I planned a program based on Guinness World Records, and it was super cheap and low prep, plus a lot of fun! And sneakily educational, to boot. Details below, but first, the saga of my Wednesday afterschool programming and the importance of changing things up.

My local school gets out early on Wednesdays, and the library gets an influx of kids! When I started in May 2014, I inherited four monthly programs on early out days: Lego club, and three after school book clubs for different ages. One of the book clubs had good, consistent attendance and the other two weren’t attended at all.

I asked around, and it turned out that kids wanted more active programs, families were coming in with multiple ages of children seeking activities, and the time was too early for most families! So, time for a change! I pushed back the time and completely overhauled my early out programs.  Now I have consistent monthly programs that fall under the “Early Out Wednesdays” umbrella, and are ALL open to K-5: Legos, Stories, Art, and Science.

I’ll explore these more in later posts, but basically, it worked! A month later, the programs are being attended and enjoyed and I’m thrilled, though it’s been bumpy at times. Change always is, and planning programs appropriate for both kindergarteners and fifth graders is an extra challenge!

Program Rundown: World Records

• Cost (not including existing supplies): $0
• Age: K-5
• Length: 45 minutes
• Attendance: 6

My first Stories day, which is essentially stations and activities centered around a book, was “World Records.” It was a small crowd because there was no school, but this worked out nicely. We started by reading some records out loud from Guinness World Records 2015, and looking at the pictures. We used masking tape and a yardstick to measure out some of the size-based records: the largest commercially available pizza (which we could all sit inside!), shortest cat, tallest dog, longest bat wingspan.

Next I turned them loose on different stations I had set up around the room. I made signs with different records, and challenged them to try the tasks and see how well they could do!

Standing pencils on one end turned out to be incredibly challenging! I’ll blame our folding tables – too wobbly.

I knew nobody would be able to spin 160 hula hoops, so we didn’t have that many! But it turns out I can do five. For this, we were luck to have a big supply of children’s gym equipment, but there are certainly many other records to try! The best source for these ideas was the Guinness World Records Challengers site. This is where people submit video attempts at records. The “household items” category has records involving everyday items, most of which a library would already have or could easily get.

Our other stations were spinning coins for the longest time, jumping rope on one foot, juggling with scarves, and walking while balancing a book on your head. I also considered stacking CDs on one finger and putting on the most socks in a minute, but opted for things I already had.

This program was a lot of fun, and really did work for this wide of an age range! It ended a bit early because of the small group, and they ended up running around the room stuffed inside a single hula hoop, but hey, what do you expect on a cold winter day with no school?