The Serious Fun Stuff Librarian

Othello board game setup.

GO game setup with various board sizes.

Hosted our ‘GO, Othello, and Ice Cream Sandwiches’ program yesterday. Hopefully introduced some new lifelong fans to the games! Grades 4-6.
#BoardGame #GO #LibraryProgram #Library

Kizuna Spider-Man string doll. White string with red and pink marker.

Kizuna form.
#library #spiderman

‘Spidey’ string doll composed of pipecleaners, string, felt, glue, and marker.

Close-up of ‘Spidey’ string doll.
#crafts #diy

Picture showing Spider-Man: Kizuna, Vol. 1 manga, a string doll, and some materials used to make it including string, glue, and a marker.

I KIZUNA, and you can too! Developing a tween Spider-Man: Kizuna, Vol. 1 book talk where we make string doll versions of the characters while discussing the manga.
🧵🕷️
#Library #LibraryProgram #Manga #SpiderMan #BookTalk

Gardening kit including three packs of seeds, seedling pots, seed sorter, and a watering cap. A sheet of instructions or gardening considerations.

Simple gardening kit you can adapt depending on the season. Good for tweens/teens. We’ve tried different versions, all usually include seeds, seedling pots, one additional tool, and basic instructions/considerations. Happy gardening!🌱
#Library #LibraryProgram #Gardening #Skybrarians #ProgramKits

Squirtle PRIXEL Press print in black ink.

And the Squirtle PRIXEL Press. Now I just need a blue stamp pad.
#PRIXEL #PrintMaking #Pokemon #Squirtle #Library

Thanks so much!

Orange Charmander PRIXEL Press print.

Charmander PRIXEL Press stamp…wip. One more starter to go…
#PRIXEL #PrintMaking #Library #Pokemon #Charmander

A ‘Wellbeing Area’ is a great idea! An invitation to downshift for a while, using the library space and resources.
#LibrarySpaces #Wellness

PRIXEL Press showing stamp piece arrangement for final Bulbasaur print.

Bulbasaur PRIXEL Press print in black and red ink.

Early Bulbasaur PRIXEL Press print in green and gold ink.

Early Bulbasaur PRIXEL Press print in green, gold, and red ink.

PRIXEL Press Bulbasaur. You can see the stamp pieces, and the “evolution” (or process) in the pics. #PrintMaking #PRIXEL #Pokemon #LibraryPrograms

Bulbasaur PRIXEL Press print in green, black, brown, and gold ink.

PRIXEL Press Bulbasaur. Getting the hang of this. #PrintMaking #PRIXEL #Pokemon #Bulbasaur #Library

#PrintMaking ☝️

PRIXEL Press with Venus Flytrap rubber stamp arrangement.

PRIXEL Press Venus Flytrap print in red ink with a gold ink fly. Test run print on yellow notepad paper.

The process. Lots of fun, with just the right amount of trial and error. #PintMaking #EduSky #DIY

PRIXEL Press stamp print of a green Venus Flytrap and a red fly.

Just playing around with the PRIXEL Press - a Venus Flytrap (with curious snack). 🌱🪰
#Library #Skybrarians #Prints #LibraryProgram

Twenty-five Venus flytraps on a sunny windowsill.

Twenty-five mouths to feed! Our Venus Flytraps for next week’s ‘Return of the Monster Plants!’ program. Now I just have to keep them alive and healthy for a week. For Grades 4-6.
#Library #Summer #VenusFlytrap

Shows PRIXEL press with three modular rubber type shapes to form the word "COOL" in red ink and a star shape in gold ink, pressed on a blank envelope.

In under ten minutes I had the packaging opened and made my first print. Fun and easy
- can't wait to see what our creative patrons come up with!
#Library #LibraryProgram #Print

Shipment of PRIXEL press and expansion module rubber types of different shapes.

Walked in from the weekend to see this box of goodies on my desk; We ordered six PRIXEL presses and tons of expansion packs for our PRIXEL press holiday card programs in Oct and Dec. l'd like to try it for zines next.
I first learned about PRIXEL from a review by @meganroseruiz.bsky.social Thanks!

A bunch of green, brown, and white moths of all different sizes perch on a white sheet that's been hung up and lit with an external light.

It’s Moth Wall Season! 👀 #NationalMothWeek starts July 19, you can help scientists study and protect moths around the world by sharing your photos of them to iNaturalist.

Learn more: tr.ee/yDkjsW 🌙✨

📷 Luna Moth (Actias luna) by iNaturalist user annawinge

National Moth Week 2025 STARTS TODAY!
This year, photograph the littlest moths you can find -micro moths! Make sure you register your mothing activities www.nationalmothweek.org so we can include you in the project and send your certificate! #NationalMothWeek #MothWeek2025 #MothWeek

So glad you like it! A very popular program kit. If you have any questions please reach out. Thank you!

The examples pictured are all of Tokyo (a popular choice!). This program used craft materials and was not a Maker Space project, although you certainly could include Maker Space elements, rendering monuments, buildings, additional kaiju, etc.
Hope this helps! Thank you.

If they're more interested in Anime and Manga, for instance, discussions while crafting their diorama may lean more into Japanese culture, and manga titles they've read. Or maybe they're just into arts and crafts and never made a diorama before.

"If the structure of a bridge could support X amount of weight, would your kaiju of choice be able to demolish it?" Or maybe they just want to recreate a real-life monument to the best of their abilities. How can we accomplish this with materials at hand?

Since there's no "one size fits all" method to programming, here is where it helps if you're familiar with the interests of your library's current teen population. If they're interested in STEM - you can focus more on architecture, or get into some fun hypotheticals:

This fosters engagement with our collection - and hopefully some circulation. Then invite the attendees to share anything interesting they may have learned - encourage them to include regional elements into the diorama if they can. This is really more to spark conversation among participants.

An in-house public library program for teens typically runs an hour. Teens would have fifteen minutes (give or take) to research a desired city and locate a library resource such as a nonfiction book from the shelf or database - ProQuest's CultureGrams is one of my favorites for projects like this.

Godzilla diorama: Godzilla vs King Ghidorah.

Godzilla diorama: Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla.

Godzilla diorama: Featuring Mothra.

Check out these Godzilla Dioramas! Students learn a few facts about a city location of their choice - then they get to populate it with rampaging Kaiju! Great for grades 6+. A winning combination of education and mischief.💚🦖 #Godzilla #Library #LibraryProgram

Cool - “A zine made with excitement and haste” - best way to make a zine!

A selection of seven family board games on a yellow background. Titles include Keys to the Castle, Baffled, Pickles to Penguins, Lambada, Karate Grannies, The Crooked Crown, and Word Thief.

A huge THANK YOU to @outsetgames.bsky.social for sending this awesome selection of family games! Hours and hours of fun ahead - can’t wait to try these out at some programs.
#Library #LibraryProgram #BoardGames
#Games #Skybrarians

This would inspire ME to grab a book or two on sharks!👍