Library Projects - Tree Fan

Summer vaction - a time of rest and relaxation right? Well, not so much for children's librarians. The kids have gotta go somewhere during Summer Vacay, and from where I'm sitting, they go to the library.

Anyways, in order to handle this influx of children, my coworkers and I divide the kids up by grades, and then plan programs specifically for the different age groups. I got the 2nd and 3rd graders this summer. This is the perfect age group because they find everything that I do funny, which also makes this the most intelligent and tasteful age group.

Our programs basically consist of crafts and games, and the tree fan was the first project I did with them this summer. It all began when I cleaned out a filing cabinet, and found hundreds upon hundreds of unused green folders. These folders had been sitting there since the Reagan era, and I figured that odds were they would not be missed. A bit of cutting with the crinkly sissors (my name for them), and voila, I have my tree tops.

I then though it might be a nice touch if there were little apples and leaves to go onto the tree tops. By "nice touch" I really mean "a time waster" because I was already beginning to fear that the kiddies would finish this project way too fast.

Now I needed the tree trunks/fan handle. Luckily, I've managed to set a standard of doing curious things involving trees while visiting upstate, so my parents hardly batted an eye at me wandering around our yard and woods collecting sticks. I give all of the collected and cut supplies to the kids, throw in some tape and glue sticks, and alakazam, tree fans:

So that was the finished product! I considered this project a success for a couple of reasons:

1. To my knowledge, none of the kids stabbed each other with the sticks.

2. To my knowledge, I was not stabbed with any of the sticks.

3. At one point, I had 10 or so kids fanning me with their completed fans. This gave me the perfect opportunity to use my Maniacal Laugh of Supreme Accomplishment.

That basically was it for the craft part of the first program. The rest of the time was spent with them throwing pool noodles at one another, and then ended with them doing their best impression of an angry mob, chanting "cheater" at me (I showed them a number guess trick and refused to tell them how I did it.) All in all another successful program!

Brothers in Trees

While on a recent trip upstate to good ole Greenville, NY, my brother and I found ourselves in bit of a predicament - the Nintendo Entertainment System didn't work! "Egads!" I exclaimed to James, "How are we going to stay out of trouble with no Nintendo?!?!?!" James looked to me and cryptically said "we don't. Today, Brother, we climb trees."

And so began a day that would go down in history as The Day When Matt Almost Broke his Leg for the Third Time.

The exciting part about this adventure (besides me not breaking my leg again and attracting the wrath of El Sar) was that while in the woods, we happened upon a single shedded whitetail deer antler!

Look how proud James and I were! Now that I have this antler in my possession, the obvious question is "what to do with it?" Sarah wanted me to graft this to my forehead as part of my RockBand outfit, but I felt as though if I'm going to do this I might as well hold out for moose antler and do it right. So, I am therefore considering suggestions as to what sort of craft project I should do with this one of a kind item. If I hear one that really strikes my fancy, maaaybe I'll just go ahead and do it. If not, I'll just keep this thing around intact and poke Sarah with it. I'm cool with both scenarios really.