Back in April, I wrote about how we are shaking up our Summer Storytime schedule and adding in a new program called Fandom Jr. The idea is to offer a drop in program on Friday mornings based on popular preschool topics and themes. I promised an update!
I hosted my first Fandom Jr. last week and it was a huge success! For our first program, I wanted to focus on community heroes, so we chose the popular Nick Jr. show, Paw Patrol. The program combined a little bit of a playtime, a little bit of a storytime, and lots of fun.
I had lots of various activities and stations set up around the room including:
- Pin the badge on the pup (made by one of my amazing staff using materials from the Nick Jr website)
- Community Helper dolls (from our circulating toy collection-we have three sets of community helper action figures and this was a good way to highlight this collection as well)
- Reading station filled with books about community helpers
- Match the worker to their tools game-I had pictures of four workers-dentist, farmer, mail carrier, and fire fighter-as well as the tools they use.
- Paw Patrol Coloring Sheets-(from the Nick Jr. website)
- Paw Patrol Character Matching Game (again using resources from Nick Jr)
- Write a letter to a community helper. I made a simple letter template and put out crayons and pencils for the kids to write.
I also set up a display of books and DVDs about community helpers. I started the program with a reading of Officer Buckle and Gloria and read I’m Brave about halfway through the accomodate the new crowd that had come in later in the morning. Over the course of our 2-hour drop in program, we had around 70 kids show up and play.
Even though it was a drop in program, most of the crowd showed up at 11:00, when we started, so it will be interesting to see how this week’s program works and if the crowd is more split up throughout the morning. The kids and parents both had a great time and it was fun to see them engaging in our Library resources and connecting a popular show with another topic. Most of the book display checked out which I thought was great! I’m eager to see how the rest of the series goes throughout the Summer!
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