This is actually our second program in this monthly series. The theme last month was The Science of Sound and we were overwhelmed by the amazing response! The number of families that came to the program was much higher than expected, which of course was awesome. Unfortunately though, that meant that some kids didn’t get to do certain crafts and I wasn’t able to interact with them as I usually do. Even though everyone was exceedingly kind and gracious, I was determined to make improvements for the next session.
The biggest change was dividing the kids by age: activities for preschoolers were in the children’s room of the library and activities for 5-12 were in the auditorium. Homeschooling families often have multiple kids across the age spectrum, so this was flexible. Each room had three different activities, with printed handouts so that families could move at their own pace among the stations.
Activities for ages 5-12
Hands down my favorite activity was the Remote Control Robot Dance, adapted from the Everybody Dance Now activity from Hour of Code. In this version, the kids got to make their own remote and program four different dance moves. It was SO FUN.
The kids really loved making Function Bracelets. The only difference here is that I used pipe cleaners instead of string.
The final activity was Origami Algorithm, adapted from Teach Your Kids Code. I considered doing this one in two stages–first giving them a sheet of paper to try to make a dog without instructions and then a second time with instructions. I added a bit of information about sequencing here, too. It doesn’t matter if you fold one ear before the other, for example, but it does make a difference if you fold the bottom part up before adding the black sticker for the nose.
Activities for Preschoolers
I used The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a theme for preschool activities around the concepts of patterns and sequencing. I did these in Canva, but there are lots of examples online.
LibrErin 