Lego Night

A local elementary school invited the library for their 3rd annual Dad & Sons Lego Night!  We have attended all three years, but I didn't get to go last year, so I was excited to be back!

I took 16 tubs of Legos and 4 tubs of Duplo.  Next year I will plan on taking 24 tubs of Legos and 8 Duplo!  It was a great turn out with just over 100 in attendance!

This year I made up 8 different Lego Challenges and had a few on each of the tables.  Several kids enjoyed doing the challenges!

• Build something with a "handful" of Legos
• Build something in less than a minute
• Build something using only one color
• Build something using only 2x2 bricks
• Build something using just one hand
• Build a bridge
• Write your name in Lego
• Build a tic-tac-toe game and play it with someone

Here are some photos from the event

Three challenges in one!

Lego Club

The third Thursday of every month we Lego Club--an open time for kids to come build with our four bins of Legos--plus a few boxes of Duplos for younger siblings!  I have been putting the Lego creations on display each month (so far they have been left alone).  It has really helped to keep our numbers up each month!

We will host Legos Club twice over the summer (different days/times).  As long as we have interest this will be a program we will continue!

Night Out at the Library

I've been trying to work with an elementary that are just down the street from the library, but we really don't see many of the kids after school.  I thought if I offered a program geared completely to them it would bring in families and then hopefully they would use the library more.

I wanted to do it in the fall, but ran out of time between submitting the idea and the actual event date, then it was the holidays so I pushed it back to January.

I've been in contact with the principal since November planning the date and activity and she started having the announcement go out in the school newsletter.  The library made 400 flyers so each student was able to take one home. I planned for 150 students , plus family members for a total of 300.  I knew that was probably a bit high, but I certainly didn't want to run out of anything!

Here's what I had planned for the night:

The class with the most students attending will receive a prize!

Kids put their name into their teacher's "pocket"

Scavenger Hunt around the library to solve the riddle:  When is an apple like a library book?

Craft:  Cardboard Spinners

Legos (an flyers to promote the monthly Lego Club)

New Books!  I brought 20 more over from the main library, so we'd be sure to have a good selection!

Refreshments!  Friends of the Library bought cookies for the evening!

The program went from after school (3:30) until we closed (8 pm).  I didn't have any "Jr. Friends" to help, so I hoped I'd be able to bop from welcoming new families, to assisting in crafts, to reader's advisory.  I wasn't quite sure how it would work if we got a big influx all at once.

Unfortunately we had a very small turnout, but the ones who did come had a good time!  So it's back to the drawing board for new and improved ideas to get our neighbors into the library!

Got Legos?

When I started a Lego program at my former library I thought I had ordered a good amount of Legos... Six tubs ($500) worth of Legos!  There was always plenty of Legos to go around--even with the larger groups (of around 50 people).

Here are the Legos at my new library district...

Yes, 64 tubs of Legos plus 14 tubs of Duplos!!  Now that is a lot of Legos!!  Basically each child got their own tub (whereas at my old library 3-4 children shared one tub).  Obviously the district had more than just $500 to spend on Legos.  I also found out they bought their Legos "by the pound" off Ebay.  To tell you the truth I think this amount of Legos is an overkill.  Even with all the creations made there was barely a dent made in the number of Legos!

Here are a few of the cool Lego creations made at the all day build event!

Who knew Legos could be put together like this!

 

Santa's Rocketship

 

Legos @ Your Library News

Today was our last Legos @ your library event for the summer!  We had 7 events with a total attendance of 437!!!!

At each Lego event children could put their name in for a drawing (that is how I gathered statistics).  We gave away these Lego books to these 5 lucky winners!!

Here are some highlights from our events!  To see all the pictures you can visit the library Lego Blog!

Legos @ your library events will begin again in the fall!