The Library Adventure uses affiliate links, see our policies for more information.Many children’s librarians are crafty. They happily pull out the glitter and never bat an eyelash at the thought of allowing the kids to paint. Children come marching out of their story times carrying gorgeously decorated projects, and afterward, those librarians set right to […]

Old books make great DIY craft materials that can be highly personalized. Learn more about easy and fun book paper crafts.

I usually don’t get too excited about books that seem to have built in gimmicks, but I changed my mind when I recently discovered the del...

I saw another blogger make a fabulous Armour of God felt book activity, but unfortunately don't know what blog so can't post credit (sorry). A4 design, the soldier without his armour. I've created a couple of versions, all of which can be printed onto card, laminated and made into a great scripture related activity. It can also be printed on to transfer paper (if using a mirror image version of image. The pieces can also be matched to the correct shape/ word. A version were the pieces are all on one page. I am going to put these up on alljoinin.net but yet to do so. When I create this in felt I think I will make the man out of felt sewn so that the armour can be then gripped onto the man most effectively, I will keep you posted.

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to gussy up a blank canvas. In fact, I shared one last week in my easy DIY painted canvas post. When I saw this tutorial on Our

Inside: Nazca Lines craft for kids learning about Peruvian culture and history. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month, 2017! At the end of this post, find our Multicultural Kid Blogs HHM giveaway for some fun prizes. Today I’m sharing an exploratory Nazca lines craft. The project gives hands-on feel for these marvels of Peru, and how they were

Make a Shrinky Dink keychain with a "tie dye" look using Sharpies and rubbing alcohol! The colors blend and look so cool after shrinking!

Learn how to make a simple classroom tree using cardboard and tissue paper with this easy tutorial!

Aaaaargh ! My friend Jack is having his 5th birthday soon. And it's a piratey affair...so I thought it'd be fun to create a blank treasure ...

Looking for some relaxing and calming crafts for adults? Check out these 35 stress relief crafts to make when you're feeling anxious and stressed.

These free printable pretend play library cards, badges, and signs add fun environmental print to dramatic play for little kids.

At my school we call them learning buddies but you might know them as reading buddies or big buddies/little buddies. Whatever you call them, some times it’s hard to think of activities to do with them. I often found myself planning things on the fly so I decided to compile a list of activities that […]

A great Kindergarten library lesson plan using a literature connection with Mr. Wiggle's, learning about library etiquette, making a craft, and writing a library rule. Kindergarteners and teachers are sure to love this Kindergarten library lesson plan with the download.

I'm having the greatest time getting inspired & looking through my collection (& some borrowed from the library) of vintage kiddie crafty b...

Download SlideUpLift to create efficient presentations. Explore SlideUpLift's collection now!

Disney movies have some very deep lessons to teach kids. Zootopia lesson plans are perfect for teaching kids about bias vs. sterotypes.

Check out our ever growing Zine Library where you can print and distribute the zines in your community. Get everyone thinking about scienc...

Learn how to make, mail, and share a paper hug from your child!

Fun and free hidden picture worksheets for preschoolers to work on visual discriminationwhile strengthening fine motor skills! Animal I Spy!

Did you know that September 15th- ish is International Dot Day? It’s a day to celebrate creativity, imagination, and working together. It’s based on the book, The Dot, by Peter Reynold’s which is about a little girl Vashti who doubts her own ability in art and is uninspired. The teacher encourages and believes in the student even though the student doubts their own ability. The teacher encourages Vashti to just make a mark and sign it and so the story begins about a little girl who becomes inspired, more confident in herself, and helps others find their own creativity. Feel free to share how you celebrate Dot Day! Here's a fun song/video for you to watch with your kids: Check out this fabulous song here. Watch the author create a dot here and use it as a kick off to have children create their own dots. Visit Peter Reynold's Website here and check out some books, doodles, and digital drawings. You can also sign up at the Dot Club for some great ideas. Here's some dots that my kids created. Meanwhile, here are some creative dot day ideas I found... Click here for original source Check out Cassie Stephens's blog for beautiful dot day ideas and some fashion tips =) Original Source Start with a paper plate and see what happens... Original Source Original Source

Writing your name in binary code on a bracelet or necklace makes great STEM fun for kids! Plus more fun STEM learning activities for kids.

Learn how to make simple paper snowflakes (with printable templates). It's a fun, easy, and inexpensive way to decorate your home for Winter.

Life-Sized Clue was not my idea initially - I was given control of the project for the YAB group. I knew about it for almost two months, and let it sit idle for a month and a half. We all had other projects on our plates and no time to worry about an event that seemed to have already written itself. Then, two weeks before we were scheduled to run the event, I got bored. It's never safe when I get bored. One brainstorming session later, I had a paper full of ideas to bring to the next YAB meeting. They instantly took to the idea of transforming Clue from the usual suspects to literary characters, and it made them actually want to make costumes and personas for the event. After a few goes at a hearty, heated round-robin, we had our books, weapons, and the idea seemed to have transformed into something still easy, but unique. Then I got bored one more time, and the following is the full results. (Large image heavy. Also, it is a novel, I am sorry. This was an intensive project and I had a lot to say about it.) Week Prior Set Up We did not have many sign-ups for the event - which, I'll be honest, was fine by me. I know I should be well-adjusted to the library life after five months, but events still make me nervous, especially since most of our events have been not well attended beyond our YAB volunteers. They've been fun, but not stellar examples of attended library programs. I figured I needed to up the ante a bit and make some advertisements for the game. In doing so, I came up with a plotted back story for the game (we were gearing this to 8 and up, so I didn't want to make it a murder mystery). I meant to print up just the Miriam Quill letter to put in envelopes for those who had signed up and to hand out to kids to encourage further sign ups, but I got distracted by other set-up for the game. (And, yes, I messed up with the name in the second part... Oops. We decided Miranda was an evil twin, but that twist never came up.) So, my favorite things to include in an interactive event (edited from my usual favorite things because this was the first time I had planned an event for younger children) are: Make sure there is peril that the players can solve and something they truly care about (see above: saving a stranger is a great goal, but it wasn't the only one I wanted, so I put the books in danger as well - they want to read these stories again!) Give them a promise of something fun, besides the basic game (see above: interacting with characters is always fun - I might be biased as I do that for a living, but it's also the magic of places like Disney where meeting the characters is one of the greatest joys of the park) Include a summary of the information - mostly for the parents and for when children have read the information once, so they don't have to read it again. You always want a summary for a quick review So, now I had a brand new background for the game that was no longer simple, deceptively so or otherwise. The flyer also did something else - what flyers are meant to do. By the following morning, we had more than twice the number of sign-ups. I then began the week-long process of, in my off time, creating a deck of letter paper sized cards. We had decided on six books (five of them being series) to work with: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, X-Men (all right, all right, that's a comic book series, but I'm a huge fan and so were my teens and Marvel is still really big with the young folk), and Warm Bodies (I'm sure none of the younger sort knew the book, but I insisted we have something with zombies, because even the little kids like zombies). We had also decided on one weapon from each world: a wand, Sting, Medusa's head, bow and arrow, Gambit's charged cards, and a zombie limb, respectively. The YABers were told to create original characters, basing their character's names on the original naming system for Clue (thus including another word for a color or a shade of one of the colors). Three of them created new characters, and the others used characters from the books, which, in the end, I thought made for a nice compromise. I then decided on locations, with help for the Percy Jackson. I made eight initially, because I thought that was the number of rooms in a standard game of Clue, but I realized a few days before the game that there are nine, so I made a generic one based on our plot. The locations became, again respectively: Room of Requirement, Gryffindor Common Room, Rivendell, Poseidon's Cabin, Empire State Building, Training Facility, Danger Room, Airport, and Library Arcana, with the center room for accusations being the Library Storeroom. Here are some samples of the resulting cards: The middle is the card back I made when I realized the cards, even on card stock, could be seen through from the other side. I made fun little descriptions for each card - something for the kids to look at and be distracted by between turns. I had to make sure I had accounted for a lot of things to keep them preoccupied between what I rightfully believed would be long waits between turns. I also gave each character a reason for wanting to leave the book, giving each character equal motive for having destroyed the quill. Because every character used was a protagonist, I wanted to give them a good reason to have done something "wrong." The characters needed to be sympathetic even if they wound up being the guilty party. Is this something the children really picked up on? No, at least not consciously, I'm sure. The flip side of the coin was the fact that each motive gave my volunteers something to anchor their acting to. One of the number one rules of interactive theater is that the best characters to interact with have a very clear and easy-to-understand purpose, one goal that drives them on. Quite a few cards later, I had a full set of cards: six suspects, six weapons, nine rooms. I found a manila envelope, marked it CASE FILE, and proceeded to make my last documents for the game. I created a one-page summary of the rules for the kids to read before we started and to keep a hold of during the game. I made signage for each location so the rooms would be clearly marked. I then made a customized detective clue sheet for them, listing off our characters, weapons, and locations instead of the original ones. I used the text sheet from Karen Cookie Jar (http://karencookiejar.com/2012/04/clue-score-sheets/) and edited the text.  And, lo, I had the last of my documents! I hoped the YABers were working on their costumes and I raided my room and costume apartment for props for the weapons (though I couldn't find a toy Sting and could not bring in my (sharp) wallhanger Sting, so that was a plastic sword and two printed pictures of Sting...) I reached the point the day before the event where all I had left was to wait! For those who are uncertain of the exact mechanics of the game, I am including that sheet. It's a quick look at the rules - most of what it leaves out is strategy. Day-Of Set Up Besides needed a lot of paper to make the above crafts (which I printed, but could also be done freehand if needed), the other major component of this is masking tape. Lots and lots of masking tape. I am looking into making a tarp (or several tarps) that has the board drawn onto it to eliminate this step, if only because I've started thinking about bringing it to parties and such. But, for the one-time library event, masking tape is just fine. We had carpet squares. Some of the squares blended very well into one another, but we roughed it out and made a few squiggly, uneven lines and followed the squares as best we could. We made the outermost border of the board first. We had a grid of 17 by 25. We then took a Clue board to make a design our own board. I have lost my grid map that we made, but this is a basic sketch of what we did: So, lots of taping later, we had a board. A board I forgot to take photos of, oops. You can kind of see it in the background here: One or two squares of the border of the rooms got duct tape in a crazy color to indicate the door that could be passed through. I had forgotten about doorways until it was almost time to begin and had to return to the Adult Reference desk at that time, so I threw the board back at the teens and had them put the doors in (and I forgot to put them into the the rough draft above, so clearly... I forget about doors a lot. Oops.) The center room (the cellar in traditional games, Library Storeroom in ours) had a cloth back under the chair which had a golden feather in it. As you can see from the above photo, I put a chair into each room to which I then attached that room's name sign. In the future, if I continue to expand on this idea, I will probably make easy cardboard props to indicate the nature of the room (like a backdrop that I can attach to the chairs) to give the kids a bit more immersion. Toward the end of the two hours, we were using those chairs to sit. A lot. After setting down the board, putting in the chairs, and placing the props in random rooms, we were pretty much done with set-up. The kids put on their costumes and I put on my character vest, we all ate some pizza, and then the doors opened. Game Play When the children entered, they were numbered with the order they entered on our attendance sheet and given a sheet of the summarized rules. Parents were allowed to stay and watch and many decided to at least stick around until their children had begun play. They sat in chairs that lined the walls. Once we hit go time, we closed the doors and I went into a spiel I had forgotten to script about what was going on. I pretty much just rehashed what had been in the flyer, which many children had brought with them, and acted the part of the assistant to Librarian Miriam. We read down the list in the order children had shown up in and they were allowed to either play in groups or individually. Most opted to play in groups. We had too many children for a round, so we decided to limit the game to one hour and asked the other children to wait. They all opted to wait in the room, though they had the option of returning to the children's room. I pulled out one weapon, one suspect, and one location and slipped it into the confidential manila envelope. The teams then, again in the same order they arrived in, were given a clipboard and their cards, picked their playing pieces, which had already gone to their starting squares (another item I forgot to add to the above map - they were scattered one to each short side and two to each long side on the outside of the board). Red (Ron Weasley) went first. Diane bought a giant blow-up d6 (which, as a gamer, I am insanely jealous of and want one for one of my game nights). They kids had fun rolling it. I had slightly less fun dodging it when they got overzealous, but I did some Matrix moves that got me some applause. I went into game show announcer voice to narrate each move. I did a lot of things to try to make sure that the kids always had something to pay attention to. Each actor volunteer was told the same thing: stay in character and talk to the kids in character. Stratgize, help them understand the rules, and talk about the weather - in character. The token pieces, more than solving the mystery, more than me yammering on, kept the kids and their parents entertained. We had some character banter, we had some interesting stories unfurl, we had constant action even though turns were slow (Clue games in general have slow turns - it's at least twice as slow life-sized). Kids went around, threw the die, and decided whether or not to make a suggestion or try to get to a new room. The game was slow until suggestions began to fly, which is when lots of action and laughter happened. At one point, every suspect was called into the same room - and not the biggest room by any stretch of the imagination. The kids stuck with their suspect token and they all conspired. The kids being able to ask for help from the teens while at the same time being allowed to tell the teens what to do was a great dichotomy that kept the fun really going. My teens were all great sports about it, too. The first hour saw no one getting to the point where they knew the answer, though a few had narrowed it down considerably. We let them make final accusations, but no one got the answer right. On the second play-through, many teams got closer, and when it came time to make the final accusation, one team had it figured out just on that final turn (though they were stuck in a room and couldn't make it to the Storeroom to accuse properly). That was a fun ending, because I had a co-worker dressed as Miriam and she made an appearance at just the right time and the winning team got to hand back the golden quill to her. Okay, I just put this here because the wall of text was daunting even me. I have this and one other photo of our game, and then I will have what you were probably looking for - the summary I said everything in the world needs! The kids loved our zombie. Actually, the kids loved their token pieces a lot, no matter who they had. The kids actually really loved the event as a whole - as did their parents. Unlike any other event I have assisted with, not a single parent left the room to go utilize the library. They remained and watched and were also entertained - they laughed just as much as the kids. All counted, including my almost-dozen volunteers, we had 52 people attending in that room. And now, I have actually a couple of summaries for you, each one nicely coded. What to bear in mind for your own life-sized board game night: Keep the rules simple. Clue was luckily simple enough to just summarize. Many family night boards games are, but if it's something with a lot of nuances, like Monopoly (I'm sure it's been done), try to find simplified versions of the rules. Keep it interactive. Life-sized board games are a fun novelty, but in the tedium that is going through turns at about half the pace as they normally would take, simply doing the board game isn't going to be enough. Give them a reason to want it and a reason to stay that's beyond the ordinary. Interactivity doesn't need established characters (though it can help - kids gravitated fastest toward Ron Weasley, Aragorn, and Katniss because they were easily recognizable) - every token piece here was loved. Each character needs clear motivations and goals in their minds to be a lovable character. Get used to playing with masking tape. Give them a goal beyond simply winning the game. Something more always needs to be at stake. What worked: Interactive characters Game show narration Giant game pieces - the board, the human tokens, the life-sized weapons - it made the kids feel like they were in a place like Disney where the unreal comes to life One hour rounds - enough time for everyone to get in quite a few turns and feel like part of a game, but I think we brushed right up against the treshhold for their attention spans (though about half the kids played in both rounds) Humor. I can't stress this enough, but keeping a smile up and incorporating humor when possible is necessary - and this is coming from an actor who will always pick drama over comedy. What didn't work: Classic Clue number of variables - for a one hour game (and one hour is definitely the limit), having six suspects, six weapons, and nine locations is just impossible, especially given the younger age range. I would definitely limit it to six of each or to four of each of the former and six of each of the latter. I might play a few games of Clue to see what works best. Heels. This should have been a given, and my teens were smart enough to know better, but doing an event that requires walking around a room for two hours is not the best place for heels. Two one-hour rounds - I am glad we were able to let all of the kids play, but two straight hours is hard on everyone involved. I would run it again with an hour break in between if possible. Waiting until day-of to explain interactive acting; the teens had an inherent grasp on the concept, but I think things would have flown even better had I brought it up at our meeting before the day-of - but as it was, it still went very well. A better contingency plan for if we run out of time before finishing the game is definitely called for. And that, finally, concludes my Clue report. I don't think every report I do for an event will be this long. I can say for certain that any non-interactive events will definitely be a nice Sparknotes compared to this novella. The scope of various interactive events might include similar lengths, but we'll see. If you play a Clue game of your own at your library, I'd love to know the results! And I'm always available for questions, if you should have any! Just drop me a line at [email protected]. I'd love to spread the interactive love - I think it really gets people, at any age, into what they're doing.

Need help motivating your students to read and take Accelerated Reader tests? These rewards and reward cards do that! By using this rew...

This "Stuck" printable or digital interactive read-aloud lesson plan pack includes rigorous text dependent questions, differentiated graphic organizers, response to text writing activities, a craftivity, and detailed lesson plans. These "Stuck" activities will help you meet several core standards while maintaining your tradition of reading aloud for pleasure. You will guide students to use evidence from the text to deepen their understanding of the story and respond in meaningful ways. These lesson plans will guide you through 3-5 daily interactive reading lessons. Each day students will interact with the book for a different purpose and then complete a corresponding activity. To teach these lessons you will need: Stuck by Oliver Jeffers This lesson plan pack includes: Detailed Lesson Plan with Examples Text Dependent Questions Sequencing Events Story Map Graphic Organizers Defining Vocabulary Words Graphic Organizer Writing in Response to Text Page Craftivity Pattern and Instructions Graphic organizers pre-loaded to Google Slides and Seesaw ***Google slides graphic organizers have text boxes for students to type. ***Seesaw has many interactive tools to choose from. Text boxes are not pre-loaded on the graphic organizers because students may want to type or draw, which they can easily do with the provided tools in the program. Download our Scope and Sequence to see we have aligned each of our grade 1-2 read-aloud lessons with the CCSS standards. If you like this product, then you will LOVE all of our other interactive read-alouds. To see more of our Read-alouds for First Grade, click here. To see more of our Read-alouds for Second Grade, click here. You can also purchase A Year of Interactive Read-Aloud Activities, at a discount! Do you love reading aloud to your primary students? We do too! It is one of our favorite times of the day. Here’s what our buyers say: "Really enjoyed this lesson pack. I think you should make some more for me to buy!! :)" "A great set of lessons. Fun activities, and opportunities for literacy exploration." Visit our blog here to find out more about how to teach the Core one read-aloud at a time and to read more about our close reading day lesson plans. We would love to hear from you! Please remember to earn your free TpT credit by leaving feedback when you purchase! ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Follow us to get updates on our newest products! @thecorecoaches on Instagram The Core Coaches on Facebook The Core Coaches on Pinterest For helpful tips, hints, and classroom strategies check out our website! The Core Coaches Website

Check out Emma6855's artwork on Artsonia, the largest student art museum on the web. Don't forget to join the fan club and leave a comment on the website.

Here's the perfect do-it-yourself gift for any eager reader on your Christmas list!

Before I announce the winner of the 2 books I thought I would introduce 2 new art projects based on the work of Louise Bourgeois, a sculptor known for these huge "spiders". (titled Maman) For her they were a nod to her mother, who like a weaver held things together, "was deliberate, neat, clever, patient, indispensable and as useful as a spider" Incidentally these projects were inspired by the "Let's Make Some Great Art" book by Marion Deuchars which we are giving away today. My kids are quite intrigued by them and they kinda fit with Halloween. The first project is a painting / pastel resist. The second project is a papier mache model of "Maman". First Project:Paint/pastel resist MATERIALS REQUIRED: - wc paper - pencil and eraser - disk tempera or wc paint - paintbrush - oil pastels - eye dropper - fine sharpie - reference photos of Ms. Bourgeois's work PROCEDURE: Tape down your paper to your art board. Sketch in a horizon line and then start adding a city skyline. You want to get the buildings quite small to allow lots of room for your gigantic spider. With oil pastels go over the outlines of the buildings, add some windows and a few details. Paint in your sky. Paint in your buildings. We used a grey wash. The pastel will resist the paint. Then paint in the ground. Mix up some water into your black paint to get an inky consistency. using your eye dropper suck up that paint and place it where you want the body of your spider to be. Using a thin paintbrush pull the paint down to make a squiggly leg. You don't want it too perfect here. You can scrumble it a bit as you go. Scrumbling means twisting and turning that paintbrush as you are applying paint. Let dry and then you can add some details. My boys were insistent upon giving the spiders red eyes and having people reacting to these large spiders walking thru their city. Project 2: Papier Mache Spider MATERIALS REQUIRED: - small paper plate - wire - hockey, or masking tape - 1/2 of a white pipe cleaner - paper towels cut into strips - white glue, recycled container, water - paint PROCEDURE: Take your paper plate, turn upside down and poke 8 holes with a sharp pencil. Space them out around the edge. Cut 4 pieces of wire about 14 or 15 inches or so. Starting with 1 piece thread both ends into 2 of the holes. Turn the plate over and twist the 2 ends together. Then take your hockey or masking tape and wrap around the ends. This just keeps those sharp ends from poking anyone. Repeat this with the remaining 3 pieces. Take your 1/2 pipe cleaner and wind amongst the wires at the top forming the body of the spider. Put some wax or parchment paper down on your work space. An old plastic bag will also work. Mix up your glue and water into your recycled container in a one to one ratio. Using the paper strips, dip into glue mixture and start winding around the wire. It helps to start at the top and work your way down. It also helps immensely if you always wind in the same direction, (that way you don't untwist the last strip you just put on!) Cover the plate as well. Put in a warm dry spot to dry. Ours dried in about 24 hrs. Paint with tempera or acrylic. There you have it a large "Maman" coming your way. So on to the giveaway for: "My Even More Wonderful World of Fashion" by Nina Chakrabarti and "Let's Make Some Great Art" by Marion Deuchars. I had 126 entries,( comments, facebook, emails) whew!.... and the winner chosen by random drawing ......... ........was 57 in the comment section (not counting doubles) which works out to be Juise: who said "What fun looking books! Thanks for the chance. :) " Juise, if you could send me your shipping address at [email protected] I can arrange to get those books out to you (lucky duck)! Thanks everyone for entering and don't despair there will be another giveaway very soon. That's it for now, make sure you try a "Maman" spider. I am absolutely swamped getting ready for the Early Childhood Education Conference in Kananaskis next week. I'm presenting 2 workshops so hope to see you there. This is what my workspace is looking like these days! later

This fine motor mosaic craft for preschool is a great way to extend the experience of reading Leo Lionni's A Color of His Own.

Free paper airplane printables, plane crafts for kids and the best airplane books for those pint-size travelers!

Today I'm excited to have Corrina from From Mrs. Allen's Teaching Files here to share a really fun and exciting activity to use when talking about self control. Self control is such a hard

Teaching music with fun, tried & tested lessons, DIY classroom projects & ideas your students will love with Tracy King, the Bulletin Board Lady.

Learn how to make 20+ newspaper crafts, perfect for kids and adults! You're going to love these recycled ideas for decor, gifts, and more.

Do you have a little one who loves tools? This free printable tool book is a great preschool early reader and coloring book of tools!

Summer vacation is a break from classes, but it's also a great opportunity for your children to develop creativity, concentration, motor skills and self-confidence. Our free printable star template is so easy that even toddlers

An absolute fun Paper Toy to Color, Craft and Play with! Turn this Paper Toy Spring Kaleidocycle endlessly. Templates and tutorial available here!

Free printable I spy fall leaves game for kids. This fall-themed printable features 10 different leaves to find.

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