Cube Art

This was the first program I did for 2010! I'm finally caught up! I would love to say that I'm clever, and I came up with this all on my own, but alas, I am not. My saving grace for this semester is this blog that I stumbled across. This blog has some of the coolest, hippest, most awesome ideas for teen programming that I've come across in awhile.

One that caught my eye (and is super easy), is the link to these cube characters. Cubeecraft has a couple of hundred of designs to choose from. You just click on the one you want, save the pic (or download it - the 2 page characters are in .zip files), print them out, color (if you have a b&w printer like I do), cut and assemble. They are truly self-explanatory, so I can't really give you anymore instruction than that. They've got movie, cartoon, and video game characters. All of my teens loved this - especially my geeky gamer boys. They snatched up 5, and begged to take some home. This is a great, cheap, easy program for anyone to do!

(In case you're wondering - that's [from L to R] Jack Skellington, Rorschach, and the 1-up Mushroom from the Mario games.)

Budding Artists

This wasn't really a program I did specifically for teen and tweens (it was ages 8 and up - I set my tweens at 10), but I still think it warrants at the very least one post.

Budding Artists was a program we've done for two summers now, and it's a concentrated craft program. Most of the crafts we do with our storytimes are short, little 5 minute things that probably get trashed as soon as they get home. This program was a craft that took an hour long, and was hopefully nice enough to stick around a little longer than the 5 minute.

When we originally did this program, the age was set for 5. Really, really bad idea. The 5 year olds just didn't have the attention span for it, and they had to have their parents there helping, which took up space and made it so less kids could attend. So we set the bar higher to 8 (and still had issues with 5 year olds coming in), and things were a little better this year.

We started out simple. I made a Pointillism coloring sheet. Using Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte”, I made a black and white outline. I showed the kids a picture of the original painting, explained what pointillism is, and let them at it with markers. If they wanted to do their own design, they could flip the sheet over and do it there.

We then moved onto collage. Most of them had probably already done one at some point in time, but I did explain that the pictures could all be the same theme, or same color, or have absolutely nothing to do with the other. They definitely enjoyed this one because it's a little more interactive than the coloring sheet.

I believe the next project we did were the stained glass bottles, but because that was already discussed in the last post, I won't write about that again here. The next thing we moved onto after that was Pop art. This ended up being a two week program. I decided to do a giant paper-maiche pencil. I made a framework out of carpenter's cloth, and the kids did the paper-maiche over it. Because of the time needed for that to dry, we had to wait to paint it til the next week. I knew we wouldn't have the room for all of them to paint the pencil at once, so I made up some pop art coloring sheets. I had been taking pictures of the kids that had been participating, but since attendance fluctuated so much, I couldn't have pictures of everyone on hand, so I made sure I had pictures of Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe printed out as well. The kids really enjoyed working on the giant pencil and were making plans on us doing a whole line of oversized school supplies.

The final thing we did last summer were masks. I wanted to do something that incorporated one of the other creative arts, and this was perfect. We put up a sign in our staff area asking for donations of notions, and I bought some ribbons and things to supplement. We have a mask die-cut from Accucut, and get mat board donations from a neighborhood framer. All I had to do is put the supplies on the table and let them go to town. It was difficult getting some kids to stop adding things on and get them to leave, but they obviously had a good time.

You may be saying to yourself, "But what about that dreamcatcher over to the side there?" That was from our Budding Artists program last summer. I really liked this project, but it was a difficult one to master. For our younger ones (this was when we still had 5 yr olds), I punched holes in the mat board so they could just thread the jute through anyways they liked. The older ones I encouraged to do the proper way, but they still had problems with it. If there had been someone else who could do the weaving as well as I could, and help the kids, it probably would've been better. The dreamcatchers were made with mat board, jute, foam feathers, and plastic pony beads. If I were to do this craft again, I would get sinew, some green twigs, suede, etc - more natural materials to use.

Fake Stained Glass Bottles

You've probably all done this craft at some point in time. You take pieces of tissue paper, a bit of glue, and decoupage the paper onto a jar, bottle, or glass to make it look like stained glass. Easy, right? Anyone can do it. Well I came up with a way to take it to the next level.

The same basic principle is the same, but to make it look more like stained glass, I took some black construction paper, cut out designs, and decoupaged it on. Now I took the hard road when I did it. I put the tissue paper down first, arranging the colors pretty close to the design I wanted. I then drew out my design on the construction paper (eyeballing my tissue already down to get the placement right), and then cut it out and glued it on. This is definitely not recommended for anyone lacking spatial ability and hand-eye coordination.

The much easier method would be to do your design ahead of time and cut it out, so you can use it as a guide when you’re gluing the tissue paper down. Once all the tissue paper is decoupaged, then you can lay you’re design on top and glue it down. Make sure you do several layers of the mod podge (or watered down glue) to ensure your tissue is good and stuck, and your black design won’t just peel up. As you can see, the designs won't line up perfectly, and some of the colors will come outside the lines, but I actually like the look of it - kinda gives it that 50's/60s design charm.

This was a craft that the teens certainly enjoyed, but it is very hard to do if you have time constraints. I only had an hour to do this craft with them, and it was a little hard to get everything done. Quite a few shied away from doing the black paper design, but maybe if we had done this project over the course of two weeks, more of them would've been willing to do it.

Cake Decorating

We were planning for our summer kickoff carnival, when we got the brilliant idea to do cake decorating. For our kids' carnival we read "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" and let the children decorate cupcakes. Then we said "Why should the little kids get all the fun?”

My hope was that I could get one of the people from “Ace of Cakes” to come and do a demo, but I had no such luck. It’s ok – I understand they’re busy people. *sigh* It was then that I had to figure out a plan b, so I turned to Publix. I had been told in the past that they donate supplies to places, so I called the bakery to see what I could work out. They told me I needed to write a letter to corporate and get the donation of supplies approved, and then we could talk about getting a decorator to come and do a demonstration for my teens.

I wrote a letter and faxed it ASAP, and within a week I got a $100 gift card! Score! I called the bakery back, but didn’t get a response. Not a problem. I got the supplies (and 6 hours of baking and making of icing later), and decided to do the program myself. A couple of days before the program, the Publix bakery finally called me back, and agreed to have a decorator come out. She did a demo, showing the teens different techniques, and icing a couple of cakes (both of which we got to keep – awesome!).

While the demo was going, my coworkers and I set up the supplies. I baked a bunch of 13” x 9” cakes and quartered them, and made I don’t know how many batches of buttercream. We used the Wilton recipe, but with so many hands handling it for so long, I’m not sure it was the best idea. The icing got really runny after awhile. Maybe if we had had ice to rest it on when it wasn’t being used things would’ve fared better. Live and learn. The teens had a blast (even the guys), and it is definitely a program I will do again sometime.

Plaster Casts

So I'm having to backtrack a bit because I forgot to write about the programs with did with our teens this summer. Because the theme was "Be Creative", we tried to hit 3 main bases of categories - music, art, and drama. Since my degree is in art, that's always going to be the easiest one for me to do.

Our first program was plaster casts/mold of hands and faces. I forget which company we ordered them from, but we got the plaster sheets in rolls. They're super easy to use. You just have to cut off the length you want, wet it, apply it to what you're molding, and let it dry. This is a very messy craft - so watch out.

We just did hands and faces, but you could do feet too. Make sure you have plenty of baby oil and vaseline. The vaseline is a little harder to get off your skin, but I think it makes it easier for the cast to come off. The hands were really easy to do (though the teens generally had to work in pairs to get it done). The masks were a little tougher because of eyebrows and other hair that can get caught in the plaster and pull. (Make sure you have tough teens that want their faces done - no whiners). The more you layer the plaster, the thicker the cast will be, and the better it will hold up when you're pulling it off your teens.

Make sure you have baby wipes on hand to help get the oil and vaseline off. If you're bathroom is on the other side of the library, a tub with some washcloths and warm water would be a good idea too. The teens really liked this one, but if you have more than a handful of kids, make sure you have some volunteers or parents who are brave (and competent) enough to help you out.

Henna and Temporary Tattoos

I’ve done henna tattoos on myself for years, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I started doing teen programs. My original idea was to do something on the culture of India, and have that as part of it. As it was, I ended up doing a program with temporary tattoos. I bought some face paint at Walmart (which was actually pretty good), but they only had one kit, and I had some pre-made henna in a tube at home, so I brought it along just in case.

I had warned some of the kids about it ahead of time and asked their parents – just to make sure it was ok. Henna can last several weeks, though I read somewhere recently if you use something that has alpha hydroxy acid in it (like sunscreen) on the area you tattooed, then it breaks the dyes down, and washes off more easily.

The teens had a lot of fun with this program, though I ended up

doing most of the work. They were more than welcome to use the face/body paint that I had bought, but few did. They all wanted the henna done, and because it lasts so long, I was the only person I wanted doing it. Besides, there was only one tube.

This is a great opportunity for your teens to get creative (provided that you have enough face paint to go around). I got out books that they could look through, and they really enjoyed looking at and learning about the henna tattoos and the traditions behind them. Since it was a popular program, I think maybe I will do my idea of a program on the culture of India - I'm sure they'll enjoy it.

Mexican Sugar Skulls

Since I was going whole-hog with Halloween, I decided to extend my enthusiasm into November and the Dias de Los Muertos (or Day of the Dead). It's a holiday in Mexico and several other countries where the people remember and honor their ancestors by making sugar skulls, bringing flowers, and taking food to their ancestors' graves. Really I just wanted to make the cool sugar skulls, but it's a good way to get teens interested in another culture.

www.mexicansugarskull.com was a pretty good resource, but can be pricey if you’re only doing a small group. My coworker found a kit through Hearth Song, and it was fantastic! We bought the party pack and it was more than enough for our programs. I probably have enough meringue powder to do it next year too! We had to do this program for two weeks – 1 week to mold the skulls and another to decorate them. The skulls take a day or two to dry, so that’s why we had to do it in two sessions.

The recipe for sugar skulls is pretty basic. 1 tsp of meringue powder, 1 cup of granulated sugar. Mix together and slowly add water a bit at a time until it feels a bit like sand at the beach. Not really wet, but enough that it can mold together. Pack the sugar mixture into molds, and turn over onto a piece of cardboard or mat board. Leave out to dry. Unfortunately, the day I did this with my teens it was raining, so the skulls were already doomed to not dry properly. In addition, we had a mouse in our building at the time, so I had to take extra steps to ensure the skulls couldn't be nibbled by our little invader. Needless to say, the skulls didn't turn out and I had to make new ones before we decorated them the next week. You may want to skip molding them with the kids and just do it yourself.

The skulls are decorated with royal icing, and my teens had a blast doing this. Of course, they also had a ball decorating cakes this summer (which I will blog about later), so it really shouldn't have been any surprise. Big hit, a lot of fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Zombie Party

According to several sources, zombies are hot right now. Maybe not as much as vampires, but still - big. So I decided to do a zombie party as part of my month of Halloween festivities. I had done the gory makeup workshop earlier in the week, to give the kids an idea of some of the things they could do for the party. I advertised for weeks, and had a lot of teens interested (though unfortunately, I had to do it the same day as FBA, and consequently probably lost a few kids).

In the weeks leading up to the party, I made a Pin the Entrails on the Corpse game. It’s like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but instead of a tail, I had every body part imaginable – including internal organs. We started out with just a torso, and everyone was given a part to stick up. None of them were the same, and placement counted, so as the game went on and more parts were up, the harder and more confusing the game got.

We played Zombie Tag. You have everyone gather around and close their eyes. You tap 3 or so people (depending on the size of the group) to be “the infected”. Have everyone open their eyes and mill around a bit, and when you shout out the trigger word (whichever one you choose), the infected can start the attack. Zombies can only walk (well, shamble), and they only have to tag someone to infect them. The person tagged waits a moment, and then can begin their own attack. The game ends when only one person is left. Make sure you clear any tables and chairs out of the way before this starts, and make sure the kids don’t run.

We had a craft table, where the kids could make door hangers. Michael’s had foam letters made up of bones, and glow-in-the-dark skeletons you could assemble and stick. I just left them out on the table and let the kids wander up and do it when they had time. We had zombie trivia as well, though since most zombie movies are rated “R”, they had a tough time of it. Still, most had seen enough to answer the questions. My coworker Sybil also worked on breaking down the choreography to “Thriller”, and she taught us a small bit of the dance. When it was sped up to real time, it was almost impossible to keep up, but still fun.

For refreshments, we had chunks of sod (brownies with green frosting and worms on top), body part gummies, flayed flesh and pus cubes (cheese cubes and salami), and crunchy eyeballs (rice krispie treats formed into a ball, dunked in white chocolate, with an M&M on top).

To end the party, we had the kids take pictures with a few select books to make some of those READ posters. The full set of pictures is available here.

Gory Makeup Workshop

Well since it was October and Halloween was coming up, I though it was the perfect time to do a gory makeup workshop! Originally I was going to get a couple of my friends who are makeup artists to come up, but as time drew closer, I didn’t think I could pull them away from their busy schedules. Thankfully, I ended up going to the Spooky Empire horror convention in Orlando, and got to attend a zombie makeup workshop by makeup artist Bloody Mary. She’s a super cool lady. I bought some of her makeup while I was there and asked her afterwards about donations to non-profit organizations. She said all I had to do was send her a letter on our company letterhead. Done! She was great and rushed the order to because out workshop was just a week or so away. (The makeup kits didn’t arrive in time for the workshop, but I did have them in time for our zombie party, and they made great prizes) You can check out her website here.

At the time we also had a theater/makeup store in Gainesville called Center Stage, and I bought some makeup there to bolster what I already had.

The following items were used:
liquid latex
bruise makeup kit
white cream makeup
blue cream makeup
red cream makeup
ice makeup kit
fake blood
zombie makeup kit (from Bloody Mary)

Ideally, I would’ve had enough that I could make small kits for the kids to use on each other, but as it was, I did all the work and the teens got to sit back and watch. I tried to do several tutorials. One was a freshly dead zombie - grey skin, a bit of blood. The other was one that had scabs and rotting flesh. Another was a person who had been frozen, and the fourth someone who had been beaten up. You can do all sorts of variations, so play around with what makeup you can find, and see what you can do the best. Two videos I found particularly helpful can be found on youtube here and here.

Goth Sock Puppets

October was a REALLY big month for me program-wise. I had so many things I could do and plan - it was FANTASTIC! One thing we had done before, and had been a big hit were the goth sock puppets.

This is a really inexpensive craft to do. Odds are you already have a good number of notions - buttons, ribbons, sequins, googlie eyes, etc. lying around in your craft cabinet. All you need to buy are some black and white socks. We use hot glue, but you might be able to use that really thick tacky glue if you need to. I make sure to give the teens cardboard to stick inside the socks so their hands don't get burned.

My grandmother gave me a bunch of mini bells that were shaped like bats, and those were used on almost every single gock that was made. Just make sure that you have plenty of red, black, and white (maybe a bit of neon color), plenty of imagination, and you're sure to have a successful program.

Improv Acting

This has surprisingly become one of my most popular programs. I figured the kids would all stand and stare at me, but once you break the ice, it's not usually a problem to get them to participate. The following are some games that I've had success with, and some others you may want to try.

Statues - This is my icebreaker. Basically you have the kids space themselves out around the room and get them to freeze into a position. Then you have a security guard (which is usually, initially, me). The security guard walks around and makes comments about the statues, and whenever the guard turns his/her back, the statues are supposed to move into a different position. If the guard sees a statue moving, that person is out, and the game goes until all but one is left, or you have to call a draw. Usually the teen that wins is one that doesn't move very much, and you need to encourage them to change into more drastically different positions, instead of just moving an arm. The way I've been doing it with my Fort White group is the person who wins gets to choose who is the security guard next.

I know this game doesn't sound that impressive, but they love it! My Fort White group has boys up to 17 or so in it, and they beg to do it almost every time. Same goes for my younger teens as well.

Contagious Emotions - If you looked through your FLYP manual last year, you may have come across this game in the teen section. I know Page Turner Adventures covered it in their workshop. Basically it's like the party game on Whose Line is it Anyway?. You have one teen who's hosting a party. The other teens you select are guests, and draw a slip of paper with an emotion on it out of a hat. One by one you send the teens in, and the host is supposed to try to guess (not out loud) what emotion they're portraying and then emulate it. As the game goes on, with each new person that's sent in, the rest of the party "catches" the emotion as well.

This is a good beginning game, as it doesn't take a whole lot of acting skill to portray an emotion. Sometimes I use other states of being (not necessarily emotions), like sick, zombie, cold, etc. This one definitely gets a lot of laughs, particularly if you're not sure what the emotion is, but are playing along anyway.

Questions - This game is a more advanced improv. Divide the teens into 2 groups, and have each group form a line facing each other. Like this _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. The two people in the middle will then start a conversation using only questions. You can set limits as to what they're talking about or where they are, and that may help. The rules are that you can't make a statement and you can't repeat a question back to someone. The idea is to have a conversation, and not just fire random questions at each other. When someone breaks one of these rules, that person is out, and moves to the end of the line and the next person steps forward.

An example of a good conversation is this:
A: Where did you get that shirt?
B: Do you like it?
A: Wouldn't my question imply that?
B: Well, where do you think I got it?
A: Is it from Hollister?
B: Is that the store next to American Eagle?

You get the idea. You can get stuck in the trap of teens just asking "What's your favorite ____?" back and forth, and then it's a good idea to stop. However, if you have teens that are quick-witted, this can be a really good game.

Sit, Stand or Bend - This one seems like an easy enough game, but if you've watched Whose Line, then you know it can be quite difficult and hilarious. Basically you have 3 people and two chairs. One is sitting, one is standing, and one is bending over. You then give them a scenario to act out. At any given time, one of the actors can choose to change position, and the other two have to scramble to change - you always have to have 1 person in each position - sitting, standing, and bending. That's pretty much the game in a nutshell.

I've had a pretty good response to this one, but it's not one I feel like I need to do every time.

Hats - This game is a chance for them to dress up (and I'm telling you, there's nothing like watching a bunch of high school boys play dress up). I usually pick out 3 teens, and hand them hats. You then give them a scenario - like they're all on a sinking boat and they're arguing about who gets to be in the 2-person life raft. Then at a choice moment, I yell out "SWITCH", and they have to switch hats and become that other character. I do that twice, so everyone has a chance to be each character.

Well as you can guess from my first statement, the teens love this one! Heck, I could just give them the box full of hats and wigs and they could entertain themselves on their own for awhile. It's a good game, and well received.

There are loads of other games that you can find online (including some mad libs skits I want to do), but these are the staples that I use for my program. The best thing about this program? It's FREE! We already had hats and wigs laying about (and I'm sure you do too), so use them! And have fun!