Young Adult Toolkit

These are suggestions for ways your library might promote the Kansas sesquicentennial (KS150) to the young adults in your community.  If you have ideas or resources to add to this list of ideas for library programming, please email them to Kim Harp at kimh@kslib.info.

Events
Genealogy
Hobbies
Arts/Culture
Reading
Community-building
Food
Technology
Great Outdoors
History
Sports/Games

Events:
Do a penny or nickel drive- go for one penny per day that Kansas has been a state- that’d be 54,750 coins!- proceeds could go to a new piece of artwork or landscape for the community or for a new piece of furniture for the teen center in the library!
Envisioning a Future Kansas- Enlist your teens to set up an exhibit of a Kansas of 25, 50, 100, or 150 years into the future
Open mike night
Hold a teen choice contest regarding the top 150 reads in your YA collection
Host a Kansas trivia night
Hold a supply drive for a local animal shelter

Genealogy:
Instruct kids how to do a family tree
Give kids a list of questions to tape their grandparents for oral history
Help kids set up a family online newsletter or blog

Hobbies:
Quilting
Wheat weaving
http://nawwstraw.org/index.php
Knitting/Crochet
Friendship bracelets (use state colors of yellow and blue!)
http://www.friendship-bracelets.net/index.php

Arts/Culture:
Invite a YA author to give writing tips
Host a Kansas poetry contest
Battle of the bands- either with real instruments or w/ video game instruments
Kansas Idol
Book cover redo: have teens redo the cover art on their favorite KS 150 book
Have the kids create sidewalk chalk art touting KS150 on the walks surrounding the library
Host a music swap
Start a writing club
Have teens design T-shirts on a community theme
Organize guitar/piano lessons in the library

Reading:
Have teens pair up with your preschool story hour kids to read books
Host local celebrities and have them do a book talk of their favorite YA
Have the teens help to set up a KS 150 reading corner
Create a KS 150 word wall
Play bingo with KS 150 vocabulary

Community building:
Have the library adopt a platoon and ask the kids to round up donors
Establish a food drive for a local pantry
Hold a “pie in the face”- the winner of any contest gets to throw a pie in the face of a librarian, the mayor, a local celebrity, etc.
Set up an inter generational game party- board games for seniors and teens alike (let the pros show ‘em how its done!)
Hold an art supply drive for a children’s clinic or hospital
Host a pen-pal sign up (seniors to kids, soldiers, or teens from a neighboring library)
Set up a read to a preschooler day
Collect old clothes for a local shelter or preschool (dress-up)
Create a sesquicentennial time-capsule
Create a “rent-a-youth” team of community helpers to mow, rake, shovel or other odd jobs
Have teens form teams to see which one can collect more coats for the needy

Food:
Wheat bread demonstration
Build-your-own trail mix (with sunflower seeds, of course!)
Have your local 4-H or extension office demonstrate how food gets from the farm to the table
Churn butter
Make ice-cream (without electricity!)
plant the "three sisters"
http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/march02/mar02-pg1.htm
have a chuck wagon dinner

Technology:
Create a Kansas youtube video
Help the library create a Flickr photo set for your community
Use Animoto to have teens create book reviews
http://animoto.com
Use blank template to create a Kansas-based graphic novel or comic
http://ccproject.comicgenesis.com/templates.html
Story board and create a video about your community- post it to your YouTube channel!
Use an online puzzle maker to create a crossword puzzle on your community- post it to the local newspaper or to the library's blog
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
Teach teens how to build family trees using Ancestry.com

Great Outdoors:
KS 150 treasure hunt!- invite families to learn more about their community by having local businesses or attractions act as stops on a treasure hunt.
Plant a community garden on the library grounds
Set up an outdoor theater and put on a play of the history of your community
Hike outdoors, have teens take pictures of plants and animals on the trail, then expose the teens to books on KS trails and wildlife so they can identify their findings

History:
Build a sod house as a town exhibit
http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstory/f/sodhouse.html
Build a Native American grass hut, teepee, or bark hut
Develop an exhibit of the community's founders

Sports/Games:
Set up a mini golf course- each hole a different Kansas theme!
Set up a 2-liter bottle bowling set- each time a teen answers a KS trivia question correctly, they get to bowl a set!
Have teens create a board game based on your community then play