPs walked around and made sure children threw away used silverware and washed their hands. Make sure you buy LOTS of plastic silverware!!!

In just an hour, the tweens crafted their edible masterpieces with names like “Super Nova Marshmallow Melt”, “Gooey Cracker Ooze”, and “Rainbow Sprinkle Yum”.  

I originally planned to have staff members judge the tween’s dishes. Alas, there were no brave volunteers.  The tweens judged their own dishes instead.  I had each tween rate their competition’s dishes on a scale of 1-5. The team with the most points was the “winner”.  Everyone choose a book to take home from a collection of middle grade advanced reader copy titles.  The team with the most points got to choose their books first.   

Star Wars Reads Day

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

Admiral Sackbar Puppet Instructions

Rebel children leave their home base and
head to their neighborhood library. Wookies, Vaders,

Leias, Skywalkers & Storm Troopers descended

on the children’s department to uncover

awesome new Star Wars books and movies.

During this invasion, rebel spies steal
secret plans to make the ultimate in

Star Wars crafts… Origami Yoda,

Princess Labelmaker and

Chewbacca the Fortune Wookie.

Rebel children then race home aboard

their parents starships.  Armed with their new

Star Wars swag, they read and dream about 

Jedi’s defending the people and restoring 

freedom to the galaxy...

The third annual Star Wars Reads Day is October 11^th and our youth services staff is geeking out at the opportunity to share all of our library’s Star Wars literary awesomeness.  Lego Star Wars, Angry Birds Star Wars, Origami Star Wars, graphic novel Star Wars, board book Star Wars, etc… we have it all. For the third annual Star Wars Reads Day, I have decided to recycle an easy and relatively passive origami program.  Our youth services department is usually staffed a little sparse on Saturdays so we need a low key program idea. 

We ran a drop-in Star Wars origami program in the library gallery last year and it was a hit with staff, parents, and kids.  Tom Angleberger, author of the infamous Oragami Yoda books, has a playlist on the Abram Books’ YouTube site. These 5-10 minute videos feature Tom explaining how to construct all of his Star Wars origami characters.

The library’s large television was rolled into the gallery along with several crafting tables.  We hooked up a laptop to the TV and played the Origami Yoda playlist on repeat.  Plain white and colored printer paper was cut into fourths or halves (Tom will tell you what colors and sizes are needed in the videos). 

A free printable Fortune Wookie cootie catcher template can be found on the Origami Yoda website.   

This year, we are also giving away Star Wars swag (stickers, buttons, etc.) to children who visit the children’s reference desk with their favorite Star Wars book.  That’s it!  This is easy-peasy program that will please the mini Jedi's, Padwans, and Rebels. May the Force be with you this Star Wars Reads Day! What will your library/school be doing to celebrate?

LEGO Pictionary

Legos are the BIG thing this year.  Our library hosts monthly Lego free-build sessions after school that are always packed with excited builders.  This month, I decided to put a new spin on Lego programming: LEGO Pictionary!

Age Range: 8-12

Time range: About 45 minutes

Cost: Free (if your library has access to Legos)

Setup/Equipment: 5 tables with 4 seats per table; a whiteboard to keep score; folded paper squares with pictures/words; a bowl to put the papers in

The tweens choose their “team” by picking an empty seat at one on the tables. We then went over:

Da’ Rules

No running

No yelling

Only one builder per team/per turn

Everyone gets a turn to be the builder

The builder may not speak, spell, or pantomime the answer to guessers

The first team to guess what the builder is making out of Legos gets the point

To avoid arguments, I had the youngest in the group be the first builder.  I called the first builders up to the front of the room and had one child pick a folded square of paper out of a bowl.  The squares had pictures/words of the object the builder was to build:

The builders then ran back to the table and started on their assigned object.  Some of the objects were very easy and the kids guessed within two minutes.  I placed a limit of five minutes of building/guessing time.  

The kids had fun playing this game but it grew a bit complicated as late coming kids tried to jump in 15-20 minutes into the game. After 20 minutes, the game dissolved in Lego free play and the kids started making up their own rules/games.  Legos are such a popular and easy and flexible activity that never goes out of style. 

Mythbusters STEM Program

I <3 Mythbusters! Explosions, science, awesomeness…   So, I was uber thrilled to conduct a mythbusters program for tweens this summer. I actually borrowed (and then modified) this program idea from the Tween Scene.  The Tween Scene is an awesome resource for pre-planned tween programs that you can modify to meet your library’s needs. 

Age Range: 8-12

Time range: About 1 hour

Attendance: capped at 20 Mythbusters due to supply limitation

Cost: around $15-$20 in grocery supplies

Shopping List: cornstarch, glass bowls, large metal spoons, paper, lightweight books, tape, pencils, caffeine free cola, pop-rock candy

To start, I set up 5 tables with enough chairs to seat 4 kids per table.  The tweens choose their “team” by picking an empty seat at one on the tables. Next, I presented the tween teams with:

Da’ Rules - 

1. No running
2. No yelling 
3. Your team must agree on an answer – truth or myth – before conducting the experiment
4. You are not allowed to get help from parents or older sibling
5. Each team that guesses the right answer receives four raffle tickets (one for each tween) to the summer reading raffle prize drawing (water park tickets)

Myth #1: A substance can be both a liquid and solid at the same time

First, each team had to decide if this statement was truth or a myth. The team guesses were split down the middle. Half guessed this was a true statement and half guessed myth.  Next, each team received a bowl of Oobleck from our awesome teen volunteer.  The tweens "experimented” with the Oobeleck by squishing, bouncing, dripping, punching, etc… 

***WARNING***

This is VERY messy!  In retrospect, I should have saved this experiment for the end.  Luckily, I had disposable tablecloths covering all the tables.  I just rolled them up with the Oobleck and threw everything away after the kids were done experimenting.  FYI – Oobleck vacuums off carpet when it dries (thank goodness!).

Correct Answer?  Truth   
We showed the following Mythbusters video to explain the answer (while my brave volunteers and I cleaned up their colossal mess):

Myth #2: Paper can support a book

First, each team had to decided if this statement was truth or myth (only one team guessed myth).  Each team was then given one piece of paper, tape, and a stack of light weight books:

Correct answer? Truth – The teams could have folded paper accordion style or rolled it into a tube using the tape.  The youngest team completed the challenge very quickly.  I was impressed!  The participants then had a blast competing with each other to see whose structure could hold the most books (the record was 16). 


The teams watched the following YouTube video explaining the science behind their constructions:

Myth #3: Eating pop-rock candy and drinking coke will make your stomach explode

This was, by far, the favorite myth of the program!  Teams spent five minutes debating the truth of the myth while daring each other to try the combination first.  The following video explains the history behind this myth:

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/pop-rocks-minimyth.htm

The End

After sugaring the kids up….I passed out the SRP raffle tickets.  I directed the tween Mythbusters to a cart full of science experiment literature and book-talked a few of them.  This program was well worth the cleanup after.  I will defiantly be repeating this program again next year.  Possibly with a different set of myths?   

Here comes Babymouse!

BABYMOUSE: CUPCAKE TYCOON is the thirteenth graphic novel in the award winning BABYMOUSE series. The BABYMOUSE series chronicles Babymouse’s adventures in hilarious dialog and black, white, and pink illustrations. Who can resist BABYMOUSE's pinktastically creative antics?  Not me!  Neither can the kids.  These graphic novels fly off the library shelves as soon as they come in. 

In CUPCAKE TYCOON, Babymouse’s school library is having a cupcake selling fund-raiser thanks to the library sprinkler accident caused by her overactive imagination. Babymouse is determined to outsell all the other students and win the “special” prize.  

I read this book and had visions of  library cupcake decorating awesomeness.  Unfortunately, my co-workers envisioned colored icing stains and embedded carpet sprinkles.  I have conducted food tween programs in the public library meeting rooms before.  They were....messy (steam clean the carpet the next day messy).  Oh well. 

The publisher's website has downloadable BABYMOUSE comic fill-in worksheets so children can create their own BABYMOUSE graphic novel. I have used similar downloadable templates for a tween graphic novel book club.  This was very fun and the kids took templates home so they could  continue creating. Have any other tween librarian conducted any BABYMOUSE Awesome BABYMOUSE programming?  I would love to hear about it!

BABYMOUSE Book Trailer:

Holm, Jennifer & Matthew Holm. 2010. BABYMOUSE: CUPCAKE TYCOON. NY: Random House. ISBN 978-0375965739.

Tween Book Club Adventures

I have been running a very fun and popular Tween Book Club since March.  The tween book club meets once a month to discuss a book/graphic novel they read the month before.  This summer I decided to shake things up by having a Book 2 Movie club once a month in the afternoon.  It was a HUGE success! 

Due to time constraints, the tween book club not able to watch the movie. Instead, I picked two very popular book-to-movie choices for June and July and planned several activities around them. 

June - HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Cressida Cowell

The movie How to Train your Dragon 2 came out the day before the book club meeting. I convinced a generous local movie theater to give me four free  opening weekend tickets.  I then devised a book vs. movie trivia quiz to challenge the club’s dragon training knowledge while we noshed on pizza.  There were some hard core dragon fans in attendance.  This contest was very competitive and fun!

Next, I broke out the library’s two huge plastic tubs of donated Legos.  We sat in a circle on the floor while building Lego dragons.  The kids came up with their own creative dragon names and dragon training stories while we were building.

July – THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan

June’s book club was a little chaotic due to the high number of people in attendance (96!).  I decided to approach July’s book club a little differently.  I broke the book activities into stations and allowed the kids to rotate through at their own pace.  Each station generated many awesome book/movie discussions.

Station 1: Book vs. Movie Trivia- This one was easy!  There are so many differences between the book and the movie.  The Camp Half-Blood Wiki has a comprehensive list to draw from:   http://camphalfblood.wikia.com/wiki/Percy_Jackson_and_the_Olympians:_The_Lightning_Thief/Differences_from_the_book .

Station 2: Camp Half-Blood Archery – I set up the Wii on our large television.  The kids had a blast taking turns playing Wii Resort archery.

Station 3: Shield Making -  I borrowed this idea form the KC Edventures Blog:  http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/percy-jackson-movie-birthday-party .  To keep costs down, I purchased inexpensive cardboard cake rounds instead of pizza pans to make the shields. I placed various craft supplies such as markers, crayons, glitter, construction paper, etc. out on the table and let the kids go to town.   This was by far the most popular and creatively awesome station!

Station 4: Greek Mythology Go-Fish- A free printable game can be found here: http://bogglesworldesl.com/greekmyths_flashcards.htm

Station 5: Write Your Name in Greek -  The Percy Jackson Event Kit on Rick Riordan’s website has a English to Greek letter translation chart: http://www.rickriordan.com/Files/Documents/event_kit_riordan.doc. I tacked this chart up next to a white board and put out some whiteboard markers.  The kids all took turns translating their names into Greek.   Some of them even put their Greek name on their newly created shield.

The End-

I always try to save five to ten minutes at the end of the book club to book-talk and pass out the next book.  Do you run a Tween Book Club at your library?  I’d love to hear about your experiences!