Leap Day 2012

On Wednesday, February 29, 16 teens came by after school to celebrate Leap Day!  We did a Leap Year Mad-Lib, made chocolate-dipped bunny cookies, did Leap Year trivia, and wrote letters to ourselves to open on 2/29/2016.  In our standing long jump competition, Alvin, Siaka, and Owen came in first, second, and third.  Blya won the math prize for figuring out how old she would be next time Leap Day is a Wednesday (add 28 years to your age).  We also made and raced origami frogs.  We did four heats, and then a final race with the winners.  Owen ultimately won the competition and got a frog key chain that lit up and made frog noises.  Other prizes for the day included wind-up hopping chicks, jump-the-peg bunny brain games, and jumping beans games, stretchy flying frogs, and bouncing glow-in-the-dark egg balls.  (Dollar Tree and Oriental Trading are the best!)  Everyone got at least one thing to take home. I had a few other activities planned that we didn't get to do, so I'll have to save those for 2016!  It was a fun celebration...check out our racing frogs:

Ninja Night

Last Friday, 29 teens showed up for Ninja Night.  (I only saw two of them!)  It was a great night, mostly thanks to Dan G., our "ninja."  We've never done anything like this before, but we definitely couldn't have done it without him.

First, Dan showed us how to make origami shuriken (throwing stars), and we practiced our ninja skills by throwing them at the library's cardboard cutout of Robert Pattinson.  For every round, people had to aim at a certain part of his head (ear, neck, eyes, etc.) and they got candy if they hit him accurately.  It was hard, and only a few people were ninja enough to handle the pressure.

We watched some random ninja videos online, with the laptop hooked up to the projector.  Then, Dan did a martial arts demonstration.  He talked about his intererst in martial arts, his school, and demonstrated some kicks, delivering an amazing, Chuck-Norris-style roundhouse to the jaw of Robert Pattinson (followed by a huge cheer!).  After that, Dan brought out a whole duffel bag of different martial arts weapons, talking about the history of each one and doing a short demonstration.  (Don't worry, it was very safe--Dan is a trained instructor and no one else handled the items.)  Then, he taught everyone a few self-defense moves.  It was really cool, no one got injured, and Dan was an excellent teacher. 

We finished the night by watching some of the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and having snacks.  What do ninjas eat?  Dark chocolate, of course, and ninja brownies (cut in circles with little icing eyes).  I guess they probably also try to eat quiet food, but we broke the rules with some potato chips. 

At the end, we had our costume contest.  We had all kinds of entries, and our winner was a panda ninja!  She got the Ninja Wisdom Deck, and the runners up each got candy and a fake moustache (ninjas need disguises, you know).  Congrats to Christine, Abby, Kaitlyn, Laurel, and Owen for having the best costumes!

Huge thanks again to Dan, and to the Delaware County Office of Behavioral Health for funding this program.

Origami shuriken pieces 

 A view of the origami lesson

 Everyone attempting to look more ninja...

 The beginning of the self-defense lesson

 A test of friendship...practicing self-defense moves on each other!

Having fun with self-defense

 How ninjas get brownies...?

Costume contest entries

Black Friday at the Library

Yesterday afternoon, lots of teens ditched shopping in favor of hanging out at the library. First, six people showed up to make origami. Thank goodness for the animated instructions on Origami Club! We were able to figure out the directions when we had problems. After that, 18 people came to Anime Club. We ate noodles and watched several different shows. Tim and I also had prizes to give away, so a lot of people went home with something extra. This was our last Anime Club meeting of the year, but we will start back up at the end of January. Look for the winter schedule in mid-December!

Origami

I have found some great origami resources on the internet, so start folding! Or bring along an idea to our origami program this Friday. We will be making gift tags, boxes, or whatever, from 2:00 to 3:30.

Traditional Origami
This is my favorite site because it has tons of easy-to-follow patterns. And if you're hardcore, here's the site in Japanese.

Origami and Crafts
Written for cub scouts, this guide shows you how to make origami and then turn it into something else.

Money Origami
Don't have much to spend for a gift? Make one out of the money! I still have a pair of origami cowboy boots I got as a waitressing tip years ago.

More Origami
Find out how to make nontraditional items like rings, envelopes, and even edible items from origami!