Author Archives

Jessica

Fortnite Books

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With its combination of the excitement of shooters and the creativity and construction of sandbox games like Minecraft, Fortnite has taken the video game world by storm and it doesn’t seem like its popularity is letting up anytime soon. These books full of tips and tricks will help readers become the last one standing in the Battle Royale, plus an art book if they want to learn how to draw their favorite characters.

 

 

Fortnite Battle Royale Hacks : Advanced Strategies – Jason R. Rich

Fortnite Battle Royale Hacks : Secrets of the Island – Jason R. Rich

Fortnite Battle Royale Hacks : The Unofficial Gamer’s Guide – Jason R. Rich

Fortnite Battle Royale Hacks : Building Strategies – Jason R. Rich

The Fortnite Guide to Staying Alive: Tips and Tricks for Every Kind of Player – Damien Kuhn

Official Fortnite Battle Royale Survival Guide

Unofficial How to Draw Fortnite for Kids : Learn to Draw 40 of Your Favorite Fortnite Heroes by Andrew Howell

An Encyclopedia of Strategy for Fortniters : An Unofficial Guide for Battle Royale – Jason R. Rich

An Unofficial Encyclopedia of Strategy for Fortniters : ATK Driving Techniques, Challenges, and Stunts – Jason R. Rich

Miss Jessica

 

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50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

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Astronomy program

Presented by the Popular Astronomy Club.

Program starts in the meeting rooms with a discussion of the night sky and the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

Afterwards we will be outside in the back parking lot between 8:00pm and 11:30pm for crafts and activities followed by night sky viewing. Outdoor viewing will be rescheduled in case of inclement weather.

United Way School Supply Drive

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Help our Quad City area students start the school year by donating school supply items by July 18th. Drop off school supplies in our drop off boxes located in the library’s lobby, children’s department, or information desk.

School supply items needed:

  • Crayons
  • Colored Pencils
  • Composition Notebooks
  • Loose-Leaf Paper
  • Pocket Folders
  • Spiral Notebooks
  • Washable Markers
  • Watercolor Paints
  • Backpacks
  • Erasers
  • Pencils
  • Pens
  • Glue Sticks
  • Pencil Boxes
  • Scissors

Messing Around!

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Miss Marta and I had a blast at Messing Around last week and we hope you did too! If you weren’t able to make it or would like to try any of these stations yourself, here’s a breakdown of what we did.

Here’s what the room looked like before…

And here is after! Click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

Phew! What a mess! But everyone had so much fun that it was definitely worth the time we spent cleaning up afterwards.

Moon Sand: Also known as kinetic sand, we have used this in programs before. It can be molded like wet sand but never dries out, and you can buy it in lots of cool colors.

Pudding Fingerpainting: For this station we made vanilla instant pudding and added neon food coloring. If we did this program again I would use white chocolate pudding instead. I forgot vanilla pudding is yellow, not white, and so the colors came out a little wonky. Still lots of fun to finger paint with though (and pretty tasty!).

Crunch-up Bins: This station was the easiest to set up; all it takes was some different types of cereal (we used Froot Loops, Cheerios, Rice Chex, and Frosted Flakes) and saltines in a bin and a hammer to crunch them up with! This station seemed to appeal most to the youngest kiddos in the room.

Jello Dig: I made 3 family sized boxes of strawberry Jello and dropped some small toys in the containers before putting it in the fridge to set. Children could then dig through the Jello to pull out the cars, blocks, and dinosaurs or just squish it in their fingers.

Shaving Cream Color Mixing: Just a bin full of shaving cream with some Crayola paint. They could squirt a little paint onto the shaving cream and mix it up. This is a fun sensory experience, but because it needs to be dumped out and given fresh shaving cream after every use, it works best for using one-on-one. I would probably leave it out for a program like this again.

Puffy Painting: I LOVE puffy paint! It is super easy to make – just equal amounts white glue and shaving cream with food coloring – and dries really vibrant with the coolest texture. With this kind of paint, less is not more. To really get the best puffy texture to your finished painting, you’ll really want to load up the brush with paint. It does take a while to fully dry, but if you set them out overnight that should be plenty long enough.

Fizzy Cloud Dough: We got the recipe for fizzy cloud dough from Powerful Mothering. The original recipe calls for a cup of flour, a cup of baking soda, and a 1/4 cup vegetable oil, as well as some vinegar to squirt on it to make it fizz. It also needs either powder or oil-based (the kind usually used for candy) food coloring if you want different colors. We quadrupled the recipe for each color for a group setting like this (not all of what we made is in the picture). The cloud dough by itself is pretty fun to play with, a lot like the moon sand. But when squirted with the bottles of vinegar, it fizzes and foams! The kids enjoyed mixing it up into a big gloopy mess.

Shaving Cream Pool: Just what it looks like, a kiddie pool full of shaving cream! We also threw in some play food, bowls, plates, and utensils. This station was VERY popular. I think we used approximately 15 cans to fill it up as much as you see in the “before” picture.

Dinosaurs in Sand: also just what it looks like! The dinosaurs stomped around in a sandy environment that kids pretended was a desert or beach. I thought about adding some water to the bin or making “mud” out of instant hot cocoa mix and a little bit of water to make this a really messy station, but the kids enjoyed it regardless. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

Ocean Water Table: Multi-colored water beads, some water, and a set of sea animal toys for kids to play with and explore. A lot of the younger children seemed to enjoy squishing the water beads as much as anything else though. We also wanted to have a calmer, less messy station for those who might get overwhelmed by the other things we had available.

Chalkboard: Can’t go wrong with chalk on a chalkboard. I’ve found with programs like this it helps to write or draw something before the kids come in so they know it’s okay to use it.

And that’s what we did at Messing Around! I had so much fun with this program. If you’re ever feeling brave enough to tackle a messy program at your library or try one of these activities at home with your own kids, I think it is well worth the time cleaning up. We saw lots and lots of smiles and excited faces from little ones thrilled with the opportunity to dig in and get messy.

Miss Jessica

 

Five on Friday: Slime and Playdough

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It’s the beginning of the month, and that means it’s time for another Five on Friday! This month we’re talking about 5 different playdough/slime recipes that I’ve tried and enjoyed. These recipes are all super simple – some of them only have 2 ingredients! You can’t get much easier than that.

 

Butter slime

  • Crayola air-dry modeling clay
  • Lotion

Knead lotion into modeling clay until you get the desired texture.

This is probably the easiest slime of the 5 recipes I have today to make. I used blue clay and did end up with some of the dye transferring to my hands when I mixed in the lotion, but once it was completely added in there was no mess at all. I really dislike having messy or sticky hands, so this is one slime recipe I would use again and again. No idea why it’s called butter slime though! The original idea came from Kimspired DIY.

 

Shaving cream playdough

  • Shaving Cream
  • Corn Starch
  • Food Coloring (optional)

Add equal amounts shaving cream to the corn starch. Knead with hands until it becomes playdough, about 5 minutes or so. Add more shaving cream if it is too crumbly, or more corn starch if it is still sticky after kneading.

This super easy recipe came from One Little Project. Be warned, this recipe is messy! When it starts to dry up a little it becomes very crumbly, almost like a cloud dough, as you can see from the first picture. When I played with it I ended up with little bits of it all over the floor and very sticky hands. But it’s so much fun to play with and well worth the mess!

 

Fluffy slime

  • 1/2 cup Elmer’s glue (the original recipe calls for Elmer’s Glue-all brand, but I used regular Elmer’s and it still came out fine)
  • 1 1/2 cups shaving cream
  • 2 1/2 tbsp contact solution (must have boric acid)
  • Food coloring (optional)

Mix together glue and food coloring. Mix in shaving cream, then add contact solution a little at a time. Stir until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl and finish kneading by hand.

I LOVE fluffy slime. Something about the texture is so much fun for me. This recipe is a pretty standard one that I’ve seen around several different places, but credit for the recipe I used goes to Making Life Blissful. I’m not sure if I added the contact solution too quickly or didn’t mix it well enough, but this slime did come out a little sticky for me.

 

 

Hair conditioner playdough

  • 2 cups cornstarch
  • About 1 cup inexpensive hair conditioner
  • Food coloring (optional)

Mix corn starch and conditioner with your hands. If desired, add food coloring.

This playdough recipe is courtesy of Our Best Bites. I used Suave coconut scented conditioner when I made it and it smelled lovely! Plus I got a big bottle for just $1, enough for several batches. As you can tell from the picture on the bottom right, it’s sort of like a cross between playdough and slime – it’s soft and squishy like playdough, but stretchy like slime!

 

Pudding slime

  • 1/4 cup instant pudding mix
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • 1/3 cup warm water

Add instant pudding mix and half of your cornstarch to a mixing bowl. Add water and stir until slime begins to form. Slowly add the rest of your cornstarch, stirring as you go. Finish kneading by hand once slime has thickened.

My first batch of this slime got moldy before I could take any pictures of it. But this is as good a time as any to remind you to store your slime and playdough in an airtight container and that any containing food products will eventually go bad. I got this recipe from the Soccer Mom Blog. Go check it out for troubleshooting and more pictures, as well as lots of other fun edible slime recipes. After testing it out, I’m not sure that I would call it slime. It’s not very stretchy at all, but it is still fun to play with! This recipe is edible and so safe to use with kiddos that still put things in their mouth, but taste-safe definitely doesn’t mean it tastes good.

And that’s it for this month! I hope you all enjoy making these super-simple recipes at home. Be sure to check back in August, same bat time, same bat channel for the next 5 on Friday.

Miss Jessica