FRANKLIN THE TURTLE PROGRAM

On Saturday, March 22, 2003, 17 participants, ages 3-5, attended the Bucyrus Public Library's Franklin the Turtle program.

The program began with a Powerpoint presentation on Franklin and his creators done by Children's Librarian Barb Scott. After that, she shared the book Franklin's Bad Day.

Then, participants were invited to the craft tables to make and take several crafts. They were:

1. Franklin Bookmarks: Participants colored both sides of the bookmark which was then folded and laminated.

2. Franklin Toilet Paper Tube Craft: Participants received a sheet with Franklin "pieces" to color and cut out. These pieces were glued onto a toilet paper tube and the result was a cute Franklin, complete with shell.

3. Franklin Coloring Page: Participants colored a line drawing of Franklin. These were turned in to Mrs. Scott for display with the pictures taken of the day's events.

4. Franklin Door Hanger Craft: The Ellison door hanger die was used, along with a picture of Franklin in his "Franklin-stein" Halloween costume. The picture of Franklin was colored, then cut out and glued onto the door hanger shape.

5. Footprints of Franklin and His Forest Friends: Stamps were provided for Franklin and 7 of his forest friends for participants to ink up and stamp onto a piece of construction paper.
The animal track stamps are available from Museum Products. Their website is www.museumproducts.com The ones I used are the Replitracks Sampler #1. It has 18 tracks and costs $60.00.

Once crafts were done, it was snack time! Snacks included cookies, punch, pretzels, and goldfish crackers. Participants viewed 2 short Franklin videos while munching on snacks.

The highlight of the afternoon was a visit from Franklin himself! Many children had their picture taken with Franklin, who walked from table to table as the crafts were made.

Before they left, each child received Franklin coloring pages, a Franklin bookmark, and two pages of Franklin stickers.