Libraries are not just about accessing books, DVDs, and magazines. They are spaces where positive interactions between children, their family/friends, and library staff take place and memories can be created. They are also places where ideas are presented. Kids can come, interact with those ideas, and then take those ideas home with them to be further read about, experimented with, and used in their play.  For that reason, I totally felt that setting up a mini golf course in the library was something we needed to do this summer! It was very inexpensive and completely fun!

I also feel that one of our missions as librarians serving youth is to demonstrate for kids and parents how to play using simple materials that they already have. That way, the families can use our ideas to re-create similar experiences and keep the learning going once they get home. This really hit home for me when three parents came up to me while their children were playing mini golf and told me that this is something they would be doing again at home. Yeah!

And, I also feel that the library’s mission is to connect our community to resources that they may otherwise not be able to participate in. For us, the closest option to go to a mini-golf course would be to travel about an hour away, and I wanted to bring this experience to families in our community who otherwise are not able to drive that distance.  It was a total hit!

Here is a video of me walking through our course:

Inspiration: The Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and Maura in the Library were both very helpful in sharing photos of the Mini Golf courses that their library planned. Check them out!

Cost: About $20 to purchase the mini golf clubs that the Dollar Tree was selling this summer and 9 green plastic cups that we used for the “holes”.

Set-up: Our golf course had 9 holes, and each hole was themed using odds and ends from our craft and programming rooms. Kids started playing each hole by placing their golf ball on the green dot labeled “Start Here” and working their way around obstacles to get their ball into the green cup.

9 Hole Mini Golf:
Hole #1: Dr. Seuss
Hole #2: Dinosaurs
Hole #3: Clifford the Big Red Dog
Hole #4: Legos
Hole #5: Chefs/cooking
Hole #6: Star Wars
Hole #7: Travel to all 50 States
Hole #8: Alphabet
Hole #9: Laura Ingalls Wilder/Frontier.

I started off by marking the boundaries of each hole with masking tape, but I soon realized that with kids, their balls would often roll outside of the tape, and we would have golf balls all over the place. So, I found books that matched the theme for each hole and set the books up around the perimeter to form a kind of barrier. It worked great, we just had to re-shelve all the books once the program was done. And, this was a great way to “display” lots of our books!

Another idea to establish a perimeter around your holes is to tape pool noodles down to the floor.

I also had my go-to upbeat song, Shake Your Body Down by Laurie Berkner playing on repeat while the program was running.

Staff: You could probably get away with only one volunteer/staff member being the groundskeeper at this kind of event, but I had several teen volunteers. So, one volunteer took care of the welcome table, where kids came to get their golf club, golf ball, and a scorecard if they wanted one. We found par for the scorecard by just taking my score, but you could also have several volunteers play the course and average their scores for each hole. Here is a Word document download link for the Mini Golf Scorecard and Clubhouse Rules that we had displayed at our welcome table: Mini Golf Scorecard. A second volunteer was in the programming room, and they simply walked around and fixed books or props if they were knocked down by golf balls or golf clubs that got a little too wild.

And there you have it! Mini Golf in the library!

 

Candyland! The game of nostalgia and childhood! As much fun as it is to play it as a board game with small game pieces, for the past two years, we gave our community an opportunity to experience this game on a whole new level by building sets out of cardboard to make the board game life-size!

How it happened: Last summer I had over 20 teens hanging out at the library and they asked if there were projects they could help me with. I was not planning on having this many great helpers, and I scrambled every week to find helpful things they could do that they were also interested in. Until, one of them asked if they they could build the sets to Candyland, thinking of how much fun it would be to play the game if it was life-size. Boom! The large project I needed! Teens worked for about 6 weeks to build all the sets, and many of the sets were worked on by several teens coming into the library separately, so there was lots of collaboration. We used lots of cardboard, construction paper, and paint!

We set the game up in our programming room by using just plain construction paper to create the “path” that the kids walked on. Teens also created four dice using square boxes that kids rolled to let them know what colored square to move to. This summer, I had four teens on hand to help run the game, so I gave a dice to each of our four teen volunteers and they would bring a family, or group, of kids through the game. The kids would throw the dice, and the volunteer would retrieve it, and then pass it to the next player. That way the kids never had to leave their square. Also, having four volunteers meant that we could have four groups playing the game at one time. We could accommodate a large crowd this way and no kids had very long to wait as a volunteer would finish their game every few minutes, and then go back to the starting square to pick up their next group of kids who wanted to play.

Music is such a powerful force to set a welcoming tone, and I had Laurie Berkner’s “Shake Your Body Down” song on repeat while families played their way through Candyland. Another song that would also be great is the Lollipop Song.

Here are our sets:

Plum Tree

Mr. Mint 

Gumdrop Pass (made from a tablecloth and sand pails)

Grandma Nut’s House

Princess Lolly

Queen Frostine 

Gloppy 

King Candy’s Castle 

And, that’s Candyland! We saved the sets and the paper squares that kids used as the “path” so this is a FREE program once you have it set-up and you can run it as many times as your community needs! In 2018, we offered this twice during our summer reading program, once on a Monday night and again on a Tuesday morning, taking advantage of the opportunity to only have one set-up and one take-down for two huge programs!

Have you create life-size games at your library? I would love to hear about it!

Jedi Knights have assembled children sensitive to the force to test their Jedi abilities. Under the tutelage of the Jedi masters, the recruits must learn how to use the force to wield lightsabers, discover their Star Wars name, design their own ship, shoot down Storm Troopers, assist in a mission to destroy the Death Star and build their own droid. Come and join us, my young Padawan!

We offered “Star Wars Jedi Training” the third week of our summer reading program and it was a big hit! We offered this on Monday evening and again on Tuesday morning! One prep and set-up for two huge program days! And, only one clean up on Tuesday after the program was done!  Horray! The costs were incredibly low and families wanted to stay at the library playing with all the activity stations for about 90 minutes, significantly longer than many parents/kids usually have the patience for with a room filled with excited people! That alone was a great sign!

The skinny:
We offered our “Jedi Training” as a program with eight activity stations:

• Discover your Star Wars Name (Credit: Jbrary)
• Find the hidden objects in the Scavenger Hunt (Credit: Jbrary)
• Demonstrate your design skills at the coloring station (Credit: EncouragingMomsAtHome)
• Attempt to sink the Death Star (Credit: The Lego Librarian)
• Design your own Star Wars Ship from LEGOS (Credit: Jbrary)
• Defend against Storm Troopers (Credit: The Lego Librarian)
• Build your own Droid (Credit: The Lego Librarian)
• Lightsaber Training with balloons (Credit: Jbrary)

Because I really, really, really wanted the kids to be able to take a lightsaber with them when they went home, we also had a final station where the Jedi Master would make a lightsaber for each of the kids once they had completed all the activity stations. The lightsaber was a balloon, like the kind you use to make balloon animals. Perfect for my budget! And, all the kids LOVED them!

I also had our Star Wars books set out in a display, and Star Wars music was playing during the program, definately helping to set the Star Wars mood!

Cost: 

• About $10 for 250 balloons to make lightsabers, which we did not go through.
• $8 for a balloon pump on Amazon
• $4 for 4 pool noodles which we turned into pool noodle lightsabers!
• $2 for regular balloons which we used in the lightsaber training with balloons station.

And, here is my breakdown for the activity stations:

Welcome Table and Scavenger Hunt: 

We set up a table near the door so we could greet families as they came in. I made up a Training Card with all the activity stations listed and told the kids that to become a Jedi Knight, they needed to complete all the activity stations on their card. A volunteer at each station (or a volunteer who was “hovering” and covering several activity stations) checked off their boxes once the kids were done with the station. Here is a like to my Star Wars Training Card. I also had the paper for the scavenger hunt at this table as well, and I trained in three volunteers to be able to help the kids find the objects in the children’s library. This scavenger hunt was done by Jbrary! Thank you! Kids were able to find different areas of the children’s library by looking for the star wars characters on their Scavenger Hunt, a win-win for everyone! You can access Jbrary’s Scavenger Hunt file and post HERE. If you have a volunteer who can help lead kids around your library looking for the characters, that would be best, as some kids found this challenging. I also laminated the Scavenger Hunt pages. The kids wrote on them with crayons, and a tissue wiped the crayon marking right off! Doing this meant that I only needed to print out the Scavenger Hunt on 10 pieces of paper, instead of 80!

Discover Your Star Wars Name: 

Thank you, again, Jbrary! Okay! To find your Star Wars first name you combine the first three letters of your last name with the first two letters of your first name. For me, Emily Zorea, my Star Wars name is Zorem! I gave kids reusable nametag holders which they filled out and wore throughout the program! It was a great way to begin conversations with kids! Before kids received their Jedi lightsaber at the end of the program, the Jedi volunteer asked kids to give him their nametag so we could recycle it. Some kids wanted to keep their name, so they took out the piece of paper, but I think we were able to collect all the nametags again! I had a volunteer at this station, but you could get by without one.

Demonstrate your design skills at the Coloring Station: 

 

I found amazing coloring sheets created by Amy at EncouragingMomsAtHome. Thank you! I printed them off, and kids loved them, often coloring more than one! I usually set out coloring as an option for many of my family programs, and it can get a lack-luster response. These pages, though, were so cool that kids stayed at this station as long as any of the others! No volunteer at this station.

Attempt to Sink The Death Star

The Lego Librarian had this great idea! We cut cardboard into a large circle, and two of my middle school volunteers helped me paint it into something that looks like the Death Star! We folded a dozen paper airplanes and kids tried to fly their paper airplanes through a hold I cut towards the top-right part of the Death Star to “sink” it. Lots of fun, and harder than it looked! We had a volunteer at this station, but it basically runs itself.

Design your own Star Wars Ship

I set out our LEGOS, and kids had a blast! Seriously, I always underestimate how excited kids will be to build with Legos, and they had some great designs! I had a volunteer here, but again, this station really does not need one!

Defend Against Storm Troopers: 

Thank you again, The Lego Librarian! I found some images of Storm Troopers online and printed them out so we had two images to a page. I then asked our volunteers to paint toilet paper rolls white and then cut out the Storm Troopers. Then, they glued the stormtroopers to the toilet paper rolls so they would stand up. My son brought his Nerf guns and was the volunteer at this station where kids defended themselves with Nerf guns against the Storm Troopers. You definitely need a volunteer at this station to keep the kids controlled, load the Nerf guns as needed (most kids did not know how) and to teach good shooting range protocol. No one was allowed to shoot if someone was between the Nerf gun and the Storm Trooper. Also, kids lined up in a row and they all fired at once and then walked over to the Storm Troopers to retrieve their Nerf bullet. It kept this station going, but also taught important safety. Kids were told that aiming the Nerf guns at another Jedi-In-Training (or family member) was never allowed, and all of the kids followed this rule. Great fun, even with the necessary rules and safety! You will have kids asking if they can do this again and again!

 

Build Your Own Droid

Thank you again, The Lego Librarian! I used his templates for the droids, and just set out cup-up scraps of paper and glue sticks Kids designed their own droid! We had a volunteer here, but you could get by without one as long as someone comes over every once in a while to clean up the station.

Light Saber Training with Balloons!

I cut a pool noodle in half, and then taped the ends with duct and electrical tape to create a lightsaber. You can also use sharpie markers to create lots of detail. I marked off a space in our programming room with tape on the floor and assigned two volunteers to lead this station. I found out that this worked best for us when I only had four pool-noodle lightsabers at the station at one time (basically, four kids at a time). I also put four balloons in this station and the goal was for the kids to either balance their balloon on their lightsaber, or bat their balloon up and down for as long as they could before their balloon hit the floor, or to pass their balloon to a partner. It went well, and parents told me they were going to make a trip to the Dollar Store on the way home to pick up pool noodles to make their own at home!

Finally…you are a Jedi. Come and receive your Lightsaber! 

I do not have great photos of this, unfortunately. But, here is how this worked. Once kids had completed all the stations my son would blow up a “balloon animal” balloon and twist it into a sword for these “Jedi-Knights No-Longer-In-Training”. The kids loved it.  We had a few ballons pop on their way to the car, but my son kept twisting and made replacements as needed. It also gave the kids something to take home along with their new droid and in addition to those Star Wars books they checked out!

Have you done a Star Wars program recently? I would love, love, love to hear your ideas! Please leave a comment below! May the Force be with you, my librarian friends!