Dozens of mini dragons ascended upon the Monroe County Public Library on Tuesday afternoon.
Little Makers, the library’s open-ended art experience program for toddlers and parents, made dragons out of paper, cotton balls and other materials for the children to retell dragon stories they had previously heard during the library’s other program, Tuesday Tales.
Christina Jones, community engagement librarian at MCPL, said the library encourages parents to get involved with their children during the program.
She said Little Makers gets between 50 and 80 people each week.
“A priority for us is to set up experiences that preschoolers and parents do together, so parents don’t just leave the preschoolers in the room and we make a craft,” Jones said. “We know that helps them build language skills and vocabulary skills.”
Kylene Nungesser said she brings her daughter Palmer to Little Makers almost every Tuesday. She said she likes bringing her there and getting new books for the week as well.
“I think she likes the stories being read to her and the animation of the libraries,” Nungesser said. “And she loves craft time.”
Jones has worked with the library for 15 years. She said Little Makers was originally planned to be more literacy-based, giving writing prompts and focusing on learning shapes and letters.
But the library saw a larger need for art-based programs, so Little Makers evolved into an open-ended art experience four years ago.
Kelly Jordan, senior information assistant at MCPL, said the program is more process-driven than product-driven.
She said a few weeks before Little Makers did a copper wire craft, and the children created different variations of sculptures with little instruction.
“They’re full of a sense of potential for materials already,” Jordan said. “We sort of start materials first toward form, and then attempt to attach language to what they’ve done as one of the later steps.”
She said for the dragon craft done Tuesday, there was an additional interactive quality, breathing through it to make certain parts of the dragon move to create a fire effect.
“I think of it as visual literacy that’s in tandem with language as well,” Jordan said. “That would be a play-based outcome to encourage, play being one of those early literacy components so they could do imaginative play when they get home.”
Jones said these types of crafts help make the program a learning experience as well as an art experience. The toddlers are given starting materials for each craft and can come up with variations of the model they are given to what they want to make.
“We acknowledge that children are meaning makers and knowledge seekers,” Jones said. “So we set it up for them to make their own meaning and their own knowledge.”
Jordan said she always is excited to see the children’s faces when she shows them what they are about to make.
“They usually sort of light up,” Jordan said.
Little Makers is in the main children’s program room in the main library. Children can come in to the library Tuesdays from 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. It is open to toddlers and their parents.
She said there is never a set craft that is made with the materials the children are given. They always want to show her what they’ve made.
“They’re extremely inventive,” Jordan said. “They usually come up with a lot of variations, and it’s pretty exciting to see what they’ve made. And they always hug us, which we love.”
