Cindy Crushes Programming: Snow Globes, by Teen Librarian Cindy Shutts

Today for Cindy Crushes Programming, Teen Librarian Cindy Shutts walks us through creating snow globes – with dinosaurs! Here for it honestly.

I have not made snow globes for a few years and wanted to give them another try at my library. Snow globes can be a hit and miss craft, to be honest. They can be expensive and sometimes can be a fail. My former coworker used dark tinsel one year and the teens’ snow globe had seals in it and it looked like the seal was in an oil slick.

This is my new one. The size of the dino caused issues. So you’ll want to think about things like sizing, colors, etc.

The jars are a whole different problem. In the past I have used specimen jars and baby food jars that had been donated. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. I tried a baby food at this time for my example and it did not work. So I used my specimen jar and that was an even bigger problem because I used a dinosaur that was so big the jar would not take all the water it needed to make it a nice snow globe. I bought canning jars for the teens for this craft and that worked.

Here is an example of one of the specimen Jar. The hot glue had dislodged in the jar. I was able to remove it.

Supplies:

• Half pint canning jars
• Hot glue and hot glue gun
• Glitter or fake snow
• Water
• Stuff to use in the jar (We used Jax sets, Mini toys and D and D dice)
• Glycin (Not needed but helpful)

Steps:

1. Pick out what you want in your snow globe. We found taller items were easier to see. D and D dice can flow which is fun and so could the Jax sets we got at Target. Having a few items to float helps.
2. Take the lid and hot glue the items you want to, but not the screw lid.
3. Add glitter or snow. I believe in doing this step over the sink to avoid glitter getting everywhere.
4. Add water and you can add glycine to make the glitter float better and be lower when it comes down.
5. Fastener the lid. See if you need to add more water and check for leaks.
6. You can add embellishments to the jar if you wish.

Final Thoughts: Snow Globes I think are more fun for the teens than the librarians. Everyone in my program did a great job. I was worried about it more than they were. This is one program that you have to remember that it is about the fun, not just the results.

Cindy Shutts, MLIS

Cindy is passionate about teen services. She loves dogs, pro-wrestling, Fairy tales, mythology, and of course reading. Her favorite books are The Hate U Give, Catching FIre, The Royals, and everything by Cindy Pon. She loves spending times with her dog Harry Winston and her niece and nephew. Cindy Shutts is the Teen Services Librarian at the White Oak Library District in IL and she’ll be joining us to talk about teen programming. You can follow her on Twitter at @cindysku.

Filed under: Cindy Crushes Programming