Tween Night: Angry Birds

Welcome to my first program ever!

Before the Tween Assistant Librarian position existed at my library, back in May I was given the opportunity to try out programming. I decided on Life Size Angry Birds. It only required collecting boxes and rubber balls. I figured it’s low cost, easy to do, and interesting enough to draw the kids in.

My coworker and I set up two box towers with Angry Bird characters taped on them. Each station had rubber balls to throw at the targets. The original plan was to sling shot the balls, but it didn’t work as well as planned. We also had the Angry Bird soundtrack playing in the background.

Talk about high energy! The kids were instantly involved. The hardest part of it all was keeping them in line. We took a craft break when it started to get too rowdy. We provided coloring pages and pig origami boxes. The origami was a hit. Once everyone had settled down, we finished with a few more rounds of knocking the boxes down.  At the end of the program, the kids went home with a chocolate egg.

Overall the program lasted about 45 minutes. We had 30-40 kids come and go. I would call it a success. As my first program, it was a huge learning experience. Being responsible for a large group was new for me. I also learned that I don’t have the mom voice. Despite that, I knew I wanted to do it again. I have been blessed with the Tween position since then. I will have many opportunities to try new ideas and grow.