Sturdy for Common Things

Halloween Cut Paper Pumpkins

Please take a minute to swing on by Library as Incubator Project today for my latest Pages to Projects post: Halloween Cut Paper Pumpkins!

Pages to Projects is a series I write for Library as Incubator Project about how to incorporate art education and art appreciation into library storytime. This most recent post focuses on how to teach kids the technique of cut paper art during the Halloween season by reading One Spooky Night by Kate Stone and creating cut paper pumpkins. It also provides the opportunity with sneaking in a few simple math concepts.

If you enjoy the Pages to Projects series, be sure to check out our Pages to Projects Pinterest board for more art-infused storytime ideas!

Feedback in the Library

Awhile back, I was sitting in a youth services staff meeting and we were talking about when was a good time to have a Saturday program. There was hesitance over hosting it in the afternoon because it was assumed it was a difficult time for families to bring their children. While the mini-debate ensued, I sat back wondering how we determine what is a good time vs. a bad time for caregivers and their children, especially since each patron’s individual schedule is very different from the next. Do we solely rely on past program experience to determine these specifics? Sometimes past experience can be dated because, lets face it, times change. But if we don’t ask our patrons when we should be available to them, how will we ever know?

That’s when I decided to start leaving out comment cards at programs.

The inaugural Read Across Lawrence for Kids event was a great opportunity to test drive comment cards for kids. It was the first time we implemented this type of expansive, month-long intensive program, and any feedback would be helpful for future planning. At the first Read Across Lawrence for Kids event last year, I left out our library’s event-specific comment cards which our adult services programming coordinator created a couple of years ago. They look like this:

Only one person filled one out, and it was an adult. I love hearing from caregivers, but I also wanted to hear from the kids. So, I created these:

Last year’s comment forms not only included information about dates and times that attendees (ages 8-13) were available, but also asked about what they liked about the event, how did they hear about the program, and this year’s forms also included if they have any suggestions for future library programs. The larger print and colorful emoticons gave the comment cards the kick in the pants they needed to be more kid-friendly. The results showed. I had scores of feedback forms turned in, and once the entire monthly program was over, I bound it in a binder and read each one. I made notes specific to the best times kids were available and how they heard about the program. When the time came to start working on this year’s program earlier this year, I pulled the binder of comment forms out out and consulted it regularly throughout the planning process.

This is what this year’s forms looked like:

I added the question: “Do you have ideas for events at the library? What are they?” in this year’s form and received a lot of really great ideas!

Paper feedback forms are easy because the’re available at the events attended. Ideally, I’d love to have a feedback form for kids on the library’s kids page so that kids can submit feedback and program ideas anytime. Feedback forms would be a great inclusion for storytime as well. The kid-friendly forms are less of a time commitment for parents to fill out when they have little ones they’re trying to keep track of. I’d like to incorporate some type of standard, one-for-all kid comment form in the future. I found the Read Across Lawrence for Kids comment forms to be extremely handy in implementing programming, and it gives the kids and their caregivers the power to provide input in the services we customize for them.

Do you have feedback forms in your library? How do you document or survey the needs of your patrons?

 

Review: Sophie’s Squash

Sophie’s Squash

by Pat Zietlow Miller and Anne Wilsdorf

Find it at: Your Library | Your Local Bookstore

Published: Schwartz & Wade, imprint of Random House Kids (August 6, 2013)

Recommended Reading Age: 3-7

In a nutshell: Tis the season of pumpkins, gourds, and delicious squash! While pumpkins remain to be in the spotlight during this time, especially with the anticipation of Halloween in a few weeks, butternut squash may take rise in their popularity all because of one little girl named Sophie who found a friend among one in this new picture book, Sophie’s Squash.

On a visit to the farmer’s market, Sophie and her parents purchase a butternut squash. While her parents expected to cook it for supper later that night, Sophie has something else entirely in mind. The squash quickly becomes Sophie’s friend. She draws a face on it, names it “Bernice”, and the two become inseparable. Her parents keep trying to convince Sophie that Bernice is in fact a squash and that they will have to cook her soon, but Sophie won’t hear of it. Bernice goes with Sophie to the library, on regular trips to the farmer’s market, and plays in the garden. Nearing the end of fall, Bernice starts to go bad, so Sophie seeks the council of the man at the farmer’s market who sold her Bernice in the first place. He, in turn, gives her advice that teaches Sophie that sometimes the best friendships just need a little room to grow.

I first saw this book reviewed by Travis from 100 Scope Notes back in September, and my first thought was “No freaking way. Pat Zietlow reads my blog!”

Well, I know that’s probably not the case, but the reason I thought that was because last winter Little L had a butternut squash friend named “Fwash the Squash”. I even wrote a short post about him HERE back in March. So, my instant reaction was that this story was about Fwash! Granted it takes months and years for a book to be published, but I thought it was pure serendipity that this book came about shortly after Fwash. While I was away in Seattle for library school orientation, I purchased Sophie’s Squash for Lorelei as a souvenir for when I returned home. We have been reading Sophie’s Squash as a part of our regular reading repertoire ever since. She loves it when my husband reads the story to her, because he exchanges Sophie’s name for Lorelei’s.

 

Sophie’s Squash has inspired my daughter to plant a few butternut squash seeds so we can grow our own Fwash family. A fun story with a very important lessons in friendship, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more Fwash’s and Bernice’s nestled in the arms of preschoolers around town.

Don’t take my word for it: “It’s the sort of story I can see just about any kid relating to, either because they are still like Sophie or because they can look back with a knowing smile. A nice addition to your fall read aloud collection.” – 100 Scope Notes

Extras: A few fun and free activities for Sophie’s Squash available from the Random House Kids website:

Make Your Own Fall Friend

How to Host a Sophie’s Squash Storytime

Source of book reviewed: Purchased at the University Book Store in Seattle, Washington. (Which has a wonderful children’s section if I do say so!)

RAL Kids Featured in Lawrence Kids Magazine

This year’s Read Across Lawrence for Kids program was featured in the Fall 2013 issue of Lawrence Kids Magazine. Article starts on page 48.

Thanks Lawrence Kids Magazine!

Read Across Lawrence for Kids 2013 Recap Part 2

I gave a recap of the first part of Read Across Lawrence for Kids (RAL Kids), a month long one book, one community program for young readers, HERE. Now for the second half of the month’s worth of exciting events including Jennifer Holm <squeek>!!

In the picture above you will see that RAL Kids had it’s very own ice cream flavor featured at our local downtown creamery, Sylas & Maddy’s. The flavor was a the most delicious key lime pie ice cream flavor you’ve ever had and was available the entire month of September.

Events were mostly based in partnerships between the library and the community, all themed around the featured book Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm. A few of the featured events included a Historic Downtown Lawrence Treasure Hunt that could be done anytime throughout the month, a STEM program on hurricanes with UKanTeach students from the University of Kansas, a babysitting clinic with Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and a free family movie at Liberty Hall. To celebrate the end of the RAL Kids month, three-time Newbery Honor winning author Jennifer Holm visited with the kids of Lawrence in a virtual author talk in the theater of the Lawrence Arts Center.

The event programming costs were minimal compared to the total programs held throughout the month (11 RAL Kids events)  due to community sponsorships and partnerships. We received several large food donations, businesses allowed us to use their venue space free of charge, and they donated their time and services for programs. One of the reasons I love living in Lawrence is the sense of community and compassion, especially when it comes to supporting the library and the young people of Lawrence. It’s a beautiful thing to witness and to be apart of.

And I was blown away by how awesome author Jennifer Holm is. She was so fun and pleasant to work with throughout the entire RAL Kids process and did an AMAZING  job at our final virtual author talk event. The picture above is her rocking the author talk while I look very pregnant. She talked a lot about what it’s like to be a writer, books and comics she liked to read as a kid, Turtle in Paradise, other books she has written, she answered audience questions, and we even got to meet her son! She also revealed that she’s currently working on a sequel to Turtle in Paradise titled Full of Beans. It was a great way to finish up the RAL Kids month.

As I did with the first part of the recap, here’s a Storify wrap up of the final weeks of programs for this year’s RAL Kids: