Tween Night: Spirit Animals

August’s Tween Night was based off the popular book series Spirit Animals. The series accounts for 6 of our 50 most circulated Junior Fiction books!

This program had several stations. First was find your spirit animal. I made 3 old school paper fortune tellers, one each for earth, air, and water. We gave them the option to stick with the one they got, or they could choose their own.

Next was face painting! Always a winner with the kids. I bought face paint crayons to avoid a terrible mess. They painted their own faces or had a friend help them out. Some kids just did this the whole time and were perfectly content.

Matching the face painting was a paw print tattoo table. This is meant to imitate the passive state mentioned in the books. Not as many kids did the tattoos. The face painting beat it out.

Once the Tweens were done with their faces and tattoos, there was a photo backdrop for them to take pictures at.

To finish the night was a scavenger hunt. It was a hunt for the talisman of the “Four Fallen” from book 1. I created 4 puzzles, each leading to an envelop hidden the Junior section of the library. I was nervous about this, but they did a great job. When they turned in their four tokens, they got a cup of animal crackers and their choice of candy from a basket. This made ending the program easy. I could clean up as they hunted. They saw themselves out after they got their treats.

I think the kids genuinely had fun. I got great feedback from them. One thing I would change for next time would be to have music playing. Since I had a smaller group, 22 kids, there was minimal noise. This size of group was also great because the program didn’t have to have a rigid structure. They were able to go at their own pace.