Reusing Plastic Bottles

You can reuse plastic bottles in so many ways. These are three of the activities we've done at the library using plastic bottles.

This plastic bottle is now a cool lava lamp! National Geographic and Education.com have quick instructions, and all you really need is vegetable oil, food coloring, an alka-seltzer or other effervescent tablet and water!

This bottle is holding vegetable oil, water, dish soap, and more (many of them colored with food coloring) to teach kids about density. Reuse plastic bottles to give kids a liquid rainbow of their own. 

The book How to Make a Liquid Rainbow by Lori Shores gives clear and quick instructions on how to make this fun bottle of color.

This Mummy Holder required only plastic bottles cut in half, gauze, google eyes, and tape and

made a fun Halloween craft (and can also make an awesome Egypt craft).

Source: Family Fun

Earth Day Books

Check out some of these informative books about global warming, polar animals, and animals in danger.

Earth Day

I hope to make a couple of posts with ideas for Earth Day. I made this flyer for the library with ideas from around the web for making crafts from recyclable materials.

 

Every Hero Has a Story

The 2015 Collaborative Summer Library Program theme is Every Hero Has a Story, which I am very excited about because SUPERHEROES!

I'll be posting every superhero-related idea, craft, book, and more that I come across. I'm sure this is going to be a very fun summer!

First up: Star Wars posters.

These posters can be found at the American Library Association online store.The first three feature artwork from/based on the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger. The fourth is great to hang near audiobooks.

Play-doh Planets

A really fun thing to do if you have some extra Play-doh is making some planets!

Exhibit A: Tiny Earth made from play-doh

I only had yellow, red, blue, and white play-doh, so in order to make green and other colors they had to mix some of the play-doh up, which is great for learning about primary and secondary colors. I included these sheets on the tables for them to work with.

I can't find where I got the two sheets above, but if you've seen them please let me know the link.

One-Page Solar System Activity Printable

The one-page solar system activity printable was a sheet I wanted to give out for kids to take home, but the copier wasn't working so that didn't work out.

Kids Press Magazine has another great illustration of the planets (Pluto included).

Some other fun things I found among my searches:

Post about Laika the Astronaut, a book I didn't know existed (Note: I've tried to read the graphic novel Laika by Nick Abadzis, but my heart will break.)

The book A is for Astronaut: Space Exploration from A to Z has Laika featured for the letter L, and in the P for Planets page, Pluto is included. 

One patron made all the planets plus the sun!

If you are interested in making the play-doh planets scaled, check out these awesome instructions over at STEREO NASA.   

Stem Sheets also has some cool planet flashcards.

The Murder of Patience Brooke by J.C. Briggs

Check out my review of The Murder of Patience Brooke by J.C. Briggs at Dickensblog! I really love this book and can't wait for the second, Death at Hungerford Stairs.

Plastic Egg Crafts

Have some extra plastic Easter eggs? Why not make a bee or a bird/chick?

You can make a nest out of a small Dixie cup and some strips of brown paper.

Other awesome ideas:

Egg Cupcakes

Elegant silver ring box

Tiny teacups with plastic eggs and buttons

If you have tea lights, you can make fireflies that really light up