There are three new titles on tweens and libraries-- Naked Reading--Lesene Engaging Tweens and Teens--Philip Serving Young Teens and Tweens-Anderson
With our tween girls we had success with teaching them how to crochet (some boys started off but bowed out due to peer pressure, sadly). Also, anything to do with food gets them in the door - and cooking programs require reading and following directions so they fit in with the library's mission.
I have done all of these programs and had lots of success. The one thing I would recommend is to heavily advertise your program to a specific age/grade and be strict about only letting those kids in. I was a bit lenient about that when I first started out and found that if the little kids were in there, it greatly reduced the number of tweens that would attend. Anyway, have fun!
Tips for Tagging Tweens
1. Feed them!
Crazy for Chocolate: dip pretzels in melted white chocolate, chocolate crafts (www.hersheys.com <http://www.hersheys.com/> look for the fun4kids icon), chocolate games (www.brightideas.com <http://www.brightideas.com/> ), chocolate trivia.
2. Activate them!
Create a mystery and have them solve it. Premade mystery kits are available at www.highsmith.com <http://www.highsmith.com/>
3. Scout them!
Contact your local scout council and offer programs for older troops. (Juniors for Girls Scouts) Science programs are very popular and if you can afford to supply badges, you'll get a better response. Check with your local council and advertise in their Happenings or other publications. If you are lucky, the Girl Scouts will thank you with cookies!
4. Isolate them!
Book Bash: A three hour program after closing on Friday where we alternate reading for a half hour and an activity. Provide dinner and make sure that all advertising states that this program is ONLY for them...no little ones allowed under any circumstances. Make sure they have something to take home with them.
5. Gross them out!
Grossology books are highly popular with the boys. Create fake blood and snot just in time for Halloween. Check out www.grossology.com <http://www.grossology.com/> and remember: the grosser the better. Try a Fear Factor program-outside!
6. Inspire them!
Try a poetry or creative writing series. To make it personal, help them create journals and let them try out your Ellison or AccuCut machine if you have one. (I promise they won't ruin it!) Create writing prompts by cutting out photos from the newspaper, but remove the captions. Read a chapter of an engaging book and have them write the next chapter as a group. Teach a class on juggling or magic tricks.
7. Let them be crafty!
Hands on craft programs are sure-fire winners for both boys and girls. Try a beading program, abstract painting, papier mache, cookie decorating or if you are really brave, gingerbread house decorating.
8. Let them travel!
Globetrotters: An afterschool series focusing on a different country that met twice a month. Each child had a passport that was marked at each visit and we would try different foods, play games from each of the countries and sometimes to a craft relating to that particular region. Australia: made didgeridoos, played Bounce Eye, talked about Aboriginal art and tasted kiwi. Try www.kulturekids.com <http://www.kulturekids.com/> for more ideas.
We recently had a Tween Writer's Workshop that was a success. We're also going to have a book discussion with ice cream sundaes. Also, they have murder mystery kits for tweens and for teens and those are always popular.
I have worked with the tweens for over a year and luckily have had some very successful programs. We did a 3 part dancing program for once a month in Oct. Nov. and Dec. Starting with the oldies, moving to salso, meringue and ethnic then finishing with modern and ballroom including Shakiri jingly belts and "dancing with the stars' atmosphere. We have made large memory boards for their rooms, rolled paper jewelry, 2 large origami programs, holiday and back to school crafts. We've had book clubs run like gameshows and Manga drawing techniques. the kids love the gaming and movie nights.
We're contemplating a murder mystery or live clue type event to go along with the summer reading program.
I know of some other program ideas that seemed to be popular with the
"Tween" crowd. Some of them are movie nights, book discussion (sometimes tying the two together like Freaky Friday, where they would read the book before seeing the movie and then discussing the similarities or differences between the two). Recently, she is doing a trivia challenge/jeopardy with various subject areas and then hand out prizes or incentives to the tweens.
In addition, I would think maybe watching some anime that would be more
age appropriate (like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Fruits Basket or Slayers) for about an hour or two would be good. (Maybe treat it like a movie night. I know the YA librarian has become extremely popular with the teens and tweens for this. She says it has become extremely well attended).
As to performers or things like that were popular with the tween
ages: The three librarians usually had some of the local theater groups come and perform popular stories like "Treasure Island" (it was done during our summer reading program, so it somewhat tied in with the theme). Usually, if the performers are good enough and the plot has enough action, then the tweens seem to like it.
I hope these ideas help. If you have any questions about the above,
please do not hestitate to e-mail me. Thanks!
We have a chemist come in and do some simple but impressive experiments with the kids. The age limit that we place is grade 6 thru 12, but some younger siblings usually end up coming in and participating as well. We've done it twice so far, and he is coming back again the end of the month.
One summer I did a Fractured Fairy Tale Tween Puppet program. The kids read some fractured fairy tales made puppets out of junk (wooden spoons, fur, toilet plungers, all kinds of weird stuff) and I took some corrugated rolls of thick paper that looked like stone and made a temporary castle. We had over 75 little kids that showed up to watch the show. The tweens then helped the little kids make a puppet. It was fun.
We have also had some really good magicians, people come to talk about animals, games would be fun, movies, and crafts are always a big hit.
Crafts are always popular with young kids. I have a craft program once a month and get lots of different ages attending. We are having a beading demonstration soon. Some woman who does beading for a living will come and show the kids how it is done and they will create their own beaded something. I am having a duct tape craft night tonight. I got some books out, made some examples, bought some crazy colors (try Wal-Mart of all places for the tape) and hopefully we'll have some fun!
I would have suggested a manga club. We have an accomplished manga illustrator at every meeting (once a month), and it is very popular. At the end of the drawing session, the kids decide the winners, and we give prizes.
Also, I have a middle school library board for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. They help me decide how to spend the middle school programming and service money. The Leaders of Youth @ the Library (LOYAL) meets once a month after school on the first Wednesday of the month. To be a member, students have to fill out an application, and I call their references (teachers, employers, not family).
The kids also like: chess club, teen cafe (music, food, doing book reviews on video), anime afternoon (Japanese animated features), I Love Japan (very popular program with a native of Japan who teaches about the culture, how to eat with chop sticks), Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, after hours dances for middle school and high school.
Manga is always a good choice or another cartoon workshop. I've also had success with creating T-shirt designs.
Recently, we have had 2 very popular programs among that age group here in Queens. One was an origami workshop, the other was a "Reptile Edventure" where the presenter brought live animals including a large scorpion, a boa constrictor, and a 4-foot alligator. Both the programs were open to ages 8 to 14 and were very popular.
This age group seems to enjoy creative opportunities... so manga or any kind of cartooning, and crafts that encourage individuality in design are good.
We wrote many plays, created sets, costumed the staff and put them on for the community. It was a lot of fun and as the kids have grown older we are creating a film that was written by one of the cast members. Next we are putting on a musical, Fiddler on the Roof. It requires a lot of patience and a lot of snacks, but it well worth it, if only to see the sacts friendship and solidarity.
My suggestion is more for materials than for programs-- the tweenage patrons at our library have been very enthusiastic about the pop music CDs we've been buying (pretty much anything put out by Disney or Nickelodeon, and they always ask for Kidz Bop).
I did a survey that I passed out to the tweens at an event asking them what they wanted to see as far as programs go. It really helped in getting some more ideas from them-like the book club-and doing what they want to see I think will help bring in more kids.
We currently hold a Tween Town on the first Friday of every month. It's for kids ages 8-12. We have about five or six laptops set up for the internet so they can play games. We also have a playstation 2 with games and we rotate the kids through on the computers and playstation for 20 min each through a sign up sheet. (If no one has signed up, I let them stay on longer) We also put out snacks-mostly popcorn, cookies and lemonade-they love it! We also have some games set out-they really seem to love Bingo-especially when we offer prizes. We have a karaoke machine that goes over pretty well, but can get very annoying. This last one we had I also set up a table for crafts-I had drawing books and paper set out-and I also had a table of about six books I had read and book talked to the kids throughout the night about the different books I had read-a couple of them got checked out! I also set up a parent zone in the corner with magazines and snacks just for the parents. Th
is went over really well and helped keep the parents off to the side so the
kids felt more on their own. We had 30 kids attend the last event-and it keeps getting bigger! It lasts for two hours and doesn't require much prep or set up. We also hold a Yu-Gi-Oh night twice a month. It draws mostly boys around 8-12. They bring their own decks and can duel and trade. We don't provide anything but tables and paper to keep score. This is a pretty big event, but I'm hopeing to cut it down to one night a month and make the other night a girls themed activity-maybe even a book club-several girls have asked for that. Our tweens are pretty involved and love the activities we provide and we have a good amount of regulars. I'd love to hear any other suggestions you get. I'm the self-appointed "Tween person" at our library. I'm really wanting to get more tween programming going at our library.
We recently did some research on various aspects of children's programming. My area to research was tween programming. Currently we aren't doing a ton of programming for this age (we consider it 4th-6th). During the summer we do a once a week program (last summer it was a bookmaking workshop, this summer each week is a different topic) and during the school year it's pretty sporadic. In October we had a Lemony Snicket party, and we've had a few book related programs since then.
On a side note, one of my coworkers contacted a library and asked why they haven't focused much on tween programming. The response she got was that they don't want to try to compete with all the other activities that are out there. Since tweens aren't coming into the library as much, they are going to focus more on an online effort when they redesign their webpage, kind of a "meet them where they are at" approach.