Youth Services at Ozark Regional Library: July 2017

Summer Reading Carnival

Thanks to the YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, we were able to hold a carnival near the end of the Summer Reading Program. We didn't have big attendance because it was so hot outside, but we did have some awesome activities to do. The staff sure enjoyed it! Circus Kaput from St. Louis provided a caricaturist and a face painter/balloon artist. We also had sand art, magic scratcher ornaments, K'nex kits, Minute to Win It games, ring toss, and a bean bag toss. The door prize winner also got to throw a pie in my face!! I definitely think that was her favorite part! Check out the pictures below!

Popcorn and cotton candy!

Caricatures!

Unicorn!

Mrs. Michelle with her face paint snake tattoo

Isn't that the cutest balloon hat?

Face paint by Circus Kaput

Making sand art!

She won the hat as a prize!

Doesn't she look excited?!

Pie in the face!

Congratulations to our door prize winner!

Closing Party!

We wrapped up the Summer Reading Program with closing parties at each of the branches. The branches that had a Dino O’Dell performance the first week had a craft that the rest of the branches did at the opening party. It was an Earth Mobile and on the hearts they wrote or drew pictures of what they think “builds a better world.” The rest of the time was spent playing Minute to Win It games and playing with play-doh, magna tiles, legos, K’nex kits, and at Bourbon, a giant parachute. The branches with smaller attendance had face painting as well. All in all, it was a blast and I think everyone had fun.

Minute to Win It at Ironton

They had to move cotton balls using only their noses and shaving cream

Mummy Wrap in Ironton

Minute to Win It in Viburnum

Minute to Win it Games in Steelville

Minute to Win It games in Bourbon

Giant Parachute fun in Bourbon

Playing in Fredericktown

What makes the Earth a better place?

Egg Drop Challenge!

I think this may have been my favorite teen program of the summer and according to a lot of the kids, it was their favorite too. The teens were provided with materials and had to create a container that would protect an egg from being dropped at 3 ft, 6 ft, and 8 ft. Many of the teens were successful, but we also had a lot of broken eggs. It was so hot on some of the days that the teens thought the eggs might be able to actually cook on the ground!

Building structures at Ironton

Did it break?

Dropping from 9 feet

Can they protect the egg?

Getting creative at Annapolis

Success in Steelville

Egg Drop in Bourbon

Balloons were popular in Bourbon

A lot of success in Cuba with the Egg Drop

Make Your Own Film Festival!

Michelle Swane generously offered to put this program together for me since I was not able to with all of the other programming going on. The groups were given a theme that their video had to revolve around and they were given time to go out into the community and library to film, time to edit, and then it was time to view the films. The winning group was awarded a $25 gift certificate to itunes, courtesy of YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

Animal Architecture! (Wait, what's that?)

At our Ironton and Fredericktown locations, we had visitors from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Forestry Service talk about animals and animal habitats. At all of the branches, we read a book on habitats, played a game, and made our own birdhouses!

Learning about different types of bird houses

Learning about the food web

Making a food web in Fredericktown

Be a Hero!

This might have been my favorite week of them all! We had visitors from local fire and police departments come to the branches and talk to the kids about what they do and how to respond to safety situations. The activities included writing thank you letters to the police and fire departments, painting sun catchers of heroes, and making badges.