Last summer we repeated one of our popular standalone programs – DINOS! It had been a few years since we did this program and, as many of you know, I recycle these themed programs at least every 2-3 years. (unless it’s something very pop culture-y that has dated. But that’s a rarity.) Since last summer was all about Jurassic World this felt like a good time to bring dinos back. I also like this theme because it’s somewhat generic and not tied to a specific property, which I think you should ALWAYS throw some non-property related events – it makes you feel less like some kind of marketing firm. So, this time we made it an evening event. Again, I’ve written about how I think it’s very important to have evening events – even when they stretch staff – so that working families can make it. Dino Night was a huge success. Here’s how we did it.
15 minutes of story and intro
We made a giant pile of fiction and non-fiction dinosaur books to have out for patrons to check out – which we do for all these events … if you’re not here for the book what’s the point? But I chose to read When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach, delightfully illustrated by David Small. This is a slightly longer picture book that requires a little more imagination, has very silly pictures, and makes grown-ups have to deal with dinosaurs for making their children suffer through errands. What’s not to love?
We also threw in a staff sing-along of Five Little Dinosaurs– which is basically Five Little Ducks but WITH DINOSAURS. Instead of mother duck calling “quack quack quack”, mother dinosaur calls “roar, roar, roar” – and of course the crowd must roar along with us or else the little dinos will never make it home. They loved this! We made one verse “flap, flap, flap” for the flying dino and the chance to flap our hands! Here’s my awesome staff in action calling those dinosaurs home.
Melissa made foam dino feet – which I chose not to wear because I would have literally tripped over them and cracked my head open in 2.5 seconds. But they were easy to make, so you could make them as a costume and they COULD be a cute craft – but we didn’t have enough foam and we really didn’t want to sit with each kid measuring their feet one by one. (we like to keep it fast!)
45 minutes of craft and games
Of course we had a scavenger hunt (dinos, dino hunt leaders, feathered dinos) as ever. We print out ten images, tape them up around YS, and send kids to find them with a look and find sheet. Always a huge hit and a good way to split up the crowd.
DINOSAUR MASKS! Kids colored their dino masks and then attached them to popsicle sticks using glue dots (two must haves: putting the masks on popsicle sticks is such an improvement over trying to get them around kid’s heads with string and glue dots over glue sticks are the ultimate.) Fun stuff. Note: we do lots of masks and headbands/crowns as crafts. Do kids ever get sick of them? I don’t think so. They are such a fun prop and they encourage the best imaginative play. It feels like a fun costume, even, and it’s a good take home. I highly recommend them as an activity. Here’s one of our favorite library patrons with his mask.
DINOSAUR EGGS! This was a fun, easy craft that also used up a bunch of our brads, whooo-hooo! Kids liked having a craft that moved, so that was neat to see. And getting to put the brads in required a little more hand-eye concentration and parental involvement. Using this idea, we found an egg template and some cute little dinosaurs and let kids go at it. They colored their eggs, used the brad to attach them, and glued in their dinos. Here’s a delightful kid made example with, yes, an upside down dino.
DINOSAUR TAIL KNOCKDOWN! The site with the egg craft also had an amazing idea for making dinosaur tails using stuffed garbage bags. Well you know I wanted some of that! Melissa, as always, experimented until she made it work. Our tails have pool noodles inside (ah, the handy stuff we have around in a YS department) as well as plastic bags, which gave them a little more backbone. Here’s Dillon and Melissa modeling them. (note we decorated ours)
At this station, kids strapped on the tails and tried to knock over trees. (coffee cans and Pringles cans, some of which were weighed down to really make it hard.) This station was a hoot, of course. The problem was the really littles struggled under the size of the tail … which just made us insist they have their GROWN-UPS try it on for a swing. Which … yes. The kids loved it and tripped themselves in circles to get to the trees.
DINOSAUR TOSS! This was a simple modification on one of our popular bean bag toss stations (another station we have often – this works because kids across ages/mobility levels can participate in their own ways and it’s easily modifiable.) Basically, we printed out some dino pictures and made circles according to their size and put points on them (the smaller the dino, the smaller the circle and the higher the points) and let kids toss away and try to get the beanbags in the circles. We also had facts about the sizes/species of each dino, which was fun to add in.
And that’s it! Two crafts, two activities, one scavenger hunt, a storytime and song, and a big giant pile of books. We had almost 100 people attend – including whole families because it was a night event – and all ages from 3-4 year olds all the way up to 11-12 year olds.
I am SURE we’ll do a dinosaur event again. Since it’s not tied to a specific property and it’s a perennial topic of fascination for kids, it makes for a great program. We didn’t repeat any of the activities from the last time and we probably wouldn’t have to the next time – there’s just so much to do with dinosaurs! (trivia of some kind? sensory bins to dig through?)
Do you have any questions? Do you want to borrow any of our templates or have any questions about our event? Have you had dinosaur events or activities at your library? What worked and what didn’t work? What ages came? Let’s talk all about it! Leave me a comment here or chat with me on Twitter. (and thanks to everyone on Twitter who voted in my poll to make this my next blog topic! I always like knowing what kind of content you’d like to see here, so definitely let me know!)
