Here are a few signs I made for our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Book Displays as well as a few pictures of the displays from our YA and Children's section...

The little text cut-outs are facts about Asia.The publisher file of those was accidentally deleted so I don't have a copy of all included facts to share 😞

The next day the display was slightly reorganized...

Bear with me, this post is coming over a year after I did this program.

I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79 was our January 2020 book of the month. For this book club meeting, we had fruit - apples and grapes. I always try to pull a snack inspired by the text and apples were specifically mentioned as being sold in the market. 

Our meetings always follow the same general outline: Snacks and discussion then activity/craft.

My craft for this meeting was a little time sensitive so I wrote out an itinerary for the hour. You can guess how that went... 😬 because the craft I went with might have been a little much. 

Mosaic Tiles

The pros: Super pretty!!

The cons: For this craft, our first step was gluing the stones onto our base and letting it dry. 

We took the first 10 minutes of book club doing this. 

However, the problem started when we had TWO new families come in late, after the group had already glued the stones down and while we were talking about the book/ snacking. I had no volunteers and it might have been easier to manage if I did have help. But those two instances threw this off a tad.

Also, the craft always ends up being 10 times messier than when I do my trial run of a craft. 

The general idea...
Supplies:

• Mosaic Tile Adhesive
• Wood Base ( This is what I used )
• Premixed Tile Grout
• Sponges
• Pretty Stones
• Spatula tool thing
  
• Bowls with water 

optional: Q-tips to spread the glue

optional: I knew they wouldn't be dry by the end of book club, so I made cardboard carrying cases for them. 

First Step

Glue stones to base. Let dry. 

Second Step

Once stones have dried to base, you're ready to grout! 

Use the spatula tool thing and spread out the grout around the stones.

Third Step

Using a sponge and water, gently wash away excess grout.

After that, let it dry! 

Ok, obviously, that is the most basic general idea. But that's the gist. 

If I were to do this book club meeting over again, I would choose a less complex craft. 

Something like, the sticker mosaic crafts from Oriental Trading or coloring mosaic style patterns on white ceramic tiles. 

Of course, you can always do something with the volcano - to be honest, I forgot why I was so focused on doing mosaics for this.

Click here for my chapter by chapter breakdown of the book. 

 

 

For an online kids program, I did an author study for H.A. Rey. He was SO interesting and this is what I found...

The most exciting discovery in my research for H.A. Rey was this: 

This was such an exciting find! And I definitely think this is H.A. Rey, drawn into his book. 

H.A. Rey was very artistic as a young boy. He loved drawing and painting. One of his favorite places to go was the Hagenbeck Zoo. The zoo was near his home in Germany and he would often go for visits with his brother and 2 sisters. 

He loved observing the animals - the way they moved, the way they ate, climbed trees or played with each other. Afterwards, he would go home and draw what he saw.

As an adult, for a time, he had a job designing posters for the local circus. 

But of all the original seven Curious George books, what made me grab this one?

I had JUST finished reading this book about how the couple escaped Paris on bicycles. 

Both H.A. and Margaret were German-born Jews living in Paris in 1940. They decided to flee the city but had no car and the trains had stopped running, so the couple bought bicycles to make their way to safety!

This was an amazing chapter book biography and I would highly recommend reading it or purchasing it for your library. 

 

 This program was posted onto the library's Youtube channel and can be seen here