I do apologize in advance for the brevity of my posts for day 1, as I had some technical difficulties with my Chromebook and I realized this morning I lost most of my notes :( The presenters did mention that we will have access to the slides later, so I can update with more specifics once I figure that out. :)
Basically, this session was about how to use books as the basis for creating interactive exhibits for kids. The presenters talked about how you need to start with the book and the art, and then from there build around what message of the author and illustrator you want to portray. An example they gave was with Pittsburgh Children's Museum Eric Carle exhibit. WIth the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the message is hope, so they took the image from the end when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly and made that a photo op wall for the kids to "become" the butterfly.
Another example is with the book The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, which the message is persistence. They created a life size model of the flowers and garden from one of the pages, and made it a structure for the kids to climb, balance, and get active on, i.e. demonstrating their persistence at being able to navigate the equipment.
The general manager of Bellaboo's Play and DIscovery Center in Indiana talked about how they decided they needed to become more than "just a discovery center," in order to get new guests coming in. They wanted to create an experience and not just be a place to visit. By using books as the muse they could really immerse the guests into the world they wanted to create. She talked about the importance of hiring great storytellers and treating the interview as an audition where the applicant can demonstrate how they'd put on a "show" for the crowd. They also use a wind tunnel like the ones we have :) I thought it was great how they incorporated the wind tunnel into the actual telling of the story, which I've never done before. For example, when the story mentioned water splashing, she threw shredded blue foil paper in the wind tunnel so it all came "splashing" out.
We left the session with a booklet with a few templates to use, a list of best readalouds that they've used in their programs, and ideas for how to hold storyteller auditions. There was also a template for how to make a book "fly" (i.e. a way to pre-plan your program and what types of questions to ask, where to ask the kids for sound effects, what props you can use, costumes, etc.). Even though most of us on the children's staff already have our style in how we plan our storytimes, it could be helpful for new staff, if someone needs to sub in, or if we have new 2nd floor staff members who may have done other children's programming but not necessarily a "storytime".
Mid-Land County Public Library talked about how they have built another branch a few years ago that has a 2,000 square foot exhibit space built into it. They are working on becoming the first ACM accredited library, which is great for their community because they said there is not a lot to do in their area.
This picture is of an Herve Tullet exhibit they had, where the kids did artwork with Tullet himself (they partnered with him) and had their artwork hung along with his on scaffolding they set up. (I apologize, I don't recall which presenter had this exhibit at their location).
This was a handout another presenter shared that they use to help get the kids engaged with the art exhibits.
Overall, a really worthwhile session! :)
-Yolanda
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