Book Blather

The 4-1-1:

When: September 19th, 5:30 – 7:00pm
Resources: Cut out and Keep: Book Hedgehogs
How many teens: 9 teens
Cost/Supplies: $15

• Buttons; $15, 2 packs of big buttons, 1 pack of small buttons.
• Paperback books; $0,  I  grabbed gently used discarded or donated books
• Scissors; $0, already had
• Paper clips, $0, already had

The run-down:

I feel silly writing this even up, because it’s so easy. If you’ve looked at the directions, it’s literally just folding each page in half and then turning the corners in. That’s all you have to do….100 or more times. It can be a bit tedious, but the socialized while they did it and they loved how cute they were. Many of my teens were able to make two or three before they left. A couple even asked to take the extra books with them to make some at home. I also had some teens get creative and gave their hedgies little accessories or even some color.

Take-away/lessons learned:

• 90 minutes for this program was way too long. This craft would have been better at the hour range. Most of the teens had finished their first one within 30 minutes or so.

• The size of the book does matter. If the book is too long you hedgie will be way too fat. I tried to keep all the books for the teens around 100 – 120 pages. Those seemed to make the best sized ones.

• Be sure to have the books vary in height. The shorter books make cute “baby” hedgies.

• If I ever do this one again, I’ll be sure to have some felt and other materials they can dress up their hedgie. Some of my teens took advantage of the extra book cover and markers that were hanging around, but it would have been interesting to see what they could have really come up with.

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The 4-1-1:

When: September 17th, 6:30 – 8:00pm
Resources: Sugar Scrub Recipes: Chocolate, Snickerdoodle, & Vanilla, Facial Mask Recipe, DIY Sleep Mask, Nail Art Ideas
How many teens: 10 teens
Cost/Supplies: $67

• Nail Polish/Art/Removal (22): $22; plenty left for future program
• Mirrors (4): $4
• Measuring cups (2): $2
• Jars (10): $0; already had
• Cinnamon: $1
• Honey: $1
• Brown Sugar: $1
• Vegetable Oil: $2.84
• Bowls: $2.42
• Sugar (2): $4
• Nutmeg: $3.86
• Cocoa: $1
• Batting/stuffing: $3.97
• Elastic (3): $3
• Fabric (2 yds): $10.97; plenty left for future craft
• Sew Kit: $4.97; will be used for future crafts

The run-down:

I divided the room into three tables: Sugar Scrubs/Face Masks, Nails, & Sleep Masks. The girls (and one boy!) decided to start off with sugar scrubs. I had the three different recipes printed out and let them decide which scent they preferred to do. They quickly learned that sugar scrubs aren’t an exact science and had fun creating new scents (like a chocolate vanilla). (30 mins)

At this point, the group started to break off a bit. The girls were interested in the facial, but didn’t want to do it because they had make-up up on. Same thing for the nails. Some of the girls were interested in trying some of the tutorials, but they had just had their nails done a couple of days ago. So, I had some who jumped over to the nail table while others continued to make another batch of sugar scrubs (the single recipe only fills about half a jar). The girls who went to nails were able to help each other and other than a few mistake were able to handle this without my help. (30 mins)

Towards the end of the night, most of the girls ended up at the sleep mask station. They had 5-6 different fabrics they could pick from. The kit I bought had plenty of needles, thread, and pins for all the girls to use. The tutorial I used was quite simple and merely consisted of cutting out the pattern, sewing it together, and then adding stuffing. I was slightly worried about them not being able to hand stitch, but only one girl had any problems. (30 mins)

Take-away/lessons learned:

• Sugar scrubs are quite forgiving. We used vegetable oil for all of ours instead of the grape seed oil, olive oil, etc. The oils are pretty exchangeable, so whichever you choose should be fine for all the recipes. Also, many of the teens has to add more oil as it was too dry for their tastes.

• Most of the girls opted not to use the stuffing for their sleep masks. Most of them wanted to put rice in instead. The rice can be heated up to be used as a heat mask, which they all preferred. (I’ve also heard you can throw them in the freezer for about 15 minutes and use them as a cold mask, however, I’ve never tried this out.)

• Don’t be afraid to let boys come. I think the one I had came as a joke/to flirt with the girls, but he didn’t really disrupt the program at all. (At least, no more than normal) He ended up loving the sugar scrub (exclaiming how soft it made it hands) and helped the girls with his nails. I will admit we tried to get him to paint his nails, but were unable to get him to really do it.

• While the nail station went fine, I think it may have been fun to pick one tutorial and have all the teens do it at once. If I decide to do this, I’ll make sure the teens don’t have their nails done the days before/come with clean nails.

• I’ve done a spa day in the past with Mary Kay, that just went way too fast. However, pairing these activities with what she offered may have been quite nice. If I do another one, I will probably reach out to a consultant to see if they would come in.

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The 4-1-1:

When: September 13th, 4:30 – 8:00pm
Resources: None
How many teens: 22 teens
Cost/Supplies: $0

• Empty Boxes (collected from Library)
• Nerf Guns (already had)

The run-down:

I put all the collected boxes into the middle of the room. After splitting the group into two, I let the team captains take turn picking which boxes we had. Since we had boxes of all sizes I felt like this would make the box division the most even. Once the teams and box had been divvied up, I gave them about 15 minutes to build their base.

After the bases were built, I went over all the rules. The rounds would last 10 minutes, if you were hit you were out (but I allowed them to go back in at the halfway point), and no headshots. I then allowed each team to pull out 10 chairs to use as cover and started the game.

I did change up the rules up a little as we played. For example, I set the timer for every 2 minutes, so they’re “dead” time was much shorter. We also switched up teams about halfway through and the teens started to get creative and created body armor out of boxes. I did have a couple of kids decide to go play board games with my co-worker towards the end (Dual program), but the majority stayed with the nerf guns the whole time.

Take-away/lessons learned:

• Overall, this one was quite successful. All the teens I’ve talked to had a blast & are already excited about next month (zombies). I even had a couple of teens who expressed surprise at how much fun they had (slightly insulting, but kind of the best compliment, too)

• The only real change I would make is to have them divide their teams into “roles”. I had one team who tried to camp the whole time behind their fort (I did outlaw this), but I could see keeping a “gunner” or a “weapon re-loader” back behind there while everyone else tackled the battlefield.

• The other thing I’m not sure how to fix is the “I got so – and – so and they’re won’t go out!” I tried to watch as much as possible, but with 20 teens all shooting guns at the same time it’s near impossible. I did start saying that if someone says they got you, then you’re out. With the time limit being every 2 minutes, most teens didn’t have to wait too long. I know it wasn’t the best solution, but it was the most workable at that moment. If I decide to do nerf gun wars this style again, this will be something I think harder about and try to come up with a solution.

The 4-1-1:

When: July 23rd, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Resources: Playlists on Spotify, Finish the Lyrics (created by me)
How many teens: 7 teens
Cost/Supplies: $0

• iPad (or something other device to play the music); already had

• Spotify plus account (so you can use the playlists); 30 day free trial

The run-down:

I wasn’t sure how many teens I would have show up to this one so I had several things planned, including music jeopardy, random questions, and the song lists. They teens had hoped to do all of it, but we only had time for the playlists and finish the lyrics trivia.

The program itself was very simple. I used an iPad with a Spotify app to play the playlists. I had the playlist divided into genres such as Disney, Musicals, Top 40, & Country. Since the teens couldn’t see my list, I merely started at 1 and went all the way down; each least had approx 30 songs on it. The first teen to call out the correct name of the song earned a point. If no one could get it within 30 seconds, no one would get a point.

For the lyric trivia, I would read off the first half of the lyric and they would have to finish it off. I made them wait until I finished the lyric before they stood up. The first person who stood up was allowed to speak first. If they got it wrong, I would allow the next person to give it a try. Since these were a bit harder, I gave out two points per correct answer.

Take-away/lessons learned:

• Instead of having the playlists separate, I should have pulled them all into one big list. That way it could have shuffled between the different genres. Some teens didn’t know certain genres, so they would sit and wait for the others to finish. The giant playlist would have helped lessen the wait time.

• This is more of a wish list item, but I would love to have buzzer. It would much easier to tell who answered first.

The 4-1-1:

When: July 19th, 4:00 – 8:00pm
Resources: Sonic Screwdrivers, Duct Tape Bowties, & Cut-out Masks
How many teens: 41 teens + 5 adults
Cost/Supplies: approx $115 (not including the games, which will be put into our game collection)

• Polymer Clay Sampler (2): $40
• Marbles: $ 7
• Doctor Who Yahtzee: $25
• Doctor Who Monopoly: $32
• Pens: $4
• Doctor Who door Prizes (5 buttons, 5 pairs of socks, 2 bracelets, & a talking Dalek keychain): $50
• Supplies to make sugar cookies: $15
• iPad: already had
• Pocket Photobooth: already had

The run-down:

I had the room divided into 6 tables; 1 for masks, 2 for sonic screwdrivers, 1 for bow ties, and 2 for games. I also had tardis photobooth set up w/an iPad that the teens could use throughout the program. The booth was built by one of my lovely co-workers out of pvc pipe and canvas.

As the teens arrived, we checked them in and gave them a ticket for door prizes later. I explained what they could all do and to grabs some goodies from the back. I let the teens decide where they wanted to start, although, I did encourage mingling as more and more teens arrived. I also set up the laptop & projector, to show some trailers and snippets.

About 90 minutes in, I ran a team Doctor Who jeopardy game. I had them split into teams of 5 and sit at the various tables. I didn’t force anyone to play, but we had 30 of the teens play. I would read out the question and the first person who stood up would be the one allowed to answer. If they answered wrong, I would let the next person answer as long as it wasn’t someone on the same team. I did tell them they had to wait for the entire question to be read before standing up. This just allowed me to catch who the first person actually was. If I saw them stand before I was finished they were disqualified/I wouldn’t call on them. I did give the winning team prizes; each of them got a pair of cool socks with Doctor Who designs.

Next, we had our costume contest/parade. I had put on our fliers that there would be prizes for best costume, but honestly I was afraid none of them would. However, I should know better than to doubt my Whovians! I would say I had at least 20-30 of them come in costume! I had them all pose for pictures and then I let my co-worker decide on the winner. She easily picked the Dalek costume that one of teens had made with their dad. It was completely made out of wood, had a voice changer, and could be rolled around. (Picture in the slideshow below.) While part of me feels like it was a *tiny* bit unfair that he won, it was also too awesome not to win! I really wish I could have given them all prizes. There were *so* many great costumes.

The rest of the event, I let the teens finish up their projects, play games, or just generally sit around and talk. Many of them by now had formed new friendships and were discussing their favorite Who-moments. My laptop had a glitch with sound, which meant showing more clips was out. However, I don’t think most of them even noticed. They were content to just talk or mess around. At the end of the night, I did door prizes and gave away the rest of the Doctor Who merchandise that I had bought. I let the teens head out after that since parents were already arriving to pick them up. (It was an after hours event so parents couldn’t get back into the building!) All in all, it was a great event!

Take-away/lessons learned:

• I probably should have made this event 2-3 hours instead of 4 hours. It was a bit of a stretch, but the teens thankfully still had fun.

• Should I do another costume contest, I will have prizes for first, second, and third place. I truly didn’t think so many would come in costume and wish I had planned better for it. Although, I’m not sure who would have won next because so many were amazing. (I won’t be posting the costume pics here since they’re minors. However, if you email me/talk to me privately I will show you some of them.)

• While I’m also talking about how amazing they are, were playing Jeopardy and in the middle of a question all my “doctors” jump out of their seat and start pointing their sonic screwdrivers at something. I’m like what the heck?! I look over and see our Dalek cosplayer coming in. (He was late because his costume was 40 lbs and could only be brought over in a truck flatbed!) It was incredibly cute and geeky and one of the main reasons I love working with teens.

• Next time, I will have a backup laptop! Or at least make sure all the Windows Updates are completed before the program. When I went to reboot it to get sound back, it decided it wanted to take almost an hour to do all the updates. Oy vey!

• I wish I would have started with ice breakers. You know the type where you ask who their favorite doctor, companion, etc is and they stand with people who think the same. It would have gotten them talking faster.

• Several of the teens who came called this a “huge success”. In fact, they want to do more Who things in the future. Once the new episodes start, I will most likely start a monthly Whovian club that meets for an hour. I would do one this fall, but I worry that they may run out of things to talk about. At least with new episodes, they’ll have plenty of content to ramble on and on about with each other.

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The 4-1-1:

When: July 15th & 16th, 5:00 – 7:00pm
Resources: DIY Quotes on Canvas
How many teens: 20 teens; 4 teens @ Main, 16 teens @ Branch
Cost/Supplies: aprox $15

• Vinyl Letters (2 packs): $12
• Painters Tape: $3
• Canvas: Donated by Madison Art Shop as a summer reading sponsor (I highly recommend them as they have amazing prices, products, and customer service.)
• Magazines: I just used old discards
• Paint/paint brushes; already had
• Glue; already had
• Scissors; already had

The run-down:

I basically ran this program the same at each location. On each table, I put a variety of the different supplies out. I told the teens they may have to go to other tables to get different magazines/colors. As the teens came in, I gave them a canvas and explained the process. I tried to tell them to focus more on colors then the image since they wouldn’t see the whole thing at the end. I also told them to be random as those would create the best collages.

The basic steps are easy:

• Cut out your magazine pieces
• Glue pieces onto canvas
• Create your design using the letters or painters tape
• Paint entire project
• Peel off lettering/painters tape.

Once they understood the process, I basically stayed out of the way. I would check on each table and offer help, but I let them design their art as they wished. I did give them tips such as make sure the edges are all laying flat and let the paint/glue dry a little more to ensure their project would be the best possible. We ran in a few glitches here and there, but overall it as quite a successful project

Take-away/lessons learned:

• Consider making this a two day project. We had problems with glue/paint in time for most. I thought two hours would be plenty, but they spent a lot of time picking the “perfect” magazine parts to tear out. I would say they easily spent an hour just on this part.

• Use Modge Podge. I know it’s expensive, I know. It’s the reason why I didn’t use it, but school glue doesn’t dry as fast as modge podge.

• Have fans! They help a little with the drying process. I only had a little one, but a bigger one would have sped the process up considerably.

• Expect teens to not listen/not follow directions. This was especially true with my boys as none of them let their projects dry long enough and then ruined them. I can’t even blame it on age as my high school juniors were just as bad as my 7th graders!

• Explore different choices of paint. I used tempera, but I noticed that it didn’t flake off in a couple of spots; both on my samples and the teens’ projects. I’m not sure of acrylic would be any better, but it would be worth a shot. Or use the spray paint like the original source used. I’m not sure I trust my teens with spray paint, but yours may be more responsible than mine.

• Use a plastic tablecloth. I’ve said this before and forget myself, but oh man, the amount of paint on the tables was ridiculous! And the magazine scraps. Pulling up a tablecloth and throwing it all away would have been a thousand times easier!

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The 4-1-1:

When: June 18th & 19th, 5:00 – 6:00pm
Resources: Slime recipe #1, Bouncy Ball recipe #1 (although this turned more into slime for me) & Bouncy Ball Recipe #2; PDF I used w/small modifications
How many teens: 16 teens + 2 adults; 12 teens @ Branch, 4 teens + 2 adults @ Main
Cost/Supplies: approx $50; I do have leftovers supplies of almost everything and could easily do this program again.

• Clear Glue; $15.98
• Liquid Starch (2); $17.19
• Borax; $4.99
• Corn Starch (2); $4
• Elmer’s Glue; already had
• Food Coloring; already had
• Bowls (2); $4
• Measuring Spoons (2); $3
• Spoons: $1
• Baby food jars/something to put the slime in

The run-down:

I did this one a bit differently from day one to day two, so I’ll try to cover them both.

Day 1:

I divided the room into 3 tables/stations, where each one was a different recipe. I put the materials into bowls and set them out with a stack of papers that had all the recipes/instructions on them. I was expecting 10 – 20 teens so I knew they would have to work mainly on their own with me bouncing from table to table.

As the teens came in I showed them examples of each project and let them go at it. Some were able to do work on their own without a problem, but the majority had trouble with the directions. Even though the instructions clearly said bowl 1 and bowl 2 they still had issues; most of them put the borax straight on the glue instead of mixing into water first, which meant they lost the whole project and had to start over.

In the end, everyone got to make at least 2 projects. The Slime #1 almost everyone walked away with, but the other recipes were a bit of a hit and miss.

Day 2:

Thanks to the chaos in day 1, I decided to do my set-up different. Since there were only 4 teens, I walked through the projects with them step by step. This way ran much smoother. I let them decide which recipes we did and in the hour we managed to do two of them. The Slime #1 probably only takes about 10 mins, but the bouncy balls take a good 15-30 mins due to how slow they harden/dry out. I did a lot of the measuring as well, which helped cut down on materials being wasted and being splattered all over. This one was definitely more laid back and the teens had a good time chatting back and forth and we made the slime and bouncy balls.

Take-away/lessons learned:

• My teens do much better when I’m walking them through the instructions step-by-step. While I love the flexibility that stations offer, I should have done both sessions where everyone followed along with me.

• The bouncy balls don’t really stay in the ball shape very well. When you set them down, they will start to flatten on a table. Having plastic easter eggs to put them in would have helped them hold their shape as they dried out/firmed up.

• To be honest, I didn’t like the recipes for the bouncy balls all that much. Had I tried them out much sooner, I would have changed to the bouncy ball recipes that use alcohol. Talking with a co-worker she had used a similar recipe in the past with good success.

• This program works so much better if you have a kitchen/available sink! It is doable without one, but everything runs smoother with one, especially when you factor in gooey hands that need to be washed!

• Also, plastic table cloths are a godsend for cleaning up.  I was able to scoop them up and throw everything away at once. It saved tons of time I would have spent scrubbing the tables clean.

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I’m going to do weekly/bi-weekly updates on on my Teen SRP is going. While I technically started May 1st, the programming and chaos didn’t start until June.

Week 5 (June 2nd – 8th)

Participant Total: 308
Programs (links to write-ups): Anime Club, Stop Motion Lab, & Mock the Movie
Summer Programming Total:  33

Week 6 (June 9th- 15th)

Participant Total: 382
Programs (links to write-ups): Level Up (canceled @ both locations), Improve (canceled), & Pirates vs. Ninjas
Summer Programming Total:  48

The 4-1-1:

When: June 14th, 5:00 – 6:00pm
Resources: None
How many teens: 12
Cost/Supplies: approx $2

• Water Balloons (2 packs/200 balloons) $2
• Bug Spray; our field is near a forest preserve so we get a lot of mosquitos
• Flags; I use 2 squares of brightly colored felt

The run-down:

I have to admit the prep time for this one was a bit time consuming  It took two volunteers and me around an hour to fill about 150 balloons. I was very lucky that we were able to get a rhythm down very fast as this could have taken us much longer. I had one teen turning on and off the hose and the other taking turns making the water balloons. I used a large trash can on wheels to hold them; I added water in the trash can as we went to help the balloons to not break.

The run-down for this can vary depending on what you want to play. We divided into Team Ninjas and Team Pirates and decided to do the water balloons first. I put the trash can in the middle of the two teams and let them go. While they were mainly attacking the other teams, this one is a bit a free for all. Sadly, it did not last as long as I had hoped. Mainly, because one of the teens not decided to pull the trash can into the grass causing it to tip over and the balloons to break. (5-10 mins)

Next we played captured the flag. We play the basic rules of hide the flag, find the flag, bring the flag to Andrea without being tagged to win. If they are tagged, I didn’t make them sit out the whole game. Instead, I told them to count to 30 and then go back in. I did have to tell a couple count slowly, but most did fine with this rule. We also played that if you had the flag and your tagged then you drop it there and doesn’t have to be taken back to the start point. Of course, no camping and no putting the flag where it would involve climbing trees. I had a couple of sneaky teens who would stand still behind trees until their enemies passed as a way to get deeper into territory. A great strategy that paid off for his team. (20 – 25 mins)

The last game we did was tag. The first round we played infectious tag aka when you’re tagged instead of being out you are also “it”. The game continues until all players are the taggers. Round two was good old normal tag. Once they were tagged they were out and either talked on the sidelines are got something to drink. (20 – 25 mins)

After tag, we really only had about 5 – 10 mins left so I let the teens hang out and just talk. By then they were getting tired and needed a nice sit and drinks. Several of them came over and we discussed Doctor Who and our thoughts on last season and our theories for the new Doctor. (I have TONS of Whovians so this is something we do often!) Parents started to arrive early so the timing working out quite nicely.

Take-away/lessons learned:

• Remind teens that they cannot move the trash can full of water balloons, even if it is on wheels. Honestly, I didn’t think I needed to say this, but losing 75+ water balloons taught me otherwise!

• While I liked having the trash can on wheels for ease of movement, it may have been nicer to have a bin of water balloons on each side. This would have cut down slightly on the chaos and may have made the balloons last longer.

• Move part if it indoors. Since I’m running this event after hours now, I could theoretically move the even inside for part of it. It would stop them from getting too hot and allow a wider range of games to be played since there are better barriers/hiding spots in the library.

• I really need to expand this beyond just tag, capture the flag, & water balloons. I thought the hour would help on the lulls we’d hit in the past, but we still had a good 10 -15 mins where no games was actually being played. I think next year I’ll explore other games that could be played with pool noodles and bean bags.

I forgot to take pictures this year, so these are from a couple years ago. I thought they gave a good idea of how our field is/the space we’re using. If I think about it, I’ll try to take a panoramic one later this week.