Board game table at Playtime

Playing board games with young children helps them grow socially and emotionally.  Children practice taking turns.  They learn about fairness and respecting others by following rules.  Plus, they learn about handling feelings, such as winning and losing gracefully.

Some board games available at my library that are fun to play with  young people:

-         Hoot Owl Hoot

-          Hedgehog game

-          Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

-          Perfection, Preschool Version

-          Hi Ho Cherry-O

 Hisss 

Board Game Table at Playtime

 

Playing board games with young children is a powerful learning tool disguised as fun. They help to build foundational social-emotional skills like turn-taking, sharing, and emotional regulation.  They reaffirm every day skills such as counting, color recognition, and pattern matching.  Board games also encourage screen free play with family and friends. 

I love bringing out board games for the children to experiment with.  There are a great many available, old classics along with some entertaining new games.  Even if a child is not ready to play the game according to the written rules, it is fun to watch them interact with the game pieces in imaginative ways. 

 

Some board games available at my library:

-          Pengoloo

-          Chickyboom

-          Dinosaur dominoes

-          Candy Land

Homeschool Meet-Up: Weaving & Jenga

A monthly Thursday morning library program for homeschool families. 

Goals:

·                     Opportunity to explore STEAM concepts in a relaxed setting.

·                     Participants can socialize and connect with other homeschool families.

·                     Students build confidence and cooperative skills by completing tasks together.  

 

Activities of the day:

 “A” is for Art:

-          Basket weaving using a kit I found at Baker Ross

 

Building toy:

-          The students were invited to play with the giant Jenga blocks.  Some played games of Jenga while others used the large cardboard boxes as blocks.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minecraft Build Competition: Winter Break Edition

Theme: Ice Mansion

Hosted another successful (yet low attended) Minecraft Build Competition during the holiday break. (To read how I run my Minecraft program, please read my past post on the topic.) This program is still a lot of fun to offer. 

How the children interpreted this theme was very interesting.  I would not necessarily call the buildings they built as mansions.  But it was fun watching the children work out how to place snow and fire next to each other. Also, many of the children found creative ways to add blocks that looked like snow but wasn't ice blocks.  

  

Minecraft Build Competition: Summer Edition

Theme: Abandoned temple

Hosted another successful Minecraft Build Competition this summer. (To read how I run my Minecraft program, please read my past post on the topic.) This program is a lot of fun to offer.  This theme worked well because there were so many different interpretations of a temple. My Key Club volunteers were awesome judges and all around great helpers.    

Minecraft Build Competition: Winter Break Edition

Theme: Ice roller coaster

Hosted another successful Minecraft Build Competition during the holiday break. (To read how I run my Minecraft program, please read my past post on the topic.) This program is a lot of fun to offer. 

This was an interesting theme. It was fun watching the children work out how to place snow and fire next to each other. Also, many of the children found creative ways to add blocks that looked like snow but wasn't ice blocks.  I even had a dad join in the fun. He sat next to his son and challenged himself to create something for our theme.  

Minecraft in the Summer

Theme: Bell Tower

Hosted another successful Minecraft Build Competition this summer. (To read how I run my Minecraft program, please read my past post on the topic.) This program is a lot of fun to offer.  This theme worked well, especially since I repeatedly told the children to make sure their tower does not look like everyone else's.  

Minecraft Build Competition

Minecraft build programs have become a regular children's event at my library.  We are now doing one competition in the summer, once during the Christmas/New Year holiday break, and once during Spring break.  While demand for this program can be high, it is rather staff intensive so we can only offer it the three times a year.  After offering this program for several years now, I feel much more comfortable with this library program despite the fact I do not enjoy playing the game.

The Minecraft program I offer is a build competition.  It requires pre-registration because we have a limited amount of seating in our meeting room. Once everyone arrives and seems to be seated I go over the rules:

• No eating or drinking by the computers and machines. If you take a snack or water break (highly encouraged), please do so in the snack corner.  
• You will be using creative mode for the competition.
• No texture packs are allowed - just plain vanilla only!
• You will be judged on creativity, use of your environment, and your use of the competition theme.
• You may help each other, but parents cannot build for you.
• At the end of the competition, you must stop work on your competition world. 
• You may play in another world during and after judging. Be prepared to quickly log back in to the competition world for judges. 

Then I introduce the theme and give the kids about one hour to complete the competition. Some successful themes I have used include a roller coaster and a superhero lair.  

In reality, the competition is just a warm up act.  When the competition build time is over, next comes the judging.  The children become more animated and the room gets a fun buzz in it during the judging phase of the program.  The children become alive talking about their competition world to the judges.  They also start collaborating with each other in other worlds while they wait for the judges to come around the room. It is like the children all of a sudden discover they are with their tribe, they are with other children who have the same Minecraft passion.  My judges are teen volunteers or staff not on the reference desks who go around with a score card marking 1-4 on each child based on their creativity, environment, and use of the theme.  The judges choose the top 4 competitors for prizes (Minecraft toys, t-shirts, or books I pick up at Target or ToysRus).  The fifth prize is given to one attendee by pulling a name out of a box.  

I find this library program to be very rewarding.  As one parent pointed out to me, her two girls learn how to interact with other children, how to speak in public, how to explain their creations, and how to loose in a respectful manner. (Her girls have attended several Minecraft events at the library but have not yet won anything. This mother was so great at articulating to me about why this is okay for her girls. Sometimes in life you have fun without winning a prize.) 

I will end now with my preparation list.  This is everything I need on hand for a successful Minecraft program:

• Name tags (I use card stock paper folded in half like a tent to be placed on the table next to each child)
• Sharpie pens (at least two)
• Photo permission forms
• Camera
• Cup of pens or pencils
• Dot stickers (at least two different colors - one for kids who don't have a photo permission form filled out by parents and one for kids who are ready to be judged)
• Participant survey/questionnaire
• Judging score cards
• Electrical power strips (at least five for my meeting room)
• Dry erase pens (I write the rules on the white board in the room)
• Duct tape
• Pitcher of water
• Paper cups for water
• Library laptops with power cords and mice (updated several days before the program)
• Copy of rules
• Seed world directions (I can never remember how to do this)
• Prizes!

Fun & Games Storytime

Storytime for 1 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum
• Book #1 – Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond
• Activity –Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (action rhyme)
• Flannelboard/Math Activity - Five Little Monkeys Swinging from the Tree (counting backward rhyme)

Five little monkeys swinging from the tree.
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "Can't catch me. Can't catch me."
Along comes Mr. Alligator quietly as can be.
And SNAP! that monkey right out of the tree.
(count down)

• Book #2 - Peekaboo Blueberry! by Barney Saltzberg (lift-flap)
• Activity – Where Is Thumbkin? (fingerplay from Wee Sing: Children's Songs and Fingerplays by Pamela Conn Beall and Susan Hogen Nipp)
• Closing - Did You Ever See A Lassie? (tambourines using Playtime: 49 Favorite Action and Sing-Along Songs from CEMA Special Markets)
• Craft – Glue a pattern block mosaic (using fraction blocks)