Mini Ren Faire for Teens

One of my former library teens now a library employee talked me into hosting this event. In the end, it turned out well, but the decorating took a lot of time and we had too many activities for the two hours. 

The decorations were simple: I borrowed castle wall curtains from a friend and we used these to cover most of a history mural in the library's meeting room. Black table cloths, parchment paper signs, battery operated candles, a few candle holders, and some burlap. 

The Snacks (The Tavern): Pickles, Olives, Cheese, Crackers, Assorted Dried Fruit, Chessman Cookies, Apple Cider (Apple Juice), Root Beer, Ginger Ale

Arrival Activities

• Shakespearean or Medieval Insults
• Shakespeare Insult Generator by brendan kelso on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Make Your Own Medieval Insult by Sense of Wonder on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Trivia: Ed Sheeran or Shakespeare: The Tempest Quotes Game by Matthew Jenkins on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Name Generators (found on Pinterest: Dragon Name x4, Enchanted Forest Name, Heroic Name, Tournament Name, Royal Name x2, Fairy Name, Fantasy Name, Woodland Fairy)

Gaming:

• Dice Games: Raffle, Zara, Hazard, Passage
• Other Games: Queek, Nine Men’s Morris, Fox and Geese, The Game of the Goose

Here There Be Dragons Crafts

• Dragon Eggs (Styrofoam eggs and thumbtacks)
• Dragon Eyes (instructions from Craft Your Happiness)

Armory Crafts

• Make Your Own Sword (dowels, pool noodles)
• Make Your Own Shield (flat cardboard, markers; see Coat of Arms Printable from Happy Strong Home) 

Coloring

• Medieval Designs & Stained Glass from Dover Publications free samples
• Medieval designs from Color Our Collections 

We also had a scavenger hunt devised by the library teen turned employee. 

Life Size Sorry Redux

I've been playing Life Size Sorry with my library teens since 2014. I first blogged about it here. 

Last year I decided to give my original set up a face lift. I use the game pieces from this free clipart set on Teachers Pay Teachers from P4 Clips Trioriginals so I matched my color scheme to those and created a new board layout in PowerPoint. I think it looks much better. I don't laminate the pieces for two reasons. First, it makes them more of a slip hazard. Second, I'd have to clean them each time and I'm much too busy for that. 

When we played this summer, I modified the rules so you could move from start on any forward moving card. This sped the game up nicely and kept the teens from getting bored. 

Shark Week Party

Shark Week is a popular event and it seemed like a good idea to use it for a teen library program. I've hosted this event twice: 2015 and 2022. The parties are similar, but I like to think my planning style has become more streamlined. 

Snack are a big party of a Shark Week Party. They are themed and we had the following: 

• Shark Teeth (Bugles)
• Sour Watermelon Sharks 
• Goldfish 
• Life Preservers (gummy ring candy)
• Shark Fins (tortilla chips)
• Chum (salsa)
• Swedish Fish

We played the following games:

• Hit the Shark  as suggested by Bryce (shark target, pool noodles for spears)
• Shark Bite 
• Sharks vs. Dolphins 
• Shark Scavenger Hunt (I used the Shark Matching Game from Natural Beach Living.)

All in all a simple, but very fun party for teens.

Teen Lego Night

Teen still enjoy building with Legos. This was an easy event to host in February when I'm never sure what the weather will be doing.

I took inspiration from the following posts: 

• Makerspace Moments: Creativity and Science with LEGOs (TPiB Lego Challenge Ideas) by Karen Jensen on Teen Librarian Toolbox 
• LEGO Programming for Teens by Brandy Walton on Teen Services Underground 
• LEGO Night for Teens by Jenni Frenchman on Teen Services Underground

Teens completed the following challenges

• 1 Cup Challenge (What can you build with a random cup of Legos? You don't have to use them all, but you can't get anymore.)
• Challenge Cards
• Lego Animal Charades

There were snacks, Legos, and lots of building. 

Teen Paint Night Fall 2019

My teens enjoyed our Galaxy Craft Night so much that they wanted to have another paint night. It's a simple event with a lot of creativity.

I provided canvas, paint, brushes, and other miscellaneous supplies.

I also put out some painting ideas from Step by Step Painting if they need inspiration.

Teen Event: Galaxy Craft Night

I hosted this as part of my "A Universe of Stories" summer teen events. I kept finding galaxy painting ideas on Pinterest and decided to turn it into a program.

We made galaxy paintings, galaxy rocks, galaxy jars, and galaxy t-shirts.

I used the following ideas for guidance:

• Space Rocks Fridge Magnets
• Galaxy Twist Dye + Bleach Shirt - DIY
• Star Wars Inspired Galaxy Tote DIY
• DIY Galaxy Jar
• DIY Galaxy Rocks

Wand Making

I did this event as a lead up to our annual Harry Potter Book Night in February.

I used two tutorials I found online for guidance. Find them here and here.

Supplies needed: chopsticks, hot glue guns, glue sticks for hot glue guns, crafts sticks (jumbo & skinny), scissors, lotion

The lotion is a tip I learned many years ago from my high school homeroom teacher. To avoid bad burns/blisters when using hot glue, lotion your hands. The moisture keeps the glue from adhering so well to your skin and causing burns/blisters.

I had 4 tables set up around the room with all these supplies. Each table had 2 glue guns.

Down the center of the room, I had 2 tables set up for painting the wands once the hot glue was set. I had paint, brushes, paper plates for palettes, paper towels, and cups of water for brush rinsing.

We had 22 adults and 37 kids show up this event. It was fun and easy, I'm looking forward to hosting the event at two of my library branched again this fall.

Star Wars Tea Party

I have wanted to do a Stars War event for several years. It just never worked out. This year, however, May 4 fell on a Saturday. I was inspired to do a Star Wars Tea Party from a post on Storytime Underground on Facebook.

To decorate I used black tablecloths and Star Wars blueprints I got from The Navage Patch. I printed at May the Fourth Be with You sign, created a menu, printed water bottle labels, and soda bottle labels.

I also had a bookmark display that found at Emily's Literary Hoots blog (the site is currently down!).

We made pool noodle light sabers.

We went on an asteroid and droid hunt. The inspiration came from here. I added the droids from here. The kids got to trade their asteroids and droids in for suckers.

The refreshments were Yoda Soda, R2-TEA2, Star Wars Water, Edible Ewoks (chocolate teddy grahams), Han Rolos, and light sabers (Twizzlers).

 To take home I had coloring pages (here & here) and Build a Droid activity sheets.

I also had a Star Wars Would You Rather game, but never got around to using it.

Teen Event: Chances Are

Another program from summer 2016 (Get in the Game: Read), this event focused on dice games. To be specific, Yahtzee, Farkle, the minute-to-win-it challenge A Bit Dicey, and dice drawing games from Expressive Monkey. Yahtzee and Farkle could either be played life size or normal.

Life Size Games with Teens

A few years ago the CSLP theme for teens was "Get in the Game: Read." With that theme in mind, I planned several game events for teens during the summer. Life size games had become quite popular so I decided to make that one of my events. The teens could play life size Yahtzee, Memory (fandom themed), Connect Four, and Tic-Tac-Toe.

Supplies for Life Size Yahtzee: buckets, dice (Dollar Tree), clipboards, pens, score sheets, instructions

Supplies for Life Size Memory: the cards (I used images from Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, LOTR & Hobbit, and Supernatural.)

Supplies for Life Size Connect Four: red & black paper plates, shower curtain, painter's tape, packing tape

Supplies for Life Size Tic-Tac-Toe: masking tape, frisbees

Life Size Pac-Man for Teens

In 2016, I started seeing some posts about Life Size Pac-Man on some librarian groups on Facebook. I'm always up for a new life size game idea and this one looked easy to do. I did a little more research via those Facebook groups and Pinterest and then planned my first Life Size Pac-Man Event.

I originally used Mega Blocks for both the Pac-Dots and the power pellets. I decided they didn't work well and have since used cut up pool noodles for Pac-Dots and Mega Blocks for the power pellets only. Game play varies every time I host it. Given the size of the room I use, we only have three ghosts instead of four. As we play, the first ghost becomes Pac-Man after the first player dies and so on.

Sources of Inspiration:
Casey at Teen Services Underground Blog
The Jolly Rogers Young Women Blog
Instructables
Youth Group Collective
The Meta Picture
If You Loved...
Kim Edsell on the Storytime Underground Facebook Group
Tales from the Nerdy
Teen Services Underground Facebook Group

• Colleen LeComte 
• Sandy George 
• Angela Krajcar 
• Kimberley McSpadden 
• Jennifer Billingsley