Stuffed Animal Sleepover

One of the most popular programs at the library is the Stuffed Animal Sleepover.  I first heard about this type of program on Pubyac, a listserv for youth services librarians.  An evening story time is planned with just one or two bedtime stories.  At registration, we recommend the family bring an animal that can be left for one night, and is not needed by the child to go to sleep.  When the children arrive the animals are given a name tag with the animal's name and the child's name on the other side.  The parents receive a note explaining they should leave the library quickly and that they may return the next day after a specified time.  The children will tuck in their animals, we used two sheets, and the children placed their animals around the "bed."  If a child does not want to leave an animal we offer to substitute one of our puppets, most leave the animal they brought.  The children will tippy-toe out of the room and the door is closed.  

Once the children leave, the animals "wake-up" and the mischief begins.  We place the animals around the library.  They read a story, play on the computers, play hide-and-seek in the stacks, play with toys, slide down the book return, they even order a pizza!  Where did they get the money?

The animals are photographed and I try to get each animal alone, and in group shots.  We have a small library, I can imagine if you have a large facility you could find even more creative places for the animals.  

Take a large number of digital photos and upload then to the computer and send the photos to a big-box store's one-hour photo department.  I look for coupons from various stores in the area and can usually get the prints for about 10 cents each.  For a program that has 20 children, you will need about 200 photos, at 10 cents each the program costs $1 per child.  You can get by with less per child, as low as five photos each if you cannot get the low price.

The photos are distributed to the various animals, each animal gets one or two group shots, a few individual shots, and smaller group shots.  The photos will tell the story of what the animals did while the children were gone. I write a letter to go with the photos.  I tell the children a story about what the animals did while they were gone.  The animals woke up, got into mischief, ordered pizza, and finally the librarians got the animals back to sleep.  I  also add that the librarians are very tired.   The photos and the story go into an envelope that is stapled to the name tag. 

The look on the faces of the children are very special.  Most of the children want to look a the photos right away and are awestruck by what the animals did.  They seem to like photos of the "hidden" places in the library, the back room, book drop, etc. Try this program and let me know how it went.