Galimoto

EEK!!! As of today there are only two weeks left of my internship and this blog and my articles are horribly behind!!!

In other news, this week is "Build It!" and I think it has gone quite well. Basically, I give the kids a bunch of "stuff"-cardboard, cardboard tubes, straws, yarn, Cool Whip tubs, etc.- and glue and let them go to town. They really seem to enjoy it. Some have made abstract art while some have made crowns, masks, and one of my guys made a telescope. Everyone left happy which is all that matters to me. Would be nice if we could get them to help clean up though....

I actually didn't do the "Build It!" program today. Miss Laura went to the Monrovia branch for the program and I stayed at Main to help Jennifer with one of the teen programs. It was quite cool actually. The kids (we had four) brought in a t-shirt and place stencils, puzzle pieces, etc. on the shirt to form a desired pattern and Jennifer sprayed the shirts with a bleach mixture. The bleach faded the shirts except for where the objects were placed leaving some really cool designs. Two girls brought brown shirts but one shirt become purple when the bleach faded while the other turned orange. I rinsed the shirts out for the kids and bagged them so they could take them home. I even got to bleach my own shirt to keep!

Sigh...I'm really gonna miss seeing my kids and my coworkers....

Skippyjon Jones

Ok, so it's time perhaps reevaluate my programming. I can't just coast by anymore, I suppose. My big issue: how do you get the kids interested when they clearly aren't? I'm not going to force the poor things to do something they don't want to but I don't want them to be bored out of their minds either. I also need to watch my time. I forget that many of these parents are driving close to half an hour to bring their kids to programs so it needs to be well worth everyone's time.

Next week will be much better. It's "Build It!" where I'm gonna gives the kids tons of stuff (cardboard, aluminum foil, beads, paper, etc.) and they are going to build whatever they want! I've made a few things to give them some ideas but I think they'll come up with some awesome stuff on their own.

Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp

Wow, after two programs where no one showed up, I had 30 today for the Dance Party! Very entertaining. I think everyone had a good time but the craft took awhile to make. There were two options, a hat made from newspaper or a hula skirt from newspaper, and the skirt was a pain in the neck. They also didn't hold up very well.... Oh well, we had fun dancing to the "Lucy & Linus" theme from Charlie Brown!

Have spent a lot of time shelving over the past week. Not my favorite but not terrible...until it's time for the nonfiction. If you are ever looking for a form of cruel and unusual punishment, send them to shelf books in the children's nonfiction. Not only are you shelving but you're rearranging everything as well!

Boom Chicka Rock

This has been a fun week at the library! We've been making mice finger puppets as our craft during programming, then the kids have been "helping" me tell the story with their puppets. Today I got to help out with one of the teen programs and we did henna tattoos. That went over very well and we even tatooed some of the moms!

But the best part of the week has been the chicks. We've had chicken eggs in an incubator that we've been candling (holding over a light to see their development) and they were due to start hatching this past Monday. The first two busted out overnight and one hatched before our very eyes today. We have five more eggs waiting to hatch and we have six duck eggs due to hatch around July 15. The little ones are so cute and have been quite popular. Patrons have even been calling to see if they've hatched yet! I'll have pictures of them (and my crafts) in the next few days.

Article Alert!

*NOTE: Another of my internship requirements is to read articles and provide abstracts/comments in my blog. When you see an entry entitled "Article Alert!" it's going to feature an article abstract.

Smith, Vicki. Disappearing Children's Books (2006). School Library Journal. 1 June 2006. School Library Journal. 24 June 2009 .

• Vicki Smith's article discusses the lack of good fiction novels written for children ages 8-12. Smith also tries to get readers (specifically those who evaluate children's literature) to define what a children's book really is. The article discusses the fact that many recent releases seem more directed to the young adult audience or to young reader's with a higher reading or comprehension level. What are we to do to keep the attention of reader's who aren't quite part of this group?
• This is an issue I noticed while compiling lists of books for this age range for a couple of class assignments over the past few semesters. Many of the novels that claimed they were suitable for ages 8-10 didn't seem like they were and I could not for the life of me figure out how a novel could be suitable for ages 7-18. Children not only read at different levels but mature at different rates too, and the two things may not correspond at all. This is an issue I'll continue to think about and keep an eye on.
  

Olivia Forms a Band

First week of the internship went wonderfully! The remaining programs at the other branches went quite smoothly, save for one little boy who was a bit rowdy but mom was there to remove him. I was very impressed, and even a little surprised, at how many of the parents stayed for the programs and even helped out with crafts.

I've also helped out with checkouts and checking in books. I haven't done any shelving yet, other than materials I've just quickly looked over, but I'm going to ask about that this week. I've spent a lot of my time gathering materials for the next programs I'm leading and trying to sort out crafts to make. This week- finger puppets!

The Remarkable Farkle McBride

First two official days of internship complete, yay! I worked half a day yesterday and went to do the program at the Eminence branch of the library. I had two very nice boys who came and we read The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow and made egg shakers (maracas out of Easter eggs). Let's say that everyone had a great laugh when the popcorn kernals we used to fill the eggs exploded everywhere....

Today was a full day at the library, first at the Main branch then a trip out to the Brooklyn branch for programming. I spend part of this morning coming up with a new craft idea for next week's programming and I think I had a success! I'll post pictures of my grand craftiness in a few days.

Went out to the Brooklyn branch this afternoon, where I had 13 kids and three moms for the program. I switched it up and read Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer today (it seemed to be better suited for the age group that was there). Everyone was very excited about their egg shakers and the moms helped with gluing the eggs together and cleaning up. I was just thrilled that they stayed for the program, helping me out was just the icing on the cake.

Three more days this week, three more branches...how will things go?