Interactive Movie: The Princess Bride

 

Photo from Middleton Public Library

If you're looking for a big dose of nostalgia, look no further than an interactive movie showing of an old classic. Earlier today our library hosted a family-friendly interactive showing of The Princess Bride. An interactive movie can be as elaborate as you'd like, and is a simple way to step up your regular library movie viewing experience. There were three keys to the success of our movie showing.

1. A fun and active script. Ours included things like "booing" anytime Prince Humperdinck was on screen, "oohing" at the kissing scenes, slapping your forehead anytime Vizzini says, "inconceivable," bowing anytime someone said "As you wish" and so much more. 

Photo from Middleton Public Library

2. Themed props. We did this in two ways. First was a table full of themed snacks. Gummy worms to represent shrieking eels, peanut butter cups for Princess Buttercup, ring pops and peanuts. We also gave out bags of props to be used during the movie. Ours included blow up swords, pixie sticks to act as iocane powder, slide whistles, glow sticks and more. 

3. A group of librarians and patrons who are not afraid to make a bit of a fool of themselves and who want to have a good time! Our group was a mix of people who loved the movie and those who had never seen it before, and everyone had an equally amazing time. 

We got a lot of our inspiration from this blog post from 2014. [The Princess Bride Backyard Movie Night. Purple Patch Parties. September 4, 2014.]  https://purplepatchparties.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-princess-bride-backyard-movie-night.html

Winter Fun - Hot Cocoa Day

Image by Jill Wellington 
from Pixabay

In a recent ALSC blog post, Michelle Muller of ALSC's School-Age Programs and Service Committee shared a fun program that they hold annually at their library on December 13 - National Hot Cocoa Day. It has so many great ideas, it seems like a program you can offer anytime in the winter.

Michelle writes: "Just like a cup of hot cocoa decked out with all the fixings, family programming at your library is a fantastic way to get delicious results. Celebrating National Hot Cocoa Day (December 13) can become a staple of the programming calendar. Depending on the size of your library and your community, it can range from a simple hot chocolate tasting program to a full party complete with a topping and mix-in station, games, music, free book giveaways and a family winter reading challenge."

To read all her great suggestions for - and pictures of  - activities, reading encouragement tips and fun treats, please stop here. [Celebrate National Hot Cocoa Day: A Recipe for Family Fun. Muller, Michelle. ALSC blog. November 30, 2024.]

Fun Fridays - El día de los niños/El día de los libros

Jamie Mercer is the Head of Youth Services at W.J. Niederkorn (Port Washington) Library and shares some extra fun with easy and/or FREE programming ideas/tips. 

Back with another Fun Friday! 

This year was the first year that our library had a program for El día de los niños/El día de los libros.  At first, I had a vision- grand plans for a system wide celebration with multiple programs at different locations, but of course, this takes time and a bigger budget.  So we started small.  And I am so glad that we took the first step. 

Since Día fell on a Sunday this year and our library is not open on a Sunday, I reached out to a local restaurant to see if we could set up a table and hand out complimentary books, program information, and possibly do some card registrations. I wanted to try to reach users that we may not usually see stop in the library.  I thought brunch at a restaurant would be quite busy with many people.  

The response was overwhelming. The restaurant was so excited, they actually donated one of their banquet rooms to us to use for the celebration. 

Inspired by this generosity, I started planning for a larger celebration.  I went on a hunt for donations to purchase bilingual books to giveaway.  I also started asking around if anyone knew of Spanish storytellers in the area. And I started looking for musicians.   

Well, we did not get donation money for books, not for lack of trying, but I did partner with Scholastic and took advantage of their Literacy Partnership Program to get deeply discounted bilingual books to distribute (this is a great resource if you also giveaway books for summer reading as well).  

In addition, we had a mother volunteer to help us create a bilingual storytime and read the Spanish for us.  We also found an awesome Flamenco studio from the Milwaukee area who did a short Flamenco workshop with the kids.  

For marketing we used social media, in-house, and had stores around the city put up flyers.  In total we had 30 people.  Not bad for our first celebration.   

We were also able to get our celebration listed on the Día registry. 

Overall, our program total ran under $200 and we still have supplies that can be used for summer reading and/or saved for next year. 

The support and participation from the community was phenomenal.  We can’t wait for next year’s celebration.  

Program Idea Bonanza!

Image by sumit kumar from Pixabay

Our in-box has been filling up with great program ideas for teens, kids and families over the last months. Here is a round-up of recent goodies to spark your creativity!

Program Webinars

This past fall, WI's own Katherine Schoofs, of the Aram Public Library did two hour-long webinars for the IFLS system that are chock full of practical advice and ideas to help you navigate your programming.

• Program Planning in a Pandemic recording is here 
• Passive and Drop-In Programs recording is here  

You can access additional archived continuing education webinars from IFLS here

Teens 

*Ever thought of doing a virtual Maker Faire with your teens. Dawn Abron, who blogs at Teen Services Depot shared a great how-to from her experience creating a virtual Maker Faire at Zion-Benton (IL) Public Library. Their team created "make-and-take" kits and provided teens with video instructions (that she shares in the blog). 

Virtual Maker Faire. Dawn Abron. Teen Services Depot. 1/1/22

*SLJ's Teen Librarian Toolbox blog featured not one but two great posts on the same day! Cindy Shutts, who writes the Teen Librarian Toolbox's "Cindy Crushes Programming" articles started out by sharing where she finds her great craft ideas that she uses with teens. When TLT guru Karen Jensen read the post she was inspired to create a "Part II" for the post where she also shared her ideas. Read all about it below:

Where Do I Get My Craft Ideas? Cindy Shutts. Teen Librarian Toolbox blog, School Library Journal. 2/16/22

Where Do You Get Your Craft Ideas, Part II. Karen Jensen. Teen Librarian Toolbox blog, School Library Journal. 2/16/22

Family Fun

On the ALSC blog, three youth services specialists at the Johnson County (KS) Library System shared their success in using Kahoot for both live and passive programming. This how-to for using Kahoot! and their experience during the pandemic will give you lots of ideas and you can see samples of their trivia programs too: 

True or False: Kahoot! is the Answer to Family Fun at Your Library. ALSC blog. 2/3/22

Creating Community Fun - Family Trivia Night

Here is another in our series of great programs created by WI libraries! In the newest October 2020 WVLS (Wisconsin Valley Library Service) newsletter, the clever folks at Rib Lake Library shared a fun and successful program that would be perfect to do as weather gets colder and we turn to providing virtual family fun.

"Seeing the need to connect with patrons, the Rib Lake Public Library has hosted three online Trivia Nights for families over the last several months. 

The library coordinates this program via BlueJeans, a video conferencing software made available to all WVLS member libraries via a statewide grant. 

Director Tammie Blomberg said the first Trivia Night they did was just for staff and family, so they could practice and do a trial run. This helped the library figure out what to change or fix for the next one. Tammie runs a PowerPoint presentation on the screen with questions and answers, and teams track their own score on an honor system.  Teams have one minute to answer each question. The prize for the initial programs was a book on Greek mythology. 

The latest Trivia Night had four teams, with the winning team scoring 51 points out of 66.  The families ranged from early elementary students to adults. One family had 2 teams with a brother and sister competing against each other.  The prize was an illustrated Harry Potter coffee table type book that was given to the library as a donation. Tammie said the feedback on Trivia Night has been positive. 

“I play instrumental music during the breaks while families are choosing their answers,” she said. “Krista, Rib Lake Public Library Children’s Librarian, watches the chat window in BlueJeans and fields questions. Families really like the local questions in the myths and legends version, so we may do more with that going forward. Some families choose to be on webcam, and others do not. For more information on Rib Lake’s Trivia Night, email director Tammie Blomberg  or  call 715-427-5769."

The Rib Lake Library shares with us the questions they used for myths and legends  in this powerpoint!

Creating Community Fun YSS blog COVID-19 series

• Mini-Golf Reader’s Cup  9/25/21
• Beep! Beep! Honk if you have Bingo!    9/1/21
• Letters to Guinea Pigs  8/18/21
• Stuffed Animal Fun for Everyone  7/13/21
• Pet Show and Tell  4/17/21
• Campfire Storywalk 3/10/21
• Outdoor Storytimes 1/17/20
• Family Trivia Night  10/7/20
• Flipgard, Fanfare and Friends: River Falls Celebrity Storytime  9/21/20
• Tie Dye Masks  8/24/20
• Summer Book Picnics  7/13/20
• Engaging Kids Outdoors  7/10/20
• Downtown Story Stroll    6/5/20
• Book nCover Double  6/8/20
• Going the Extra Mile 6/15/20 
• Summer Storyteller     6/16/20

DIY Family Activities for SLP from CSLP

On May 1, CSLP published an addition to their manual to help provide libraries with more options and tips in adapting SLP activities during a time of social distancing and limits on the size of groups gathering. The resource has over 100 pages of low-cost, no-cost DIY activities for all ages for libraries to distribute.

They write: "This resource includes ideas from our current and past manuals that have been adapted in order to be used straight from the pages or altered for your particular needs. It contains six weeks of content highlighting early literacy, children, teens, adults, and families. The materials are divided by age group and are designed to be distributed directly to patrons as printed packets or online in a way that works best for your library. All activities provided are intended for patrons to do at home and are little to no cost."  

To access this outstanding resource, go the the CSLP website and click on the orange "Summer 2020 Additional Resources in Response to COVID-19" tab at the top of the page.

For a more editable version CSLP members are encouraged to sign into their CSLP account and access content from the online manuals.


Once logged into the Online Manual

1.      Scroll down to the “Artwork and Program Files” section of the manual

2.      On the righthand sidebar locate the “Summer 2020 Reimagined” category

3.      Click on the checkbox to the immediate right of “Summer 2020 Reimagied” to bring up a list of all the files, or

4.      Click on the “+” icon to the right to bring up the age group categories.

SLP Programming YSS blog COVID-19 series:

• A Reimagined SLP During a Pandemic  9/30/20
• A Look Back at Summer 2020  9/10/20
• Fun Summer Library Activities During COVID-19  7/6/20
• Summer Scavenger Hunt Fun 5/30/20
• Virtual and Offline Programs for Summer and Beyond  5/6/20
• DIY Family Activities for SLP from CSLP 5/1/20
• Virtual Programming & SLP Ideas for YOU! 4/25/20

Putting on a Tea-Rex Party

What's better than a tea party? Why a Tea-Rex party complete with royalty and dinosaurs. I talked to Youth Services librarian Tricia Wehrenberg, Youth Services Librarian at the Winona (MN) Public Library (once youth librarian at Amery Library in IFLS) about the fun and this is what they did.

The seed for the program came from Tea REX, Molly Idle's 2013 book. Tricia and Marcia, her library associate, hatched the idea of doing a family evening program that would be attractive for girls and boys and many ages. I mean who doesn't like dinosaurs and royalty?

Kids were invited to wear royal or dinosaur costumes. Fliers, Facebook, telling storytime caregivers and awesome patron word-of-mouth were all that was needed. Kids from tots to early elementary-aged came to enjoy the fun with their families.

On the night of the program, Marcia was the princess host and Tricia was her silent t-Rex partner (the fan in in the costume to keep it inflated prevented talking). The princess began the soiree with a story, Crunch the Shy Dinosaur (Cirocco Dunlap, 2018). Next she knocked at a door and out came the T-Rex to "help," through mime, with the featured Tea Rex book., a hilarious take on tea party etiquette lessons for a dinosaur.

The rollicking fun continued with dinosaur stretches, and songs (I'm a Little Tea Pot) that had the families laughing as the T-rex attempted the actions with those oh-so-tiny T-rex arms. As Tricia said, "I did alot of dancing and tail shaking for sure!"

Activities included a paper hat-making station and dinosaur mask-making with accessories like mustaches and jewels for the royally-inclined. Lemonade was served in plastic cups (with handles to fancy them up) and mini-cupcakes completed the treats.

For more pictures of the party, head to Winona's Facebook page. If you want more info on the party, contact Tricia. Thanks for sharing!

Photos courtesy of Winona Public Library

Interactive Hocus Pocus!

Looking for a fun, easy program to celebrate the spooky season?

Why not try your hand at an interactive movie?  (Think Rocky Horror midnight show, but family-friendly.)

A few weeks ago, we held a Hex-a-Long: Interactive Hocus Pocus program at our library!

The program itself was relatively low-cost and low-maintenance.  The most labor-intensive part was deciding on the interactive elements and choosing my bewitching snacks!

I decided that we'd have spooky chocolate covered pretzels, popcorn, candy, and Witch's Brew Punch. (ginger ale + limeade + citrus sherbert = YUM)

I also found some super cute little inflatable brooms and sticky cats on Oriental Trading, so all the witches and warlocks in attendance could fly home with their very own souvenirs.

On the day of the program, I made sure each attendee had a cheat sheet to peek at during the movie and went over each of the prompts and their corresponding responses.  Additionally, I printed off the actions, taped them to the wall, and used my handy dandy pointer (and verbal cues!) to help instruct them along the way.

Once the movie began, the program basically ran itself!  Participants were encouraged to dance, sing, and quote along to their heart's content...  (I know I did!)

Needless to say, this program was such a blast and I definitely plan to repeat it in the coming years!  If anyone is interested in the cheat sheet, wall prompts, or official recipe for the Witch's Brew, send me an email and I'd be happy to share! aramkids @ aramlibrary.org

Happy fall, y'all!  

Guest Post: Plush Puppy Adoption Party!

This week's blog post and super rad program idea comes to you from
Tricia Cox, Children's Librarian at Waterford Public Library!

Guest Post: Plush Puppy Adoption Party

Author: Tricia Cox, Children's Librarian, Waterford Public Library

On Wednesday, July 31, Waterford Library hosted a Plush Puppy Adoption Party!

All summer long patrons had been asked to donate small, beanie-baby-sized stuffed dogs for us to use at the party. We also asked all participants to bring an item from Wisconsin Humane Society’s wish list to donate at the party. We delivered those items to the Milwaukee Campus later in August.

At the program, the first step for each participant was to choose a plush puppy to adopt forever. Puppies were displayed in a children’s plastic pool.

Next, participants chose a dog bed and a carrier for their new pet. Beds were made and donated by the Loose Ends Sewing Group.

All new dog owners were then invited to make an adoption certificate for their new dog and draw a picture of themselves with their new pet on the back.

Children then stayed to play with their new dog. There was a station where kids could make a collar and a leash for their new pet, a pretend play center with veterinarian’s kit, face painting, graham cracker Scooby Snacks, and a quiet corner for kids to read to their new dog. We had 97 people attend!

YSS Regional Meet-up: Program Swap

YSS survey respondents said that they wanted more ideas for programs they could use at their libraries large and small, rural and urban, and at minimal cost. Well, YSS Leadership listened. 

At the first regional meet-up of 2019 held at the Portage County Library in Stevens Point, WI on January 14, one of the professional development activities was a program swap. Programs had to cost $25 or less, but other than that there were no caveats. So here are the programs for kids, teens, and families that attendees shared. For more details, view the GoogleDoc version.

Ugly Sweater Party
Spy Games
Party Like a Jedi
Maker Monday After School Group: Solar Cookies (from NASA website)
Oh My Gourd! Improvised Jack-o-lanterns
Pictionary with Pudding
Chocolate Olympics
Graffiti Corner
Family Read Aloud Challenge (follow up to 1000 Books Program)
Perler Bead Program
Who’s Your Gnomie (Stuffed Sock Gnomes)
Weekly Dewey Challenge
 Cookie Clicker
Stroop Effect
Pageturners
Pine Cone Bird Feeder
Great Back Yard Bird Count
Collage Cityscapes
Vote for Book Purchases
Three Billy Goats Gruff - STEM Activity
Debate Club
Silent Library Program

 
Regional meet-ups are open to both members and non-members. They are an excellent way to gather new ideas; learn about best practices in libraries; see other spaces, collections, and displays; and grow your connections to other library staff serving youth in Wisconsin. The next meet-up is scheduled for
 the afternoon of February 22 at the Hales Corners and Muskego Public Libraries. Watch your email and this blog for a link to sign up.