Kids Create: Snowplace Like Home
This winter at Sunset Park Library, we found out there’s Snowplace Like Home. Together, we read “Here Comes Jack Frost” by Kazuno Kohara, and then we made our very own paper villages—and got snowed in! We worked on making our own winter scenery. All it took was some construction paper, a few pre-cut shapes, and a little basic folding talent. …and the kids loved it! They had a great time making their paper villages, and we even used Popsicle sticks, sharpies, and glitter paint to make some snowflakes to go with it. We stuck some self-adhesive magnets on the back of our snowflakes…
Kids Create: Valentine's Day Speed Crafting
Every year the team at Services for Older Adults delivers Valentine's Day cards to Books by Mail home-bound patrons and partner agencies. It continues to be a successful tradition at Services for Older Adults as we seek inclusive ways to provide Brooklyn's diverse older adult population with free and equal access to BPL resources through programming. Check out these love-filled cards we sent this year! Valentines Day Book Adventures @ Sunset Park! This past Monday, Sunset Park Library held our monthly Book Adventures program. This month was a Valentine’s Day edition speed crafting…
Kids Create: Chinese New Year's Fortune Tellers
Cortelyou Library recently made pig fortune tellers in honor of 2019 being the Year of the Pig in the Chinese Zodiac. This is a fun activity that is easy to make. Fold a square piece of pink construction paper into a fortune teller (also known as a cootie catcher). Add ears, eyes and a snout as instructed here. Older children may want to try writing fortunes inside the cootie catchers that relate to Chinese New Year’s traditions. You need eight fortunes. Here are a few examples. You are strong like a dragon. Bang a drum to scare monsters. Wear red for good luck. Read…
Kids Create: Gingerbread Houses!
Last week Central Youth Wing held their annual Gingerbread House program. Here are some highlights from the event: Our little architects had so much fun creating the Gingerbread houses of their dreams! One participant even sketched out a blueprint of his house beforehand - we love his thoughtful process! One girl is so in love with rainbows, her house ended up matching her colorful outfit: From Ginger Mansions, to umbrella-inspired houses, we were so impressed with each unique design! For a look at upcoming Kids Create programs at your branch, view our events…
Kids Create: A Window of Creativity
Kat Savage, Neighborhood Library Supervisor, Adams Street Library, Neighborhood Library Supervisor, Adams Street Library
When’s the last time you took a walk through your neighborhood at dusk? The little thrill that comes with a glimpse at people’s homes through lit windows is a particular delight, especially at this time of year. Julia Denos’s “Windows,” with illustrations by E. B. Goodale, captures that feeling. One spread shows all kinds of things inside a big apartment building’s windows, from “a hug” to someone “learning to dance.” In another, an aquarium fills up the window. A little girl day-dreaming. A bonsai. A basement party. This was our inspiration for our art project in Kids Create one…
Kids Create: Easy Stone Sugar Skulls
Día De Los Muertos (English: Day of the Dead) is a traditional Mexican holiday that honors loved ones who have passed away. It begins on October 31 and lasts through November 2, coinciding with some other holidays associated with the non-living: All Soul’s Day, All Saints Day and Halloween. Originally celebrated over 3,000 years ago by the Aztec people, Día De Los Muertos has increasingly gained exposure due to its imagery in Western pop culture. Sugar skulls are a major staple and one of the most recognizable images of this festive family holiday. You can easily create your own…
Kids Create: Spooky Mobile
Enjoy this spooky season with a fun mobile! Create your very own Spooky Mobile by making a haunting (not really) moonlight night scene full of ghastly ghosts, batty bats and laughing pumpkins. Materials: Construction Paper Pencil Yarn Glue Stick Scissors Hole Puncher Instructions: Draw moon, cloud, bat, ghost and pumpkin. Cut shapes out and attach moon to cloud. If desired use scraps to make facial features for the spooky figures. Take hole puncher and make a hole at the top of each cutout. Get ready to…
Kids Create: Mother’s Day Felt Banner
Nothing says "I love you mom" like a handmade gift from the heart. Create a sweet felt banner to express your love and appreciation for the special mom in your life. Materials: Felt Dowel (or branch, popsicle stick, chopstick) Twine Pom Pom Glue Scissors Instructions: Fold felt in half and cut from inside to outside to create pointed bottom. Cut out and glue desired shapes and words to decorate banner. Fold banner slightly over dowel and glue. Attach twine from one end of dowel to the other. Add embellishments…
Kids Create: DIY Block Printing
Create a fun block print with your little ones while learning about different shapes, patterns and textures. Materials: Cardboard Glue Scissors Paint Paint Brush Paper Instructions: Divide cardboard into two pieces (you will be using once piece as the base of your design and the second piece as the material for your stamp shapes). Peel one piece of cardboard to reveal corrugated side. Using your freshly peeled corrugated cardboard, cut out a variety of shapes and arrange and glue on to cardboard base. You now have made a stamp! Brush…
Kids Create: Read Across Brooklyn 2018
On March 2nd, Brooklyn Public Library celebrated Read Across America with a special reading of Edward Gets Messy by BPL's own Rita Meade. Read Across America is an annual initiative of the National Education Assocation to raise awareness and motivation for reading among children of all ages. In cities and towns across the nation, teachers, teenagers, librarians, politicians, actors, athletes, parents, grandparents, and others develop NEA's Read Across America activities to bring reading excitement to children of all ages. Governors, mayors, and other elected officials recognize the role…
Kids Create: Thankful Tree
No matter the season, it’s important to remember the many things we have to be thankful for. One of my favorite traditions that has developed over the last couple of years at Cortelyou is creating a seasonal “thankful tree” on the bulletin board in our meeting room, inviting patrons young and old to take a minute to reflect and write down something they are thankful for. This is a passive program and patrons can choose to add to the board whenever they are attending a program in the meeting room. The best part is, it requires minimal effort to create this beautiful display/…
Kids Create: Fall Leaf Rubbings
Kat Savage, Neighborhood Library Supervisor, Adams Street Library, Neighborhood Library Supervisor, Adams Street Library
"What do you notice about these?" I asked as I laid five leaves on the caterpillar-shaped table. "They're all different colors and shapes," Natalie piped in right away. "Yeah! What else?" "Hm... oh! Different sizes. And some have long stems and some have short stems. And some are wavier." This is how four children, three caregivers, and myself started our leaf rubbing exploration during Kids Create at Red Hook Library on November 9th. We continued to discuss what happens to leaves after they fall -- they sit around, and eventually just disappear! One way to preserve leaves is…
Cypress Hills Celebrates Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving began centuries ago as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. When Americans refer to the “First Thanksgiving,” they are typically referring to the three day feast held by the Pilgrims and Native Americans in October 1621. After a treacherous journey across the great ocean aboard the Mayflower, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, located in Massachusetts. Despite the many hardships they faced, the Pilgrims kept their faith and most survived the first winter, with help from Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the…
Kids Create: Choose Kind
Whether you’ve read (and probably fallen in love with) R.J. Palacio’s book Wonder or not, it is easy to get excited about the theme of the book: Choose Kind. In honor of the release of the movie inspired by the book, libraries all over Brooklyn are celebrating by hosting events meant to inspire our youngest patrons to choose kind. At Cortelyou, our "Choose Kind" program took place during our weekly Kids Create program this week. It was pretty simple and required just a little bit of preparation. Before the program, I made a “Choose Kind” banner for our bulletin board, and also…
Diwali: Celebrating Light & Color
Namaste! As we enter this season of dark mornings and nights, now accentuated by the end of Daylight Saving Time, we naturally turn to bright, cheery colors! And what better way to celebrate color and light, than by celebrating Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights! Traditionally Diwali is the time to celebrate friends and family by exchanging sweets, setting off fireworks, lighting up houses and stores with beautiful bright lights, and decorating doorsteps and courtyards with intricate designs drawn with colored powders, flower petals and rice flour - called rangoli in some…
Kids Create: The Kindness Rock Project
As Summer Reading 2017, Build A Better World came to a close, young patrons at the Crown Heights Library participated in a program to create their own “kindness rocks”. Inspired by The Kindness Rocks Project, participants created their own rocks with positive, uplifting messages to inspire all those who gaze upon them. The rocks were installed as an inspirational rock garden at the front of the library building. There were about 18 participants during the scheduled program and each person made several rocks. There were unpainted rocks leftover so we invited other patrons to decorate the…
Kids Create: Fall Leaf Mobile
Build a Better World: Keith Haring
Once a month, for the past several months, Crown Heights Library has been holding a Kids Create: Artist Highlight program. During these programs, we learn briefly about a famous artist, utilizing books and databases from the library, and proceed to make an art project in the style of the chosen artist. Since January, we have covered Jasper Johns, Faith Ringgold, Georgia O’Keefe, George Seurat, and Henri Matisse. When faced with the choice of who to feature in June, I took several things into consideration. First, this was to be the final such program before the summer, when I planned to…