Legos in the Library

We had our first summer in the library series with "Legos in the Library."  Competing with local VBS, vacations, and working families, I was pleased with the turnout of 12 kids and 6 adults.  All that attended had fun and said they wanted to come back for our Secret Agent/Spy Day in the Library which is coming up this week.  Our last 2 sessions will be a superhero theme and a Minecraft theme.

Not knowing how many to expect the first session, I went ahead and copied 30-50 of each activity just so I'd have enough.  It was set up as a "come in and play" type activity - no read aloud, no set schedule of anything.  I had come in the day before to set up and had activities scattered among my 9 tables.

Seven of the tables I had set out containers of miscellaneous Legos (I do have 3 sets of "educational legos" from an old grant) and challenge cards.  I had my son's 2 huge containers of misc. Legos set out on the floor where you see the boys playing.

Another table, I had copied Lego masks and had set out twine, scissors, and crayons.  

Some of my moms liked this activity as well.

 On another table, I had the "Create Your Own Mini-Fig" sheets copied, along with several crayon boxes.

One family had a great time with the Lego Challenge cards, and created a garden!

So, even though the turn out wasn't huge, everyone who came had a lot of fun and the moms commented on how much they liked the "break up" in the summer.  It had been hot and rainy, and it gave some of the kids (and moms) time to get together and create.

My "Spy Day" is this Wednesday.  I tried to vary my days each session to help out with babysitting and work schedules.  Speaking of which, I need to go set up!  If you'd like the copies to the Lego activities above, they are not mine, but you can find them on my Pinterest Lego board.  

Summer in the Library

One of the ideas I mentioned at my interview for my library position was that I wanted the library to be more open to the community.  One way I'm accomplishing this is having 4 open library dates this summer for parents and students to come in and hang out, check out books, and do an activity.  Taking it one step further, I decided to theme each day.  I also kept the same time, but picked different days during the week so hopefully if someone couldn't do Mondays, for example, they may be able to come to another day!

Knowing I would HAVE to do a Minecraft activity since those strategy guides are one of the most highly circulated books I have (besides Wimpy Kid!), I also picked Legos, since that is another theme very popular with students.  Gaining inspiration from Pinterest, I also included a super hero day and a spy day (just because I thought the spy obstacle course looked so cool!).

I created a flyer that went home the last week of school and was excited to hear that even some of the fifth graders were excited about the days, especially Minecraft.  I feel I'll have a lot of little ones at Lego Day, but we'll see.  I have no idea what the response will be - guess it depends on vacation schedules, babysitter/work schedules, etc.  I know my daughter will miss 2 of the days because of day camps she's attending (fortunately I scheduled it from 10-12 so no conflict getting her there!).

So there is a LOT out there for Lego activities.  Other than challenge cards, I really didn't need to create much.  The link to my Pinterest page on Legos is {here} in case you want to check it out.  I'll make sure to post pictures of each event!  Since this is my first time doing this, I'm sure some of it will be trial and error.  I have a feeling I'll have more ideas for my challenge cards, so I'll post those when I post the pictures.

However, I was inspired to create activities for the second date, "So You Want to Be a Spy?"  Students will fill out a badge, fingerprint themselves, crack a secret code, hunt for character silhouettes, and dust for fingerprints.  They'll also go through a "laser" obstacle course set up in one of the aisles. (Pinterest page on my summer themes {here})

If you're interested in seeing more, please click on the picture below.  I'm so excited and am already working on the next two dates/themes!