Karaoke

Karaoke is always fun! Here's how we plan our Karaoke programs with our teens. First, you do not need a karaoke machine! I've figured how to put on a fabulous karaoke program with things that my library already owns. 

Here's a list of what you need:


I use one of the laptops we have for patron check-out. The laptop has an HD outlet. 

I connect it to our projector which is in the meeting room where we do 90% of our programs. 

I also purchased a portable, Bluetooth speaker which came with a microphone. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IWZZPW8/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1466690256&sr=1&keywords=speaker


You don't need to buy Karaoke CDs either! Just search "karaoke [song title] and 75% of the time I've found a karaoke-friendly version of just about every song. Also, there's a youtube channel called Sing King Karaoke which can be found here. 


Hope this helped. If you have any tips or ideas please comment. 

***BONUS*** Here's a clip of one of my teens singing! She's very talented and it took a bit of coaxing to get her comfortable! 

Crochet Club: First Meeting

So I'm happy to announce that I've started a new club at the library! It all started innocently enough with me working on an infinity scarf for myself. One of my co-workers asked if I would teach her how to crochet and I agreed of course. This turned into a staff group project where I was going to then teach 4 other staff members how to crochet. The after school children can't be left out so when they saw us crocheting on break times and, of course, they wanted to learn to. Now our impromptu crochet club is 7 children and 5 adults strong and growing.  The library purchased 12 skeins of yarn and 12 needles. As a member of the club, you get 1 skein and 1 needle. Now the skein is more than enough to crochet a scarf. Some of students are very ambitious and want to crochet a blanket like the staff but they will have to purchase their additional yarn themselves. Below are pictures from our first meeting.

Ignore the snacks in the back. That's a different program that I"ll talk about later.

Also, ignore the fact that I've neglected this blog for like FOREVER. I'll talk about that later as well.

Me

Bulletin Board: Read Me, Maybe?

You can't see, but the word bubbles are listing call numbers for relationships, science, math, art, civil rights, gardening and baking. Then I have a pic of the entire Dewey Decimal. Nonfiction rocks!

CRAFT: Leather Look Journal

 

We make these at least once a year with the midlle school age group.

Materials needed for each crafter:

• A piece of cardstock
• One piece of construction paper
• Four-to-six sheets of photocopy/printer paper
• A roll of masking tape, any width
• White glue or a glue stick
• Black or brown tempera paint
• Paintbrush
• Stapler or corrugated cardboard, push pin, embroidery needle, black or brown embroidery floss
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Cover the sheet of cardstock with pieces of masking tape torn into different sizes. Keep the pieces small. Overlap some of the pieces of tape and angle some in different directions. If a piece of tape wrinkles, rub the wrinkle as flat as you can with your thumbnail.
2. Fold pieces of the tape around the edges to give the ends of the paper some strength. Don’t worry if this looks messy, you’ll glue construction paper on the inside cover later.
3. When the piece of cardstock is completely covered with tape, brush on brown or black tempera paint. Spread paint thin so that the texture of the tape is visible. Let the paint dry completely before handling. Remember to also paint the tape that is on the inside of the cover.
4. With the ruler and pencil, measure the construction paper so you have one piece of paper 7 ½” x 10”.Center the construction paper onto the inside cover and glue in place. Let the glue dry.
5. Fold the tape-covered cardstock in half, this is your cover. Fold four to six pieces of letter size paper in half.
6. To staple the journal together: Set the paper within the journal cover. If you have a swing-arm stapler, open the stapler. Open your journal so it is flat on a hard surface that won’t be damaged by staples. Place three staples along the fold binding the pages and the cover together.
7. Set the journal beneath a stack of heavy books for 30-to-60 minutes so the book doesn’t flap open.

Food Programs: Salad Bar

At my branch we have a series titled Teens Cook. We offer this monthly program as a way to teach teens how to make mostly healthy snacks on their owns. Usually these require very little effort and are made with ingredients that most families have readily available. We offered a salad bar program because it is healthy and to show teens the many different options that they have when including salad in their meals. The teens really enjoyed this program and were eager to try various combinations for their salads.

Title of Program: Teens Cook: Salad Bar
Number attending: 50 (we underestimated the amount of teens that would be interested and didn't purchase enough bowls. We were left with enough stuff for staff to have salad for 2 days plus still more extras so we could have easily served up to 75 students)
Estimated Cost Total: $105.00
Estimated Cost per Participant: $1.40

Supplies Purchased (all from Wal-Mart)

1 Bag of Spinach (10 oz) $2.15 ea
2 Bags of Romaine Lettuce (1 lb) $3.58 ea
3 Bags of Iceberg Lettuce (1 lb) $2.48 ea
2 Bags of Shredded Carrots $1.68 ea
1 Great Value (1 lb) Cheese Blend $7.98 - we had loads of this left over so you could probably go a cheaper route
4 Great Value Bacon Pieces $1.66 ea
3 Broccoli Vegetable Blends $2.18 ea
3 Cucumbers $2.04
3 Packages of Grape Tomatoes $2.48 ea
1 Small Tub of Pre-Diced Onions (found in produce section) $2.00 ea
1 Small Tub of Pre-Sliced Mushrooms (found in produce section)- $1.88 ea
1 Package of 50 Count Styrofoam Bowls $1.98 ea
1 Package of Small Foam Cups $.95 ea
1 Package of Napkins $3.48 ea
7 Bottles of Great Value Dressings (Ranch, Blue Cheese, Caesar, French, Italian, 100 Island) $1.66 ea
2 Cans of Black Olives $1.28 ea
3 Bags of Croutons (3 different flavors)
1 Bag of Sliced Almonds (found near croutons) $1.98 ea
1 Box of 100 Forks  2.68 ea
2 Boxes of Buttered Crackers $1.78 ea
3 Gallons of Punch $1.98 ea

Total Before Taxes = $98.15

 I was working the desk and trying to capture pics so the pictures above are from before the program even started and the pictures below are of those who helped out with the program eating towards the end.  

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Neat Library Pocket Craft

Our system has switched over to RFID so we no longer use our cards and pockets. I found this awesome craft on Pinterest!

http://www.acherryontop.com/articles/Library-Pocket-Mini-Album-Instructions-614

By the way - follow my library crafts board on pinterest here!

Thanks!

Teen Program: Logo Quiz

This isn't anything amazing, but I do a lot of programming for teens and sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get them excited (honestly, I think they are excited it's just not always 'cool' to show it)! I used this Logo Quiz this summer and gave out prizes for those with the most correct answers and it was a real hit. Teens tend to like competition and prizes and these logos are fairly popular so the teens actually have a shot of guessing some but complicated enough that it requires some thinking. So here ya go!

I have attached links for the the Google Docs: Quiz and Answers

Go ahead take a peak - I bet some of them will stump you!

I will make a better effort to update this blog regularly!

Latina Renee

Ice Cream Freeze Party

So Hannah Montana is really cool right now and I'm really feeling the Hannah Montana 3 Album. (I have 2 young children so I'm forced to listen to Radio Disney). Anywhoot - I'm planning an Ice Cream Freeze Party for September. I'll fill in the details as I get them ready but it will include:

Learn How to Do the Ice Cream Freeze Dance:


Make Ice Cream in a Freezer Bag:


Hannah Montana Trivia:


Ice Cream Craft: (tentatively a picture frame)

Money Management Workshop - Session II

For the second session of the workshop the teens learned about how to create a budget. Here's a basic budgeting worksheet but what I did was assign them a life with a salary and they had to get the newspaper and find an apartment, a car, decide on cable, etc. It was really fun and the group learned that being out on your own. comes with some serious discipline and responsibility.

Here's the basic worksheet which you can edit to fit your program's needs:

Budget Template

Money Management Workshop - Session I

For the first session we went of the basics of checking and savings accounts. It is always nice if you can have professional come in and speak but if your library/program is anything like mine, you may not have the funds to pay someone (although there are some banks/financial institustions that provide this for free). Attached you will find 2 great resources I found online. I especially like the check writing, and record keeping practice sheets. Also at the end of this session - I passed out the Spending Record sheets because they are needed for the next session.

Checking & Savings 101 (11 Pages):

Youth Share Draft Packet (21 Pages):

Spending Record Sheet:

Money Management Workshop Introduction

So - this summer I attempted a Money Management workshop for teens. It was fairly successful and well recieved but I'm in an urban area and our teens have to work. I know, all the more reason for them to learn how to manage their money. I am going to attempt this program again during the school year or maybe over spring break. I will start uploading my resources for each session.

Hello & Welcome

Well, I'm finally gong to do something with this website. I've been kind of "blah" about it because I really didn't get the name that best describes what it is that I 'm trying to accomplish here. I wanted to at first focus on teen programming because there is a huge void for material in that area. Then i thought "Why not urban library programming" be I work in a library that services a predominantly black patronage. But then I look around and I realize that programming is programming and no matter what ideas I throw out here, they can be used as is or adapted to fit your audience. after all, that's what GOOD programmers are all about. Very seldom are you going to find a ready made program that suits ALL of your needs. So I promise that from this day forward-I will start posting programming ideas (and other in demand info) to this here site! Please Please Please converse with me. Love Ya MWAH!