Using Teen Volunteers at Teen Programs

The annual Harry Potter Yule Ball is always a really fun event. Salt Lake County Library Services hosts around 1500 teens every year—mostly Potterheads, teens who live and breathe the Harry Potter fandom. But there are also a number of teens who have little or no knowledge of Harry Potter who show up to dance, make crafts, play games, and have a great time with their friends.

This year we had a unique group of teens attend the Yule Ball: teen volunteers. Not just any teen volunteers. These Jr High and High School students were fully invested in the event from the earliest planning stages. They created decorations, helped direct crowds, and even staged a Death-eater flashmob. For Alle, Stephanie, Lyssa, Avalon, and Lauren, being at the Yule Ball meant more than just spending a night out—it was a chance to see their ideas and hard work come to life. Spring Lavallee, the teen librarian from Magna Library, directed them.

Lyssa described the amount of work that went into volunteering for the Yule Ball: “We had three or four meeting starting in November, December, and January.” Teen volunteers committed to about 10 hours of unpaid work per person, over 50 hours for the entire group. During the pre-event meetings, they discussed which decorations they wanted to make, eventually committing to designing and creating a 7 foot tall “Flue Network” fireplace, the entrance to the Diagon Alley part of the ball. The teens researched materials and construction, and eventually built their creation, which took 4 hours total to put together. They also built 20 giant 3D snowflakes, hanging decorations for the dance itself.

Stephanie’s favorite part, though, was participating in the Death-eater flash mob. At precisely 9 pm, the Death-eater mark appeared on screen in the ballroom and the music switched to an eerie, spooky soundtrack. A group of Death-eaters (5 teen volunteers, several disguised librarians, and a few volunteer cosplayers) then attacked the crowd, pointing their wands and shouting curses. Luckily, the brawl only lasted a few, tense minutes.  Cosplayers from the Order of the Phoenix (including Mad Eye Moody and Remus Lupin) cornered the Death-eaters, forced them to surrender, and marched them from the ballroom. The teen volunteers were an integral part of this spectacle, planning the choreography and working closely with the Harry Potter cosplay group, Rocky Mountain Muggles, to accomplish the flashmob. The other teens surrounded the flash mob, shouting “Fight, fight!” and cheered when the Death-eaters were captured. Moody and Lupin were routinely congratulated on their catch for the rest of the night.

The teen volunteers also helped at the event, directing crowds through the Diagon Alley, taking pictures, and cleaning up afterward. Alle summed up the experience: “It was really fun. I got to know some great  new people. Everyone was really nice.” For the teen volunteers, the Yule Ball was as much a social experience as it was a volunteer opportunity. The group got to know new people, outside their regular neighborhood and school circles. They built relationships based on mutual interests, trust, and dependability. And in the end, the Yule Ball was about more than just living their fandom for one night; it was a hard-earned dream come true!

Thank you to the 2015 Yule Ball teen volunteers Alle, Stephanie, Lyssa, Avalon, and Lauren, and to those teens volunteers who could not make it the night of the ball, Carlos, Gordon, Andrea, and Taylor!

 

Submitted by S. Lavallee

Teen Librarian

Magna Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Some iPad Apps to Use with Teens

Are you looking for some fun program ideas to use iPads? Here's a simple one I've used a few times with teens, and they have loved it!

 

A really fun and FREE app is Cartoon Creator. You can take pictures with the ipad and then insert those pictures in a cartoon format. You can add speech bubbles, kanji, and even dancing Psy from "Gangman Style." This is a great app for any program, but my anime club teens particularly enjoyed it. 

Once you take the pictures with Cartoon Creator you can leave them there, or input them into a free video maker and make a movie with those images. I used Animoto. After taking the pictures in Cartoon Creator, you upload them to your photo gallery on the iPad. From the photo gallery you can import the images into Animoto and make a short video.

 

The teens really enjoyed watching their videos come to life and we had fun watching them all together. The teens were able to pick up quickly on how to use the apps and I have had requests from my anime club to do it again!

Submitted by
C. Rogers
Senior Librarian
Kearns Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar

In December we made 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar. 

I picked up cupcake tins from The Dollar Store, which was a little pricey since each teen got 2, six-cup tins. Other supplies included: thick colored card stock, craft paper, preprinted numbers, sticky magnet roll that was cut into square pieces, scissors, thick ribbon, and glue sticks. I made circle patterns of two sizes, one for the card stock, one slightly smaller for the craft paper, that the teens traced onto the craft paper. 

Magnets were glued on the back that then attached to the tin to hide prizes inside. I supplied candy and small prizes to fill in their advent calendar. The teens had a lot of fun! I scheduled an hour for this activity, but it took many of them longer to cut out all the circles. 

Submitted by 

B. Goodman

Teen Librarian

Herriman Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Minigolf Madness in the Library

For Teen Read Month last fall, the South Jordan Library hosted an after hours minigolf event for middle and high schoolers. 

The teens who came got into teams of 2-5 people and each team created a hole using library items, such as book ends, discarded magazines; and household and recycled items, such as paper plates, cardboard tubes, duct tape, and more. 

After each team created a hole, the teens played through the course, rotating around to all 9 holes so they got a chance to see how creative the other teams were. They also found out that playing the holes was, in some ways, even harder than building them!

The program was fairly inexpensive--the main cost was the duct tape--and the golf clubs were loaned by a local golf course for the night. The lumber that you see pictured was donated by Home Depot, who even cut it down to size for us. Hooray for community partnerships!

I didn't invent this idea of playing minigolf in the library. I do, however, know a good idea when I see one on Pinterest! From the time I repinned the picture of another library's minigolf program, I knew it would be a really fun thing that I would implement before the year was out. When I started planning, I realized it would take me forever to set up a whole golf course myself, so the idea of having the kids actually build it during the program was born from a need to make it easier on me (and realistically realizing that it would be hard even for a large crew of helpers to set up a whole golf course between closing and the start of the program). My amazing Teen Advisory Board teens helped with the set up and take down, which also made a difference. As it turned out, the building was probably the most fun part and is really a STEM activity, measuring, fitting, checking angles, and testing to see if your concept worked, just to name a few.

Submitted by L. Renshaw

Teen Librarian

South Jordan Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Sensory Program

The sensory program is a special needs program which serves children on the autism spectrum.  Carrie Rogers-Whitehead started the program at Kearns library. It has been a success in regard to the level of attendance and the amount of fun the children have. Weber County, Provo, and Orem libraries all provide programs similar to this.

I have been able to participate in two of these events as a practicum student. During the first event I attended, the children enjoyed playing with the Star Wars characters from Alpine Garrison. They fought with light sabers, drew and colored rockets, and created Star Wars masks. Carrie received a grant to provide 12 mini iPads for this program. When the children first entered this event, they generated their Star Wars names using the iPads. Through-out the event, iPads were available to play games on.

The second time I attended this program, I enjoyed listening to the children talk about building their Lego cars and then watching them race these cars down a track. During the Lego event, children also built Lego creations from kit instructions, played with Duplo blocks and a train set on the floor, and played games on the iPads.

At each event there was a quiet sensory corner for children to go to when they were feeling overwhelmed. The corner included a rug, sensory blankets, sensory toys, books, and an iPad. Overall, the environment and excitement made for a good experience. This is a worthwhile program that I hope other youth librarians will implement through-out the state of Utah and beyond.

For more information about this program see the YSRT Fall Workshop notes.  

Submitted by 

A. Paige

Emporia State Practicum Student

Kearns Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Write Your Name in Elvish!

I have held a Hobbit Party or program three times at Holladay Library (Salt Lake County Library Services). The first was for teens, the second for tweens, and the third for boys age 7-12. I have many different activities, games, and crafts that I can use in this program. One of my favorites is writing your name in Elvish.

I originally heard about it through the YALSA-BK list serv. The instructions are found at Starchamber.com. They are simple and self-explanatory, but they might take some practice on your own before you try to show the kids and teens how to do it.

I found it easiest to have tiles or cards with letters on them so that you can physically move the letters above or below as needed. I supplied Bananagram tiles and Scrabble slam cards.

Some chose to write their English names in Elvish. Some chose to write their Elf or Hobbit names, which we generated at Chris Wetherell's fantastic site.

I recently was able to add the option of writing names in Dwarven Runes when Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books sent out Hobbit Activity Kids.

Here is my name in both languages:

Fun times!

Submitted by 

H. Tice

Youth Services Librarian

Holladay Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)