Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft

Tonight in Storytime I will be making coffee filter butterflies with the kids. 

What you need:

• Liquid water color
• Droppers
• Coffee filters
• Clothespins (wood or plastic)
• Pipe cleaners
• Wiggly eyes
• Glue
• Magnet strips or fish line
• Spray bottle with water
• Markers

 To color the coffee filters I used liquid watercolor and droppers.  The kids will have a selection of colors and use the droppers to place small spots of watercolor all over their coffee filter.  Once the are satisfied with the color they will mist the coffee filter with water in a spray bottle.  This will blend the colors and give it a tie-dyed look..  While the coffee filter is drying I will be doing The Very Hungry Caterpillar felt board story (see post here).  Once the filter is dry (or nearly dried) scrunch the center together and use a clothespin to keep it in place.  Fold a pipe cleaner in half and use the clothespin to hold in place with the wings. You can curl the pipe cleaner or bend it whichever way you like.  I added some wiggly eyes and the kids will have markers if they want to add anything to the clothespin.  A magnet strip can be easily added to the back or you can use clear fishing line to hang the butterflies.

Enjoy!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Felt Board

 I was going through some of my books and stumbled up this treasure.  I made photocopies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar story by Eric Carle and used them as stencils with the felt I had.  Now I have a great interactive story to use in Storytime next week!

I adapted some pictures to work better with the felt.  To enhance each shape I used perminent markers and layered the felt pieces.

There are many great felt board ideas out there.  Hope you enjoy this one!

Summer Reads for Teens

Here's a collection of YA novels that are great for the summer:

Perfect for the beach!

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

High Heat by Carl Deuker

Holes by Louis Sachar

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel

Rock On by Denise Vega

My Big Mouth: 10 Songs That Almost Got Me Killed by Peter Hannan

Chalkboard Paint Craft Ideas

I've posted about chalkboard paint before, but I wanted to share some of the things I have done with it.

For one of the Teen Art Clubs I pulled out some old pieces of cork that I saved years ago and cut them into 5"x 5" squares.  The teens painted the cork any way they wanted to and then stapled ribbon to the back of it.  This can be used at home or in a locker at school for friends to write messages on.  The one to the left in this picture is a $1.00 wooden picture frame from AC Moore.  It can be hung on a wall by a nail or it has a peg that allows the frame to stand on its own. For this the teens painted the inside of the frame (some chose to paint the outside as well. 

This is painted on the end of one of the shelves in the teen section.  I thought it would be a great place to post upcoming events and information for the teens.  I printed out a shape using Microsoft Publisher and had a Page trace it on the shelf in pencil and then paint the shape according to the instructions on the chalkboard paint bottle.  

There's so many crafts that can be done using chalkboard paint.  I've experiment with painting over old cds, but I have not decided what exactly I want to do with them.  I hope this post gets your creative juices flowing and you can come up with some great ideas to use with chalkboard paint. If you come up with something, please share!

Enjoy!

Teen Book Festival

We are 30 days away from the 8th Annual Teen Book Festival held at Nazareth College.  This is a chance for teens to come together and meet some of their favorite authors or new ones.  This is a FREE event for everyone!  It is geared towards teens and they get preference for seating during the author breakout sessions.  There is time to have books signed by authors and to meet other teens who love to read.  

Here is the link to the TBF website for more information and a list of authors who will be attending this year's festival:  Teen Book Festival

Spring Flower Magnet

For my Spring Evening Storytime I wanted a simple craft that could be used for Mother's Day. I decided to go with a foam magnet.  Recently I was able to purchase new Ellison dies for my die cut machine This 4" flower was one of them.  I cut several different colored pieces of foam and kept the centers to use on top.  My collection of craft supplies includes bags of cute little gems.  I decided to bling this craft up a bit with them.  

The kids will be able to select one large flower and two smaller ones.  They will then be able to select gems for their flowers and color with markers.  When the kids are all done they can add a magnetic strip to the back.  This craft can be used as a gift to their mother or grandmother or kept for themselves.  :-)

Enjoy!

Grimm Scavenger Hunt Part III

It's been awhile since I've been at the library and actually had time to sit at my desk.  I've been meaning to update about the scavenger hunt that I did at the last lock-in.  The kids loved it and had a lot of fun completing the scavenger hunt.

As a bonus for the hunt kids had to earn extra gold leaves (which are featured in the first post about the scavenger hunt).  They completed different tasks such as avoiding having tea with Grandma by reading her a picture book and making her fall asleep.  Another challenge was dueling with a delusional knight( we used pool noodles as the swords).  I'm sure their favorite stop was at the Candy Cafe where the evil witch had a candy bar and juice.  The teens had to be careful not to eat too much candy or the witch would gobble them up like she wanted to with Hansel and Gretel.

Another way to earn gold leaves was a short Grimm Quiz.  This was a multiple choice quiz about the original Grimm Tales.  For each correct answer the teams were given half a point (gold leaf).  It took me awhile to find some Grimm trivia online.  Here is what I compiled for the quiz:

1) What were the first names of the Grimm brothers?

a) Josef and Gunter

b) Sigmund and Frederick

c) Werner and Karl

d) Wilhelm and Jacob

2) The traditional folktale Briar Rose is also known as: _________.

a) Cinderella

b) Rapunzel

c) Sleeping Beauty

d) Snow White

3) Brothers Grimm fairy tales are known for their beautiful princesses and ugly witches. What percentage of the stories make reference to physical appearance?

a) less than 25 percent

b) 50 percent

c) 75 percent

d) more than 90 percent

4) In the original version of Cinderella, the main character received her lovely ball gown from __________.

a) a kindly neighbor

b) a magic tree

c) a magical mouse

d) her fairy godmother

5) In the original version of the tale, what did Rumplestiltskin do when the queen guessed his name, freeing her child from the dwarf's clutches?

a) He disappeared, never to be seen again.

b) He held his breath until he exploded.

c) He placed a curse on the queen's family.

d) He tore himself in half.

Answers:

d) Wilhelm and Jacob

c) Sleeping Beauty

d) more than 90 percent

b) a magic tree

d) He tore himself in half.

The Lives We Lost

This is the second installment in a trilogy Fallen World by Megan Crewe. The story picks up after a deadly disease has wiped out an entire Canadian island. It is up to a small group of teens to try and save the island and he whole country. They face many challenges along the way in addition to avoiding the deadly disease. This trilogy is fast paced and great for reluctant readers. There's a bit of romance intertwined in the story, but for the most part the reader will be sitting on the edge of their seat flipping pages as fast as they can.