Category: Library Programs

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Impromptu Snowman Contest

Next time a good snow storm is predicted for your community, put out an impromptu snowman challenge. Have them submit their “best” snow creation photos to the library. 

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READsquared & Winter programs and more–workshop Monday, November 23 @ 11:30 am

You have been invited to a join.me meeting . Highlighting fall/winter and 1,000 books before Kindergarten programs
. Recommending how to transition from summer to future programs
. Reviewing available reports and some tips on setting up ad hoc reports
. Advanced Features Review Join the meeting: join.me/READsquaredTraining Monday, November 23, 2020 11:30 AM
Eastern Time (US & Canada)
In my time zone? To dial in by phone: United States – Los Angeles, CA
+1.213.226.1066 More phone numbers Conference ID:
518-509-521 # Need to share screen?  Download the app

Do not reply to this email. Your reply will not be seen by humans.
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Virtual Field Trips

I need a vacation. I need to go SOMEWHERE. Yes–most of us are at this point. Classroom teachers are not the only ones using virtual field trips as fun teaching aids.

Melanee Stinnett-Voss a member of Bitmoji Craze for Educators recently shared her virtual field trips in Bitmoji style HERE.

During a recent workshop for educators to improve their virtual program offerings, we went on a field trip to Mount Vernon. Our instructor first gave us a brief overview of how to move around the virtual museum. We were instructed to take a piece of paper and divide it up in four parts and label them Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. See a like document HERE

We were then given time to explore the museum on our own, noting where we found examples of science, technology, engineering and math on our sheet. After the free time, we were brought back as a group and then split up into a team or small group to talk about what we learned and found most interesting. We entered our top finds on a group Google Jamboard. Then we grouped back together for a short recap.

Museums

Tour collections and learn about the history of art and artifacts with these online museum experiences.

  • American Museum of Natural History: Brian Selznick, author of Wonderstruck, leads a virtual tour of the museum, meeting field experts along the way.
  • British Museum: This cool, interactive site lets kids browse the museum collection by time period, not by room, so kids can focus in on the era they’re most interested in.
  • Colonial Williamsburg: Eight different webcams let viewers peek in on what’s happening at places like Merchants’ Square or Raleigh Tavern.
  • Historic Hudson Valley: This site offers many history-themed online experiences for kids, from “Traders and Raiders,” which looks at the history of pirates in the greater New York Area, to “People Not Property,” which teaches kids about slavery. There are also lots of ideas for at-home historical activities, like cooking with cornmeal or “tinsmithing” at home with aluminum foil.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art: The #MetKids site is geared for little ones, and lets them explore a cute, illustrated map to find treasures in the museum’s collection.
  • Musée du Louvre: The world-famous museum offers virtual tours by subject, from the body in art to Egyptian antiquities.
  • Museum of Science: The #MOSatHome page offers virtual looks at the Boston museum’s exhibits and hosts daily livestreams and webinars.
  • National Baseball Hall of Fame: Browse through the collection of photographs, memorabilia and more to learn more about America’s national pastime. The museum also offers virtual programming on its YouTube page.
  • National Constitution Center: Explore exhibitions about constitutional conflicts through the years, including “Hamilton: The Constitutional Clashes That Shaped a Nation.” For a fee groups can also participate in live, virtual guided tours for up to 300 people.
  • National Gallery of Art: The National Gallery has 50 video tours specifically geared towards kids, focusing on a work and the people, places, and scenes surrounding its creation.
  • National Museum of Computing: Located in Bletchley Park in the U.K., home of the famous WWII codebreakers like Alan Turing, this museum offers a virtual tour that takes visitors through the history of computers.
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: You can bookmark this one to visit over and over, since it offers virtual version of every exhibition in the museum.
  • The Vatican Museum: You can get 360 looks at nine rooms in the Vatican — including the magnificent Sistine Chapel.

Farms

See how food grows, is harvested, and gets to your table with these farm tours.

  • American Egg Board: The Egg Board has virtual tours of different egg farms, and many of them let you choose different videos for kindergarten/elementary and middle school students.
  • Bonnie Plants: Home Depot takes kids on a multi-part virtual field trip to this grower, hoping to inspire kids to get into gardening themselves.
  • Bright Farms: A farm grower in Irvington, NY shows kids how food goes from the field (in this case, an indoor grower) to the grocery store. There’s even a quiz at the end!
  • Farm Food 360: Kids can see 11 different sorts of farm and food plants, including dairy cow farms, egg processing facilities and an apple orchard.

Landmarks

You might not be able to go on your sightseeing vacation at the moment, but these virtual landmark tours are the next best thing.

Zoos and Aquariums

These zoos and aquariums have live cams where kid can check in with the animals.

Even More Fun

From a candy factory to the surface of Mars, these tours take kids to places that aren’t available to them even in normal times.

  • Boston Children’s Museum: “Walk” through all three floors of the Boston Children’s Museum on this virtual tour. Direct your kids to fun exhibits like Explore-a-Saurus and the Japanese House.
  • Discovery Education: The site hosts virtual field trips for kids, from engineering plants that make the cars of the future to a lab that researches nuclear energy.
  • Great Lakes : This virtual field trip from Great Lakes Now has three components: coastal wetlands, algae, and lake sturgeon. Each video is a quick five minutes.
  • Johnson Space Center: Boeing leads the tour through the Houston, Texas facility, covering the history — and future — of aerospace innovation.
  • M&Ms Factory Tour: The Food Network hosts a virtual tour of the M&Ms factory and shows how the delicious candy gets made.
  • Nature Lab: The Nature Conservancy offers 11 virtual field trips that allow students to do everything from exploring a coastal rainforest while in a canoe to unlocking the secrets of coral reefs in the Dominican Republic. Each video is about 45 minutes long.
  • Outer Space Tours: Kids can see the real surface of Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity rover. NASA also does virtual tours of the Moon, along with the International Space Station.
  • Recycling Simplified: Take kids on a tour of a modern-day recycling center or landfill, and teach them about environmental sustainability.
  • Slime in Space: Nickelodeon teamed up with two astronauts on the International Space Station to demonstrate how slime reacts to microgravity and had kids reproduce those same demonstrations back here on Earth. It makes for an amazing 15-minute virtual field trip. Pre and Post activities available.
  • Sơn Đoòng: National Geographic offers a 360-degree tour of the world’s largest ave, situated in Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. You can even hear the water as it runs over the rocks.
  • Stellarium Web: kids can explore over 60,000 stars, locate planets, and watch sunrises and solar eclipses. If you enter your location, you can see all the constellations that are visible in the night sky in your corner of the world.

Tour suggestions from Good Housekeeping, Weareteachers.com,

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Niche Academy Webinars

Did you know that Niche Academy has webinars? You may be interested in:

GovInfo Phobia: How to Get Over That “Deer in the Headlights” Feeling with Christopher Brown

Library Leadership Your Way with Jason MartinNext: Fostering Engagement and Building Information Literacy Competencies for Students and Patrons of Various Cultures with Drs. Judy Henning and Sherry Crow on Wednesday November 18th at 2 pm Eastern time,11 am Pacific Time

 Libraries Supporting Online Learning: New Strategies and Best Practices in Response to COVID-19 with Christine Mune on Wednesday December 2nd at 2 pm Eastern Time, 11 am Pacific Time

All of their previous webinars are archived on HERE

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Celebrating November

I am currently working on the kick-off for a year-long project of mine in 2021.

It is currently called Let’s Celebrate. I may change that but what won’t change is the Celebrate. What does it mean to celebrate?

verb

  1. Acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity.

After 2020–we NEED more joy, happiness and fun. Each month I will be focusing on some National Celebration Month or Days and suggest some program ideas. If you have a favorite book, activity or program for a particular month or day you would like to share with me–I thank you!

Here is a picture I saw and have permission to share that came from my friend Kimberly Usselman from the Cumberland Public Library in Rhode Island. They are celebrating Dinovember at CPL and some Dinosaurs came in for a library card. Are you celebrating Dinovember at your library?

November is often known as the month of Gratitude. Check out the 30 Days of Gratitude Toolkit from the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Moment

Perhaps this would be a great time to hold a De-stressing Program. Who can you partner with in your community to offer a meditation, yoga or mindfulness program? Can you raise awareness to services available to help people in your community to de-stress? How about flyers to resources at your library that promote well-being? Maybe some aromatherapy bookmarks or stress-ball take & make kits might be helpful right now? I don’t need to tell you how many DIY stress ball & mindfulness jar ideas there are on Pinterest.

Colleges are great inspiration for de-stressing programs. I saw one college advertise Donuts & Dogs to de-stress at finals. While this idea might have to wait to a time when we can gather once again, you can easily transfer Spa Day DIYs and Coloring Clubs to online and make and takes.

One thing this year has taught us is how important outreach and collaboration is–libraries can and should be much more than just a place. Even if your patrons are unable to come into your library in the same way they have in the past, your library can still share resources and host programs that will leave them saying, “That was Just What I Needed”.

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Family Engagement – Family Learning -STEAM – Community Dialog

Thinking ahead to next year, continuing to engage with the families in your community virtually, creating take and make programs and perhaps opening up to in-person programs–here are some resources to inspire you no matter what stage in the game you are at (including thinking about applying for a Summer Learning Grant next year).

Responding to COVID-19: Seven Practices to Guide Funding and Programming ~ Global Family Research Project.

Family Creative Learning Facilitators Guide ~ Family Creative Learning

How do you know what will engage your families? What do they need? Through Community Dialog. Ask yourself:

1) What audiences in my community are not making full use of library resources?
2) How does my library provide equitable and relevant programming for diverse audience segments? (Latinx, LGBTQ, Homeless populations, etc.)
3) Who in my community has the ear of the groups we wish to serve better?
4) Who are my go-to partners who could help plan and implement a Community Dialogue?

StarNet webinar Community Dialogues to Support Equitable Programming, Access, and Action in YOUR Library Presentation Slides | YouTube Recording | Link Bank

STEM in Libraries – Collaboration Opportunities ~ StarNet

Are you a Guide on the Side or a Sage on the Stage. For more on being the Guide on the Side another great webinar from StarNet STEAM Learning in Public Libraries: A “Guide on the Side” Approach for Inclusive Learning Presentation Slides | YouTube Recording | Link Bank

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30 Days of Gratitude

From the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement:

The Choose Love Movement presents the 2nd Annual 30 Days of Gratitude Campaign starting on November 1. Check Choose Love’s social media accounts every day of the month for daily posts that will focus on how you can live a more fulfilling life through gratitude. Action items and resources will be revealed.

You and your community (schools, community groups, clubs, business owners, first responders, politicians, and more) can partake in this campaign by accessing our free 30 Days of Gratitude Toolkit and share daily messages of gratitude. By sharing these daily reminders with your community, you and your network will reap the benefit associated with gratitude and be part of the solution in creating a more connected and loving world.