Lego Challenge Nights

We started Lego Challenge Nights this summer as a way to add an evening program to our packed summer calendar. Since the program is relatively self-directed, it's a fairly easy program to offer and it doesn't require a huge amount of advance prep, set-up, or instruction.

It's been a kind of surprise hit this summer, attracting way more people than our Lego Club had attracted in previous years. I think part of that has to do with how we're marketing it ("Lego Challenge" sounds more mature and more interesting than "Lego Club") and part of it has to do with setting it up out in our department instead of in a meeting room (more visibility = more kids joining in).

I handed this one off to my staff to plan and they have really done a great job with it. Ms. A came up with the weekly Lego Challenge topics. Our first week, we challenged them to build a robot and our second week we challenged them to build dinosaurs. Ms. T is the one actually running the program and she does a great job of building suspense for the challenge so that it feels  more like an actual PROGRAM and less like a self-directed activity. As families came in and started asking about it, she would let them know that the program started at 6pm and the week's challenge would be announced at that time.

She put up tables in the department and put out our Lego collection. Once she announced the challenge, kids and families went to town, building their creations. As kids finished up, they brought their creations to the desk to tell her about them. She took photos of them and talked to the kids about what they had come up with.

We do not offer any prizes or judging of the creations. That's not what this activity is about. We asked kids to challenge themselves to come up with an original creation, either working by themselves or with friends and family.

After the program, Ms. T created a poster with the photos she took and posted it in our room so that everyone could see some of the creations the kids came up with. Hopefully this will spark some interest for future weeks!

The Engineering Table

This summer, one of our self-directed programs is our Engineering Table. During the school year, we offer a craft table with a different self-directed craft each month. Over the summer, it's too cumbersome to refill supplies and keep a craft table stocked, so we have turned it into an activity table. This year, to go with our Summer Reading theme of Build a Better World, the table is all about engineering.

I put the Engineering Table up this week when our Summer Reading Club started and it has already been a big hit! I wasn't sure if kids would engage with the materials - they look so handmade - but they dive into it, making some really interesting creations. We've seen a lot of families engage in the table together, having some great conversations as they build together. That's exactly what we wanted!

I love providing self-directed activities because it means that no matter when a family stops by the library, there's something for them to do. We may not have a program for their age going on every single day this summer, but we always have some type of activity they can do. We mention the Engineering Table in our printed program calendar and I added it to our web calendar so that families who are looking will realize that there is always something for them to do at the library.

Each week, I'll change it out with some activities being more "handmade" and some being more polished (see our full schedule below).

I purchased several sets from Lakeshore Learning to use with the table. Some of these sets could be homemade if you're tight on funds. I was tight on time, so ordering the sets was easier for me.

Here's what I'm planning for each week:

Week 1: Building with craft sticks, clothespins, and binder clips (source: Frugal Fun 4 Boys).

Week 2: Fairy Tale Problem Solving Kit: The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Lakeshore Learning)

Week 3: Building with pool noodles and sponges (source: Handmade Kids Art)

Week 4: House Building Engineering Center (Lakeshore Learning)

Week 5: Letter Builder Set (this is similar - not sure if it's the same set we ordered several years ago) (Lakeshore Learning)

Week 6: Fairy Tale Problem Solving Kit: The Three Little Pigs (Lakeshore Learning)

Week 7: Building with cardboard boxes (source: 2014 Preschool Lab; we'll be using smaller boxes so that they'll fill on our table)

Week 8: Vehicle Building Engineering Center (Lakeshore Learning)

Week 9: Bridge Building Engineering Center (Lakeshore Learning)

Do you have any self-directed programming planned for this summer? I would love to hear about it in comments!

Fizz, Boom, Read: Raising Butterflies

One of the self-directed science activities we had in our Children's Room this summer was raising butterflies. I was a little nervous about it since I'd never done it before, but it turns out it was WAY EASIER than I thought it might be and it was so much fun for the kids. It's definitely worth it!

(Sadly, I have no pictures of our butterflies. I think I was convinced at every stage that they would all die and I would feel terrible. Next year, I will take pictures!!)

On recommendation from Storytime Katie, I ordered the Giant Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore. They are certainly not the only company to offer mail-order caterpillars, but our experience with them was very positive and I would order from them again.

I ordered the Giant Butterfly Garden, which comes with 10 caterpillars, because I was afraid that all the caterpillars might not survive or emerge as butterflies. I do not have a great track record with plants.

It turns out they are easy to keep alive!

The caterpillars arrive in plastic cups, five to a cup, with all the food they'll need already in there. The food is brown gunk at the bottom of the cup that I'm assuming is some kind of plant mash. When they arrived and we took them out of their packaging, they were very still and we thought a few of them were dead, but after a few hours they had all started moving around. They were all very much alive!

We put the cups on a table along with the plastic butterfly life cycle models that came with the kit and a couple of magnifying glasses. We also put out a "field journal" and encouraged kids to draw a picture or write down what the butterflies are doing.

The kids LOVED being able to pick up the cups and look closely at the caterpillars. I was afraid that they were being handled too roughly, but they are hardy little guys! The kids could see them crawling around and eating their food (one 5-year-old exclaimed with delight "They are MUNCHING and MUNCHING!").

When they are ready to make their cocoons, they will travel to the top of the cup and hang there. When they started to do this, we put the cups inside an empty fish tank on our desk so that the kids could no longer handle the cups. The caterpillars shouldn't be handled at this time.

Once they're all in the cocoons, we carefully moved them to the butterfly habitat (following the instructions provided). We kept the butterfly habitat in the fish tank (it stuck out the top) to discourage touching. We wanted the habitat to be close enough that kids could see, but we also wanted to keep our butterflies safe!

A couple of things I was glad Katie told me:

• When the caterpillars are making their cocoons, they will shake violently from side to side. This is okay!
• After they're in the cocoons, they will shake violently if they are scared. This is to scare off predators. It's also okay! Some of our chrysalises shook for several hours, but they were okay in the end.  
• When they emerge, a red liquid drips out. This is meconium and it's leftover liquid from the metamorphosis. It kind of looks like blood, but it's not blood, and it doesn't hurt the butterflies!

Our butterflies were in their cocoons about a week before they emerged. It was almost exactly 2 weeks from when we received the caterpillars to when they emerged as butterflies. We kept the butterflies in the habitat for four more days (they emerged on a Monday and we released them on a Friday). And guess what? They mated! About three days after they emerge, your butterflies will mate. They stand with their ends touching. The female will wait to lay eggs until she's found a suitable spot (i.e. a plant her babies can munch on), so you don't have to worry about having butterfly eggs everywhere. But it's just something to know since you may have little ones asking questions! If that makes you uncomfortable, it's best to release them a little earlier than we did.

While the butterflies were in the habitat, waiting to be released, I put tissues soaked in sugar water in the habitat for them to sip (as per the instructions).

Since I wasn't sure what the timeline would be, we had a rather impromptu release event. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and released the butterflies near some trees on our property. We advertised the event during the week when we knew it would be happening that Friday, and we took some photos to keep at the desk for anyone wondering where the butterflies had gone.

After we released the butterflies, I cleaned out their habitat. The red meconium came out when I scrubbed at it with a wet towel.

Now that we've gone through the process (and I didn't kill anything!), I think this is something we will do every year. It was really easy, pretty inexpensive (and now that we have the habitat, our only cost will be ordering additional caterpillars), and it was really interesting to the kids and parents. I have a better idea about the timeline, so we can plan a bigger release event (although keeping it small and simple was fine, too!).

Have you raised butterflies? What tips do you have?

Science Explorer Table at the ALSC Blog

Friends, I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about our Science Explorer Table that we've had out this summer. Click on through and give me some self-directed science activity ideas so we can keep this good thing going!