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February 5, 2013 by Karen Jensen, MLS

TPiB: Beneath the Surface Ideas for Tweens/Teens

February 5, 2013 by Karen Jensen, MLS   4 comments

Ah, February…  the time when every teen services specialist thinks of candy hearts, chocolate tastings, and OMG, we have HOW MANY DAYS UNTIL SUMMER?!?!??!  Do not fear!  We at Teen Librarian Toolbox have not one, not two, but EIGHT different ideas that would fit in with the 2013 Collaborate Summer Reading Program Theme (Beneath the Surface & Dig Into Reading)…

I happen to be in charge of everything (splitting the youth portion with my part time youth services librarian) and have had tremendous success with tween programs.  So for the summer I’m alternating between tween and teen nights.  However, any of these ideas can be aged up or down depending on your library, and what works for your patrons.  What works for me and mine may not work for you and yours.

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Note:  All movie suggestions have been cleared through Movie Licensing USA, which is where my system gets their umbrella license.  If you do not have a public performance license, please use movies in the public domain.  Do not have the authorities pounding down your door.  Also, while the MPAA ratings are a guideline and not law, no movies suggested go above PG-13.

 

Superheros/secret identities 

  • Movie suggestions: DC Superheroes featuring Superman, Green Lantern, Batman– the first week of June Man of Steel is released in theaters so it would be a good tie in.  Marvel superheroes like The Avengers or Iron Man as Iron Man 3 will have been released in early May.

  • Craft suggestions:  create your own superhero emblem and place in a photo keychain, or utilize the system’s buttonmaker (start preparing the arm muscles), or get mask blanks and let them design their own costume piece

  • Game suggestions:  pin the cape on the superhero, name the secret identity, create your own superhero, get your own superhero name,  Marvel Monopoly

Zombies

  • Movie Suggestions: anything zombie related, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or I am Legend (World War Z is released June 20)

  • Craft suggestions: create your own zombie heads with blank kickballs (hacky sacks for those of us who remember), or create a little felt zombie with some scraps and a house out of leftover candy tins.  Or check out Zombie Felties for a real craft project. 

  • Game suggestions:   zombie marco polo, zombie fluxx, pin the brain on the zombie

    Adapt ideas from this It’s a Dead Man’s Party TPiB

 

Law enforcement

  • Movie Suggestions: The Lone Ranger comes out July 3, so you could pull in the western aspect with Wild Wild West, or go full force with S.W.A.T. or uber mysterious with Total Recall (2012)

  • Craft suggestions:  rattlesnake pulls, ID badges, finger print cards, create your own wanted poster

  • Game suggestions: Live Clue, mystery scavenger hunts, assassin

Shark week

  • Movie Suggestions: Really, what else is there but Jaws or the sequels? 

  • Craft suggestions: baby food jars plus plastic sharks=shark globes, or make your own shark teeth necklaces, design a shark bite

  • Game suggestions: shark bite tag, feed the shark (bean bag toss), shark volley


Minecraft

  • Movie Suggestion:  Wreck-It Ralph. Yes, seriously.  Yes, they are both video games, but if you have ever seen Minecraft, they build and build and build, and then take it down and tear it apart and then build and build and build.

  • Craft suggestions:  create your own Steve masks, fold your own Minecraft printables, build your own creepers

  • Game suggestions: Live Minecraft (gather boxes to build the fort, have some tweens be builders, and some be creepers and destroyers- see who wins), Creeper Bowling, after hours Minecraft gameplay

Dinosaurs

  •  Movie Suggestions:  Jurassic Park, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Godzilla

  • Craft Suggestions:  Create your own dinosaur fossils, dinosaur bones out of pasta, design your own dinosaur heads

  • Game suggestions: bean bag toss with dinosaur eggs, hot dinosaur egg (hot potato), Lava tug-o-war between the herbivores and the carnivores

Mummies

  • Movie Suggestions: The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Hotel Transylvania, Corpse Bride, Jumangi

  • Craft Suggestions:  create your own mummies,  cardboard tube mummies, potato chip tube mummies, create your own tombs (Check out the hieroglyphics section on this Art Through the Ages TPiB)

  • Game Suggestions: Musical chairs (Walk Like an Egyptian, King Tut, etc.), Mummy wrapping, hieroglyphics codes 

Spy party

  • Movie Suggestions:  Spy Kids, Inspector Gadget, James Bond movies or the Austin Powers series

  • Craft Suggestions: recyclables to make their own gadgets, finger printing, disguise printables

  • Game Suggestions: disguise relay races, spy training obstacle courses, hide and seek, assassin

    Adapt ideas from this CSI themed TPiB

Filed under: Collaborative Summer Reading Program, Dinosaurs, Law Enforcement, Minecraft, Mummies, Sharks, Spies, Summer Reading, Superheros, TPIB, Zombies

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kym says

    February 5, 2013 at 7:28 pm

    Deep Blue Sea is a shark movie.

  2. Christie says

    February 6, 2013 at 3:10 am

    It is and covered under Movie Licensing USA, and if your system lets you show R rated movies for programs, then go for it! R will open up a whole level of movie programs- unfortunately, all the systems I have ever worked for will only allow PG-13 as the top level for teen (13-18 years) movie nights.

    🙂 christie

  3. Storytime Fun says

    February 24, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    If you want and oldie but goodie superhero movie that is hilarious, you could show Mystery Men and then have kids create their own superhero identity and costume out of recycled stuff.

  4. Christie says

    February 28, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    I Love Mystery Men! It's one of my favs- and if you start connecting everyone it totally blows their minds…. Yes, the Spleen is Pee Wee Herman! Bwahahahaha!

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