Kid Lab: Superhero Writing Prompts

Last year we had a Stories in Action table; this year, kids can make their own pictures to hang up based on the Write/Draw component of the Summer Game Cards in our new elementary school literacy area called the Kid Lab. I was inspired to create this after years of talking about it because of Holly's Exploration Station.

While it'd be nice to have something fancier, for now all it entails is a table, some signage made in Canva, and an extra rolling cart we happened to have. Right now there are writing prompts that change weekly, but as a Lab there could be other activities going on in the future.

This year, the Write/Draw questions each week revolve around the kids considering themselves as heroes. The point was that by the end of them summer they'll have a fleshed out super hero persona!

Here are the questions, so you can put together a writing prompt station of your own:

SLP Stories in Action Table

A cartoon donkey drawn in crayon with a speech bubble.
Text reads: "Tell us about a book you've read!"

Late last year we lost our fish tables (tables that looked like fish; not made of fish or specifically for fish), which meant that my space for the Story Action Pods went away. As I was brainstorming a new place for it, I thought about covering one of the tables we already had with butcher paper so kids could draw directly on it,  like some family restaurants do (I don't know which ones those are now, but there was one in Tallahassee Mall that did that. a Ryan's?). Exactly two days later, Rebecca at Hafuboti posted her Table Top Time inspired by Mo Willems, which gave me the courage to try it out... eventually.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Passive Programming: guest post by Ariel Cummins

Behold, a Boredom Buster!

Ariel Cummins started her career as a teen librarian, but quickly decided there was far too much drooling with teens and switched to the under 13 set. She writes about her (sometimes bumbling) exploration of what it means to be a children's librarian at http://hushlander.wordpress.com/ and frequently Tweets about authors, librarianship, and ridiculous things at https://twitter.com/hushlander. She works at San Antonio Public Library, and will probably never leave Central Texas because: breakfast tacos.

When I transitioned from teen programming to children’s programming, I also transitioned from a very busy neighborhood branch to a huge Central Library located in a downtown area. While the collection at our Central Library is huge, it was really, really hard to get people to actually attend programs on a regular basis. It was more of a “tourists drop in on vacation” or “residents come once a year to get books for reports” kind of place, rather than a “part of families’ weekly routines” kind of place. We tried programming in the mornings, in the evenings, on the weekends, and on weekdays, with varying success.

Story Action Pod: Halloween Edition!

"Mullet. You know what it is."

An alternate title for this could be: How I dressed as a child's answer to a literacy extension activity for Halloween, and you can too!

Two years ago I created the fastest Story Action Pod I ever produced. I searched my library's catalog for "monsters", and came up with "Even Monsters Need Haircuts" by Matthew McElligot.

And the outcome was hilarious, as demonstrated by the submitted answer to your left.
In fact, I liked it so much, that I went as it for Halloween.

Awesome Box: Stealth Program

 Harvard library has created a"Awesome Box", a way of crowdsourcing Reader's Advisory and book recommendations. The Awesome Box was the brainchild of Annie Cain and Matt Phillips, and now is a project that involves many collaborators. Please read all about them here.

I decided to create something similar at the Story Action Pod this summer.

The result was the meme-filled station you see to the left. And it was super fun! Over the course of the summer we got about 50 recommendations from kids about books from liking The Pigeon Wants a Hot Dog because it's funny, to liking 39 Clues because there is at least one scene that includes swords.

Because Summer Reading Program always gives our circulation department approximately 50 million hours of extra shelving work, we decided to keep everything as inside-our-department as possible.

Here's how it went down:

Undercover Spy Club: Passive Program

This summer, our library was planning to have a "Hometown Tourist" program that partnered with local businesses for a city-wide experience. As a department, we put our heads together and tried to figure out what would resonate with kids-- you show me a 4 year old who knows what it means to have a hometown and I'll show you my skeptical-maybe-judgey face. Okay, kids get it's "home", but: why is it cool? Why should they even care? What else is there? It's definition vs connotation, and the Hometown Tourist initiative is awesome for the latter. But how could we get kids to care?

Time Crunch Librarian

Click here to see our slides

A few weeks ago I was able to present with Anna (Future Librarian Superhero) and Anne (So Tomorrow) at the Michigan Library Association's Spring Institute in Lansing, MI. Though Anna, Anne and I talk through various social media outlets, I just met Anna in person last May at the WAPL conference, and neither of us had met Anne until the day of the presentation. If you're wondering how we managed to stay relatively on message for this hour long break-out session, I'll have you know it was due to the wonder of technology. We mostly brainstormed on Twitter and Google chat, and created a shared PowerPoint on Google Drive. While adding to the presentation, you could see where someone else was adding to their part or doing some revising. It was simultaneously a magical and creepy experience.

Story Action Pod: BOT edition

C/O Mr Schu Reads

So after the overwhelming fun that emanated from our last Story Action Pod (which, by the way, was a landslide victory with a write-in candidate) I was energized to create another one. After all the sharks and trains, I decided that the Story Action Pod was severely lacking in the robot department.

I went with "Boy +Bot" by Ame Dyckman and Dan Yaccarino, which I snatched greedily from the fingers of an unsuspecting child while laughing maniacally and possibly pointing before tearing off on my Harley. 

Or from the new picture books display. I promise. It's another one of those, though, that we probably should have more copies of, because it is literally never available. So after I checked it out to myself, I smacked one of these bad boys on it to prevent it from walking away:

Story Action Pod: Election Edition!

I went back and forth a lot as to whether I should put something in the Story Action Pod about the election. I've heard of other libraries doing Vote-for-Characters, such as Best Bear in a book or something; I'm sure that works for them, but I just couldn't get excited about it. And as Joyce Sidman said in her luncheon address at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference last week (more on WLA later): "Kids know when you're really into something." And I just wasn't. (On a personal note, the first election I could legally vote in ever was the 2000 presidential election. Hopefully, you can see how that would be a total bummer).


More than that, though, I have a problem with any kind of program that doesn't have a far reach. If they have to come at just a certain time, or they have to come back to get anything out of it, or if they have to read widely to even know what they're talking about... okay, so I know I sound like a jerkface, like I don't want kids to read or something, but our regular patrons are just a small scope of who we serve.

BUT: the Story Action Pod allows for a small engagement in the library no matter when you're there, who you're with, what you read.

So I decided to create a Story Action Pod based on a book that kids could use to make an informed opinion in one sitting: Shark vs Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld.

Boredom Busters and a Halloween Story Action Pod

Today marks the 6 month anniversary of me starting my job, and it's also when benefits kick in. I'm using a floating holiday to take off Thursday, thereby turning an unthinkable 10 day stint into a slightly grating though bearable 8 days of library goodness [2018 edit: I believe there was a time a few years later that I worked 17 days in a row. Having grown up in Downriver Detroit, getting ready for work at all means "work day" so if I work 4 hours I might as well have just stayed for 10. Not that I did, but the feeling, dude.]

This is also Day 3 of a week-long Reference Question Tally. We do these twice a year in our department, which I understand is way better than the daily tallies others make, but it is the first time I've ever done this.

Being me, I usually go about unaffected by any kind of crazy questions or requests I get. But, now that I am forced to think about it, my humor radar is sharply attuned.
Here's a few choice questions I've heard in the past few days:

Story Action Pod: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

The kids made another book at the Story Action Pod! This time it was based on Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems. This activity was a little more vague, and solicited a wide variety of responses. I decided to take a more narrative approach so that everything could be included and make a coherent story.

A laminated white page. Texts says, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive
the Bus! by the kids at LPL." Pictures of Pigeon and the Bus Driver
are added to the right hand side of the page.

Story Action Pod: A Completed Book of Kid Answers!

As you know I've pretty much downplayed the awesomeness of my Story Action Pod since its inception (no, no I never did).

White piece of paper taped to a binder.
Text reads, "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie...
and other awesome ideas
by the kids at Family Storytime and the Story Action Pod
Summer 2011

But lo, in the seventh week of the Summer Reading Program, it came to pass that kids' versions of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" were combined and bound. And it was good.