Hello library buddies! Right now we are in the midst of summer reading programming and our library has been humming! I try to take a break from regular programs for the last three weeks of May so that I have the flexibility to visit area schools to talk to students during assembles about the summer reading program, accommodate last minute requests from teachers to bring their classes to the library for a STEM program before school ends, and to finish all final SRP preparations. I am the only Youth Services Librarian at my library, and it takes those final three weeks to finish everything up so we are ready to go June 1st. That means that I am very anxious to see all our library families again, and June seems to fly by!
I just want to share about a program that we offered which I LOVED. In my town, rock painting and hiding is a big deal. Kids paint rocks all summer, and then hide them around town. Other kids and families look and find those rocks, re-hide them, and the cycle keeps going. It is basically a community-wide Easter egg hunt, but with painted rocks and it goes all summer. We even have a Facebook page about our community’s rock hunting! Access it HERE. So, rock painting was the first family program our library offered as part of the summer reading program.
I am offering something new this year with my programming schedule. This summer, I thought that we would offer a family-style program on Monday nights and on Tuesday mornings. That way, if parents/caregivers needed to come in the evening after working hours, they could on Mondays. If they already had commitments Monday night, they had the option of coming Tuesday morning. And, that way I am able to get two large programs done with one prep, one set-up, and one clean-up as we leave the program out and set-up on Monday night so we can do it again on Tuesday morning! Rock painting was the first program were I tried this schedule out, and it worked great. I heard from many parents/caregivers that having the Monday night/Tuesday morning option was working great for their family and made it easy for them to come to the library since they had both days as options!
The skinny on Rock Painting:
Cost: $0 (We had everything on hand. You probably do too!)
Supplies:
Rocks (Ask at a landscaping center to donate some!),
Washable paints in a variety of colors,
Paintbrushes,
Cups for water,
Dollar store plastic tablecloths (Unless you are okay with scrubbing washable paint off tables. We had to do this for some of our tables, and it was not that bad. But, tablecloths would help!)
Clear spray paint,
Baby wipes/paper towels.
Benefits: Low cost, program basically runs itself after set-up, works for all ages (babies-high school students), makes a great family program since it works for all ages, kids have the opportunity to be artistic, and afterwards, they enjoy the physical exercise of walking around the community and hiding their rocks.
This was a very low-stress program. I asked a local landscaping business, and they donated a 5-gallon pail of rocks. Kids painted all the rocks they wanted, and we did not go through all the rocks from that 5-gallon bucket. I also put out our washable paints, and when kids came in, a volunteer asked them what colors of paint they wanted. The volunteer then squirted a small amount of paint on a Styrofoam plate.
(NOTE: Last year when I offered rock painting the kids were allowed to pour the paint themselves. I would strongly recommend having a volunteer to do this for them. The kids poured out way more paint than they needed and we ended up wasting a lot of paint. Also, this is a great opportunity for a volunteer or staff to interact and welcome families to the program/library!)
We set up some tables, covered several of them with $1 tablecloths, and set out cups with paintbrushes and recycled plastic yogurt containers with water so kids could wash out their brushes. We also had some baby wipes and paper towels on hand for kids to wipe their brushes, or clean their fingers from the paints.
Kids from babies to high-schoolers happily painted for the whole hour that the program went on! Once the rocks were dry, we took them outside and sprayed them with clear spray paint to “fix” the washable paint on the rocks, so that the paint would not wash out when the rocks would get rained on.
Low cost, low prep, high interaction, the program basically runs itself, and a great opportunity for kids to be artists and then physically active as they walk around their community looking for places to hide their rocks! We will definately be doing this again!