Sunday, November 4, 2018

Welcome to DiNovember! - Programming


Dinovember

So I'm finally getting a chance to do something I've always wanted to do: DiNovember! In case you're asking "what is "DiNovember?", it's a month-long celebration of dinosaurs and the children (and adults) who are obsessed with them, with multiple programs on a dinosaur theme, both active and passive. It was inspired by Refe and Susan Tume, authors of the What the Dinosaurs Did picture book series and instigators of this "month-long imagination invasion".

They started with posing their kids' plastic dinosaurs in various types of mischief and photographing them for their kids, then shared the pictures online. A few years ago a library (I believe it was a public library in Columbus, WI) picked up on it, and did the same thing with their toy dinosaurs in the library, sharing photos on the library Facebook page, and with a Facebook group for library people, which is how I learned about it. Being a total dinosaur nut, I LOVED the idea, but was not really in a position to implement it at the time.

But, now I am in a programming position in a branch library with a supervisor and coworkers who were willing to indulge me (though I'm not sure they knew just what level of dinosaur fanaticism they were unleashing 😉). So I have planned a dinosaur family storytime, a dinosaur/paleontology themed school-aged STEAM program, dinosaur and fossil scavenger hunts, a dinosaur book display, and my own version of "what the dinosaurs did last night", starting with this poster (click on any image to see full size):

Dinovember, dinosaurs

Some do a new picture every day, but I think that's a bit much, so I'll probably do one every 2-3 days, posting different "wanted" posters in the library, and hopefully to the library Facebook page (since we just have one for the whole system I'm still waiting for approval on that); I will also post them to the Adventures In Storytime Facebook page as well, so you can all follow along. I can't wait to see what great ideas my coworkers come up with for the dinos to get into! I think I will also hide a couple of the dinosaurs in the library each week for kids to find and help us gradually apprehend them all by the end of the month.

Our scavenger hunts are a continuous passive program that we change out every week or two with different themes. We usually select 6-8 pictures with whatever theme we decide on and place them around the department, then make a checklist sheet for the kids. When the kids find them all, they come back to the desk for a prize (usually stickers). For this month, I'm doing one with meat-eating dinosaurs, one with plant-eaters, and one with fossils found in our state. (I left one week open in case one of my coworkers wanted to do a Thanksgiving theme.)

I do not have one of the big inflatable T-rex costumes, but I did buy this really cute dinosaur dress! Yes, I am Ms. Frizzle at heart.

There will be other non-dino programs going on as well, though I think at least one coworker is also doing a dino-themed storytime. I haven't decided for sure exactly what I'm doing for my dino storytime or for my STEAM program, other than there will be at least one pop-up book in storytime, and one of the STEAM activities will be making plaster casts of dinosaur footprints. I'll write up each of those programs separately with all the details afterward, so check back!

Oh, I almost forgot! I also bought these large dino skeletons (about the side of a German Shephard dog). They have noise-activated sensors that make them roar and open and close their mouths, which I promptly turned off. 

Happy DiNovember!!


Dinovember, dinosaurs

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