Glow in the Dark Experiments

Who doesn't like stuff that glows, and I figured it was appropriate for Halloween :)

Glow Sticks

An easy way to get glowing is glow sticks. Basically it is a chemical reaction between two compounds that, when mixed, release excess energy as light. If you are interested, it is a process called chemiluminescence.I found that the kids understood the idea of a chemical reaction if you talk about mixing baking soda and vinegar, as most have done that.

Once we understood a little more about chemical reactions, I actually cut open one of the glow sticks. Each glow stick is actually made of two sticks; one plastic one that you feel, and one glass one that is lodged inside. When you crack a glow stick you are actually breaking the inner glass tube that releases one chemical into the other and presto, instant light!

Glow Paint

Let your participants paint a design on a black piece of paper without telling them that it is glow in the dark paint. Once they are finished, turn off the lights and watch their surprise. Once they've seen the affect, you can talk about the science behind it called photoluminescence (the paint absorbs photons and then releases them in the dark is the short answer hehe. Another way of thinking about it is the paint getting excited and then releasing this excitement as light, just like we might release our excitement by dancing).

Finally, we mixed some GAK with glow paint (but glow powder would work just as well). This experiment is fun to do no matter what, and seeing it glow in the dark after you mix it just makes it that much cooler =D

Altered Book Collages: Imagine, Resue, Repurpose

Has anyone heard of altered books? Basically, you take a book that isn't going to be read anymore, and you repurpose it into a craft project.

Some people make purses; some people make wreaths; some people make poems. But no matter what is made, I thought the idea was super cool!

First of all, it's cool because it is something totally out of the box.

Secondly, it's cool because it breaks all the rules. You aren't supposed to cut, paste, or damage a book. But, if the book is destined for a landfill, why shouldn't we use it as a craft project? If a book has been well-loved, why not love it one more time?

Lastly, it's cool because, well, its just cool!

For our first foray into altered books, we just did collages. Working at a library, there were plenty of discarded books to choose from. Then it was simply a matter of grabbing stencils, yarn, stickers, markers, fancy scissors, and buttons, and letting the kids imagine what their books could look like. Some of the kiddos decorated the covers, other kids picked a pair of pages inside, while other kids posted a single element onto each page inside.

The kids had a really good time, and I'll definitley do altered books again. Might be a different project next time, though, because there are so many ideas out there!

Duct Tape or Duck Tape? Either Way it Got Your Attention Right? lol

As many of you know, making stuff with Duct tape is awesome, and I couldn't resist doing a Duct

Tape Creations program anymore. So, we made Duct Tape wallets with Duck Tape brand tape and it was amazingly fun :)

We did this program for our Elementary (3-6 grade) and Middle School (6-8 grade) patrons. I hadn't actually created anything with Duct tape before, so I asked one of our Teen volunteers to sit in on our Middle School programs and give some pointers. I also took advantage of a couple websites that broke the whole process down for me. Enjoy :)
P.S. I found that only having 6 rolls of duct tape for 18 kiddos (what happened for our Elementary program) doesn't quite work out. It takes quite a while to get anything done because they had to wait so long for the duct tape. If I were to do it again, I'm thinking of having 1 roll of duct tape for every 2 people that are there. I would also have duplicates of the same colors so if one is over here, than one can be over there. Just some thoughts on the logistical side of things, and now to the websites. Pretty much I found a whole bunch of useful ideas on Instrutables and wikiHow.

Conventional Duct Tape Wallet

Just your straight up wallet.

Magic Duct Tape Wallet

If you put money into one side and close the wallet, it shows up on the other side.

Woven Duct Tape Wallet

Makes a really cool checkerboard kind of design for your wallet (the picture above).

Duct Tape Roses

A really simple way to make flowers that will last.

Realistic Duct Tape Roses

A slightly more complicated, but much more true to life, way to make a flower that will last.

Anybody Need Program Ideas?

So, every Monday from 4-5pm, we do a program for 3-6 graders. The first Monday we have Play With Your Food, where we bake and cook. The second Monday we do Ka-Boom, where we have fun doing science experiments. On third Mondays we have Couldn't Put It Down, which is a gaming and technology time. Finally, we have Express Yourself on fourth Mondays which is us making crafts.

In addition, we just started a program for Middle Schoolers, 6-8 graders, called Tuesday Works, and we're going to be doing something fun and different each month.

Oh, I almost forgot about our High School programs. We have a Next-Gen Advisory Team that meets to brainstorm cool things for Teens to do at the library, and we also just started a book club called TeenBookWorms.

As I thought about these programs, I thought that someone, somewhere, might be interested in what we did, and how we did it. So, when I get the chance, I'm going to do a quick blog post with resources and a quick breakdown on what we did, how we did it, and how it went. Hope you like the idea =D