I have done tye-die T shirts outside. Some branches have picnics in their lawn area- the kids bring lunches and maybe have outdoor type games.
Marge
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I am also doing a zoo-themed program soon and, while it will be inside, I believe you could use this craft anywhere. I've obtained some 6" x 9" styrafoam meat trays from the meat dept. at the local grocery store. Cut one in slits in the two long sides of the tray.
Use a piece of packing tape to attach a piece of yarn to the back of the tray; the yarn needs to be long enough to wrap around the tray as many times as you have slits cut. Pass out zoo stickers and a prepared tray to each child and have them make a "zoo cage" by decorating the tray with the stickers and then wrapping the yarn around the tray to finish the cage. Secure the yarn at the back of the tray with a second piece of packing tape.
Good luck with your program.
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I did an outside storytime about Big Rigs. I asked the city to bring all their heavy equipment over for the kids to look at and sit inside of .Lots of books on the subject. Hugely popular. Even the adults had fun. Some brought cameras and took pictures of their kids sitting in the drivers seat. We had back holes , cranes, bulldozers and ones I couldn't name. I also bought some cheap plastic yellow hard hats from Oriental Trading Co.
CHILD'S CONSTRUCTION HATS Item Number: IN-25/1615 $5.95 per Dozen
Susan
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Last year, as part of our summer program, the kids made fairyhouses on the library grounds. I asked that all participants (the program was open to all ages) bring a bagful of "natural" supplies, i.e sticks, grasses, flowers, etc - anything that could be raked up or left to decompose - and that the library grounds couldn't be defaced in any way. I also saved up a lot of my yard clippings, twigs, etc. in case someone showed up with nothing - The kids did a fantastic job, and the houses were left up until claimed by the weather (or the yard crew). As an extra, I set up a table with pipecleaners, fake leaves and flowers hot glued to straw pieces, and little bells for everyone to make fairy bracelets.
Chris
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Can you bring in any baby animals for the children to pet? How about a treasure hunt, a water balloon fight or another water game (you can find lots of water games on the Internet), play in a sand box, plant some flowers, find a rock and make a rock pet, roast marshmallows...
--
Sue Waibel, Director
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My name is Nancy and I've done some outdoor creative activities with children here at the library that you may be interested in. Here's the list--
1. Large plastic tub of water and dish washing liquid..... cups....bubble wands, etc.... water is always entertaining for most children
2. Large plastic tub with wild bird seed --- 3 or 4 lbs. of seed...where I live you can go to the 99cent store and get a 2 lb bag for..... 99cents.... add scoops and spoons..... smaller animals.... have to be careful of the choking hazard 3. Shaving cream on a table..... children just move the shaving cream around on the table top... add water every so often to keep the cream from drying out.... it's a little messy to clean up.... and you really need a hose to wash down the table 4. Play Dough --- you can make your own.... you probably know how 5. Have you ever heard of Clean Mud? ---- a roll of TP unrolled and layered in a large plastic tub.... sprinkle with 1/2 cup of borax and a grated bar of Ivory Soap (has to be pure Ivory Soap).... mix thoroughly... let stand a few hours... mix some more till it becomes foamy and frothy... very fun to play in.....if it seems a little dry... add more water and borax and soap... it's all clean and you just shake your hands to get it off... or leave it to dry and brush it off... 6. Water painting on the walls, grass, driveways, etc..... big brushes and pails of water..... has to be supervised quite closely
Hope this helps. Cheers. Nancy
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Would your director approve of a picnic? I've done this once and it was a great success- of course at that time we did do it was done indoors. Parents were asked to bring their blankets and we provided simple ham and cheese sandwiches, chips and juice. We decorated the walls with pictures of past activities and the parents were allowed to take them home.
I'm currently planning one in our new garden. The children will be making a
small picnic basket out of a lunch bag and we will fill it with small packages of cookies (in your case you could use animal crackers) and chips. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Good Luck!!
Vanessa L. Saenz
Children's Librarian
Edinburg Public Library
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Kids like to get wet. Have them bring their beach towels and other beach items. Parents can bring lawn chairs. I would read stories about beaches and sandcastles and we played in the water. Beach balls to toss and chase. Cold watermellon to eat. Have a seed spitting contest for parents. One kid was so proud that his mother could spit farther than anyone else. Cold water for those who might get too hot. Depending on length of program, you could invite kids to bring picnic lunches. (Ice chests needed to keep cold) Or ask local pizza place to donate pizza. Get parents to volunteer to serve.
We now have a fountian near our library that shoots water up all around that the kids can run through, but before that was installed, I use to buy the plastic swimming pools that Walmart would put on sale at the end of the summer and use those. You could also ask voluneers to bring pools, or ask the fire department to come hose off the kids. Connect a hose to a waterslide if you have a grassy area.
Have watergun fights. This is loads of fun until all the kids gang up on you. Designate a no shooting zone for spectators. I went home dripping wet one year when I step out of the zone. Fill a small pool up with water for refilling waterguns. Buy the little water squirters and waterguns that you can get cheaply from Oriental Trading or S&S for children who don't already have them. Specifiy a location for those with the high powered waterguns. My rule was you couldn't shoot anyone who couldn't shoot back or was more than a foot shorter than you. This kept little kids from getting picked on. I use to have a box with waterballoons filled the morning of the event. Everyone got one but had to wait until I said go before they threw them. If you are going to do this get help. Tying all those balloons with wet hands rubs a blister real quick.
Ask who ever in your city takes care of the landscaping. See if you can get a load of sand dumped there for the kids to play in that the city can spread on the grass after the program. Hide shells and treasures in the sand to find. Have a sandcastle building contest. Be sure kids understand they cannot go into the library wet and sandy and to check out their books first.
Have fun
Susan
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Do you have a parachute? They are just so much fun! My storytime kids really enjoy the parachute, they love to make it go fast and slow and going under and around. Toys R Us sells parachutes for about $20.
You could also play "Duck, Duck, Goose," or "Farmer in the Dell," or any
backyard game. Or, you could play Jim Gill's "List of Silly Dances," and have the kids dance to that song.
You could also go to the dollar store and get a ball and have the kids form a circle and pass the ball around. As each person catches the ball, they could do some activity like "hop on one foot," or "touch your nose," or "touch your toes," "clap your hands," and other activities like that. With the ball, you could also have the kids kick the ball and see who can kick it the furthest away.
Again, you could go to the dollar store and get some jump ropes or hula
hoops and have the kids step in the hoops or jump over the jump ropes.
Another game you could play, with the parents' help, is "London Bridge."
Our kids also enjoy playing that game. Another fun, traditional game would be "Follow the Leader," and you could lead them to a special treat if they are having one for their last storytime before Summer Reading Club begins.
If you want to stay with your theme of zoos, you could pretend that one of
the children is the zookeeper and he or she has to go around and feed the animals, and each child, pretends to be a monkey or an elephant or a lion or whatever and makes the animal noise in order to be fed. You could try doing this until all children get a turn to be the zookeeper, depending on the size of your crowd.
If you have any rhythm instruments, you could hand them out and let the kids form a marching band and have a parade outside.
If the weather is good, you may want to have some water balloons and the kids could have fun with those. It would be wet and messy, but it would be fun.
You could also do a treasure or scavenger hunt, where you could hide things that have to do with the zoo, like puppets or zoo animals, tickets, things like that.
That's about all the activities I can think of at the moment. I hope it helps.
Sincerely,
Patty Rose
Children's Librarian
Wright Memorial Public Library
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Well, if you are brave or foolish we did foot painting - it started out as finger painting but foot painting evolved as was more popular. We used a big roll of butcher paper taped to the sidewalk. Be sure and use washable paint and tell parents to have kids wear old clothes Diana Norton dnorton@midyork.org Library Services Consultant Mid-York Library System Utica, NY 13502
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Last summer I spread a giant piece of red checked fabric on the grass and we all sat on it. Then I Giant Jam Sandwich by Lord while the kiddos ate jam finger sandwiches I had made. After a couple of other stories the children made ants by gluing precut circles to a paper and drawing the legs.
Lisa
Quinlan Community Library
Quinlan, TX
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We've done several outside activities with children - preschoolers & elementary aged kids.
Water day - in the summer ask the fire dept. to bring a truck & spray water. Can also invite the kids to wear their swim suits & play in slip & slides, a sprinkler, or a wading pool - put marbles in the bottom of the pool & challenge the kids to pick them up with their toes.
An obstacle course - crawl through tunnels, over, under, around & through boxes, hula hoops, poles propped on chairs to crawl under, etc. old tires to run through like football players practice with.
Hula hoops, jump ropes, hop scotch, & sack races. Old time challenges like a watermellon seed spitting contest, water balloon throw, race carrying an egg on a spoon.
Ice cream party. or this year we bought an inexpensive ($25) sno-cone machine & we're going to make sno cones for the kids.
Truck day - ask your town or county to bring trucks and let the kids have their picture taken hanging on a garbage truck (very popular with the little ones, not so popular with the parents:), ambulance, tractor trailor, etc. a big farm tractor, race car, whatever you can get folks to bring. A limo was also very popular!
Hope these ideas get those creative juices flowing!
Sally
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our library has done finger painting outside with lots of butcher paper on the ground. we also do an annual "flag day" where the kids make a flag craft outside and then when they're done we march through and around the outside of the library with marching music.
~j.
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Lori,
It might be fun to have a zoo parade around the building. I think Steve
& Greg have a couple of Animal Action songs on their CDs--I've used them
in storytimes before--lots of fun! Getting the music to carry outside might be tricky, however, without a sound system.
Sharon
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How about give each child a "musical instrument" and have them march around in a parade or play a CD they can bang their instruments to? I made shakers for my kids by putting beans inside toilet paper tubes and sealing them shut (staples and then tape) the kids decorated the outside with a paper coloring page of musical instruments. This was younger kids but older ages might enjoy it too!
esther
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Bean Bag Toss, Hopscotch, Spud, Follow the Leader, "A" My name is Alice--chant with ball, Simon Says--or in this case the Zookeeper Says, One-In-Twenty, A Sand Area--as long as you're outside. Miniature golf area, sponge toss, knock stuffed animals off their pedestals, Hot Potato, Horse Shoes, Walk the Plank, Relay Games...
I usually have one toss, one floor and one "pin the..." with different stations being supervised by different Moms. (For the pin game, you can buy zoo stickers and place them on a placemat representing the zoo. The toss game could be feeding the seals, or whatever.) I think bubbles are magical.
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Hi Lori -- About a zoo-olympics? You could do an elephant race (walking, of course), a monkey toss (using small water balloons, balls or bean bags), a kangaroo jump, a lizard slither (kind of a limbo game where the kids see how low they can go under the pole, etc. You wouldn't need prizes or anything - just the fun of participating is usually enough.
Pat Vasilik
Children's Coordinator
Clifton Public Library
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I've done some fun activities outside with the kids.
Try using a new toilet plunger and canning jar rings as a ring toss.
Drop clothes pins into a small mouthed bottle, or plastic container.
Put a ping pong ball/marble/small ball on a spoon and have the kids go through an obstacle course. Most fun was having an adult or 2 kids holding up a hula hoop and letting the kids "joust" with a pool "noodle"
If you have many kids, divide them up into small groups with an adult leader for each and move them through each station.
You can name each activity with a zoo/animal theme, Monkey toss, ostrich
egg carry, etc.
Good luck!
Cindi Smith
Children's Librarian
Seaford District Library
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Along with the zoo theme, it would be cool to have some animals brought into the library! Even if they are only from your local 4-H. Or even a local pet store.
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Have someone with a dog visit, preferably a dog trained to be around children. Or have a pet parade so people can bring their own pets.