I have recently discovered a great not-so-new resource for teachers and librarians - Biology in a Box! This program, now in it's 25th year, was created by University of Tennessee/Knoxville professor Dr. Susan Riechert to help science teachers in the Knox County, Tennessee, schools who were lacking a strong science background, or adequate resources to provide strong
I came across an interesting new type of toy online a few months ago - fidget spinners. They're advertised as good for nail chewers, autistic people, children and adults with OCD, ADHD, and a variety of other conditions and issues. I don't know about all that, but I do know they are
This week, as part of my Summer Reading Depot Days programs in the park series, we addressed geology; and it rocked! As usual we began the program with some good books, including A Rock is Lively, by Dianna Hutts Aston, and Earthshake: Poems From The Ground Up, by Lisa Westberg Peters. A Rock is Lively gave us
During spring break this year, I tried a new program aimed specifically for 8-12 year olds. We met each afternoon for two hours to work on creating paper automata. I had a limit of 25 participants, and required pre-registration in order to attend. Registration started out slow, and about the time I began to get
Taking advantage of connections to the county parks department, spring weather, and spring break, we tried a new program idea this spring. A Tree-mendous Mini Camp was held on two days in a local county park; we did a variety of tree-related activities, learning games, reading, crafting, and more. For two and a half hours
Shapes, shapes, and more shapes. Circle, triangle, square, rectangle - it all starts of easy enough. Then it get a bit more complicated when you move from two dimensional to three dimensional - sphere, cylinder, pyramid, cube, prism. Then, before you know it, your tongue is in a knot, and you're totally confused.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute has done it again! They have developed another delicious educational experience to share with libraries and educators - Edible Rocks. Who would want to try to eat a rock? Just about everyone, when the "rocks" are chocolate bars, "Three Musketeers" (the candy, not the book or movie), "Nestle
A few weeks ago, I came across a very interesting online store, the Carnivorous Plant Nursery. Their focus, shockingly, is on propagating and selling carnivorous plants from all over the world. But they also believe in education and helping educators of all kinds. To this end, they
How can kids use the scientific method to develop better, higher flying paper rockets, or, better yet, shock the administrators on the third floor? It's easy! For the last several years, I've been doing stomp rocket programs at my library. Whether it's during summer reading club or in the middle of the school
Last week my Crafternoon participants (with a few moms and one teen-aged sister included) enjoyed a paper plane tournament. It was a wonderful, low cost, quick prep program which everyone enjoyed thoroughly. I collected all the paper airplane books that my library system owned, added quite a few that I bought online, and had them laid
