Star Wars Jedi Training Academy

Like everyone and their grandmother's library, October is a time for a Star Wars party. For those who may not be familiar, this is because of Star Wars Reads Day. Saturday programs tend not to work so well at my library when we want a big crowd event for older kids, so instead of having our party ON Star Wars Reads Day we had it on a no-school day. Oh, and we didn't call it "Star Wars Reads Day" because that name is more for adults than for kids.


I had a Star Wars party on May the Fourth Be With You, but I didn't blog about it because I knew I could do better. Then, I was being too canon to the films. Many Star Wars fans these days, though, mostly watch Clone Wars. Some kids don't know what a Wookiee is. They may not know that **SPOILER ALERT**


Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader. Really.

As angry as some Star Wars fans may be to hear that, for me it seems to create this NEW, possibly more traumatic, reveal. When they're older, instead of finding out Darth and Luke are related, they'll find out that the mischief-maker-turned-upstanding-man they'd followed through Clone Wars is actually the greatest villain in the universe. Oh, AND he has grown so callous that he never mentions or thinks about the Padawan he had grown so close to. And there's nothing these fans can do to reconcile this, because the story's already written and the whole time they've been rooting for the wrong person.

THAT'S some heavy shit right there.

ANYWAY. So this was another station-based program like Ninjago. Kids stopped in at the desk and got their Jedi names (we should have started this earlier; there was a lot of congestion. Also, some Star Wars related books to look at in the meantime). We gave them a random name from the linked generator, gender neutral to speed up the process. These names were written on their choice of nametag: Luke, Anakin, Master Fisto, or Ahsoka. Just wrote down the first name. At the same time, they wrote their real names on a raffle ticket for a book raffle.

Here's the stations they went through to get their certificate:
1. Ahsoka's Battle Droid Bowling: This was based on Stormtrooper bowling from this blog. But, you know, with Droids instead, because in Clone Wars the guys that look like Stormtroopers are the GOOD guys. And also, you know, with a beach ball and empty 2 liter bottles with Droid heads taped on them, because who do you even think I am.

2. Obi-Wan's Light Saber Balance: Lifted from Station 7 of Amy's party, this was actually a big hit. Some kids brought their own light sabers so they tried with their own.

3. Yoda's Bad Guy Find: The kids at the Diary of a Wimpy Kid party  really liked the Scavenger Hunt, so I had kids "use the Force" to sniff out villains from Clone Wars around the Children's room. There were 8 in total: 3 battle droids, General Grievous, Bossk, Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, and Ventress. Each kid got a row of shiny star stickers and when they found each, they hit the villain with a star sticker. This was also surprisingly popular for not a lot of prep.

4. Anakin's Gadget Shack: An always popular station based on one from my Ninjago program, kids were tasked to come up with a Jedi tool using the fewest LEGOs they could. Their explanations were very thorough, down to which planet the characters would use it on.

We also had a back table in the department for kids under 5 to decorate their own minifig (using the template from Abby's ALSC post), and surprisingly a lot of older kids chose to make one after their training was done.
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By the way, Clone Wars season 5 just came out on DVD along with a whole slough of LEGO Star Wars books and other goodies, and a new series starter by Jeff Brown; If you have a lot of kid patrons who are Star Wars fans, these should on your radar ASAP, before you feel all: