Angry Birds - Large and In Charge

I recently did an Angry Birds program with my Middle Matters group (kids grades 6-8) that went pretty well. We are still looking for the right time to offer programming but right now it is Fridays at 4:30 advertised as a homework break. Bad news is, it's football season so...

Before I go into what I did, please know that I borrow liberally from other librarians who have graciously shared their ideas on the internet. So, thank you, if you see your ideas splashed across my blog.

I set up several stations for the kiddos to choose from. The first was Angry Birds Body Parts, think of the game Cootie but with Angry Bird parts instead. I wasn't sure about this one but the kids really got into it.

Roll the dice. Add the piece that corresponds with your roll. If you roll a six you must remove a piece of your bird. First one to have a complete Angry Bird wins.

    1.   Body

    2.   Beak

    3.   Eye (2)

    4.   Head Feathers

    5.   Tail

    6.    Remove a body part

Next there were Papercraft. These can be found all over the internet but the ones I used were by Little Plastic Man.

These were pretty tough to put together but everyone made one or two of them. I let them take the patterns for the others so they could make them at home.

Then came the cute craft - pom pom birds and pigs.

Love the eyebrows

Pom poms were made by wrapping yarn around fingers many, many, many times, then tying a knot around the middle making loops on both sides of the center tie. The loops were then cut, fluffed, and trimmed until the desired roundness and size was achieved. I supplied small squares of paper to cut beaks, crowns, and noses from, plus the googly eyes - because all projects are better with googly eyes.

We had tattoos available and a snack of Angry Bird Droppings, which made me smile more than the kids but I forgive their lack of sophisticated humor. They're young.

Of course you can't have Angry Birds - Large and in charge without having life-sized angry birds to play. I spent several weeks gathering boxes of various sizes, wrapping them in brown paper and drawing "wood grain" on them for authenticity. Realism is key (snerk)

At this point I need to stop and say that I had help with the wrapping and wood graining. Okay, I didn't do a lick of it. I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful intern this summer who was willing to take on any assigned task.


I purchased several kickballs and tried to get the right colors but blue didn't come in the right size so I used green. Honestly, the kids didn't even notice they were having too much fun. I looked on the internet for templates but to be frank I didn't really like the ones I found so I made my own. They are included at the end of the blog. I tried taping the bird faces to the balls but it didn't stick very well so I tried glue dots. Those worked for the first few launches but fell off soon thereafter. Again, the kids didn't care, in fact they thought it was funny, so there you go with their sense of humor.

The taped faces came off pretty quickly

From one blog I got the idea to lob the birds at the pigs by using a towel but I wanted to make it as Angry Birds authentic as possible - remember realism is key - without actually using a slingshot so I brought a black, fleece scarf from home and made them work together to figure out how to get the bird to fly to the right place. It took a bit of coordination and a lot of trial and error but they managed.

Green ballons with Pig faces drawn on them completed the game. The kids had great fun knocking things down and building in new configurations trying to make it harder to get to the pigs. Never let anyone tell you that they are too old to build with blocks.

Hope you have as much fun in your Angry Birds program as I had in mine.

A Life Well-Lived - Jan Steinmark

Very shortly after starting work at McCollough Branch Library in Evansville, IN, I received an e-mail from a woman at East Branch named Jan Steinmark. She ended it by telling me how wonderful her PT Cruiser was. Huh... Seemeed a bit quirky but whatever. A few weeks later I received another e-mail, and another and another all extoling the virtues of her purple PT Cruiser. Ugh! I thought. Enough already, we get it, you love your car, it reminds you of the past, get over it and move on!"

Years later I was moved to Central Library and had the honor of being paired up with Jan Steinmark to work on Saturdays. Just the two of us. My first thought? Does she still have that dang car? 

What I learned, when I finally took the time and effort to get to know Jan was that the P T Cruiser obsession didn't mean Jan was stuck in the past. It meant that she loved to know about who she was, who her family was, where she and others came from. She was infinitely curious about others and their lives. She loved teaching people! She was passionate about helping others and wanted to see them succeed in whatever endeavors they chose. 

When Jan found a project, she often turned it into a mission. She liked to knit so she started making hats and scarves for cancer patients and bears for babies. She made a cat toy for her babies that they seemed to like so she made enough for the whole children's department at the library to try them out. The same with bookmarks and jewelry.

On our Saturdays together Jan very politely listened to me read children's books out-loud, oohing and ahhing in the appropriate places. She joined me in loving the simple joys and deep lessons that can be found in children's literature. 

One Saturday I read a book called Subway Story by Julia Sarcone-Roach about a beloved subway car that eventually became old and found itself in a junkyard, sad and alone. Then one glorious day the subway was taken and put into the ocean to become a part of a coral reef and it wasn't long before the subway car was once again loved and full of friends. Jan shared with me that she wanted to be cremated after she died and her ashes added to a coral reef off of Florida. This way she said she would always be a part of making the world a better place.

That was Jan, stubborn, yes, driven, to a fault, a lover of all things kitsch, and also one of the most caring people I have had the privilege to know. 

Rest well my friend.