Saturday Afternoon Adventures
Find new places, topics, and books to explore, perfect for weekend family fun you can do at home!
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
MAY 8
DIY gift ideas such as this flower bouquet, and self care tips for care providers!
ANCIENT EGYPT
MAY 1
Travel back in time to learn about pyramids, mummies, and Egyptian mythology.
MICROBIOLOGY 101
APRIL 24
Learn all about microbes!
DESIGN YOUR DREAM HOME
APRIL 17
If you could build any house you could imagine, what would it look like on the inside? Where would your bedroom be? What would it have inside it? All you need is some paper (graph paper works really well) and a pencil with an eraser. Watch Psyche to get started, then click the button for more details.
BIOPLASTIC
APRIL 3
If you picked up a Bioplastic kit from the library, follow along with Liz to make your own plastic at home. If not, checkout our webpage to find how using supplies you probably have in your kitchen.
PALESTINE
APRIL 10
Take a virtual trip to Palestine with Ypsi resident Nivean as part of Around the World series. Try some recipes, make art, learn some Arabic!
MAZES
MARCH 27
Mazes come in many forms–the paper kind you solve with a pencil and three-dimensional obstacles you create for a marble to pass through. Get ideas for mazes you can make at home.
FOLK GAMES
MARCH 20
Folk games, also known as classic or traditional games, are activities children teach each other and are passed down between generations. Click the button for ideas you can do as a family inside or outside!
FOSSIL HUNTERS
MARCH 13
Learn about fossils and fossilists, find links to fun videos and more when you click the button!
TAKE A WALK ON MARS
MARCH 6
Learn all about Mars, see recent video footage from Mars, then take NASA Mars Lander Building Challenge with supplies you can find around your house.
CARDBOARD BUILDING CHALLENGE
FEBRUARY 27
If you picked up a Makedo Supply Kit from the library, you have tools to use to help you build with cardboard. If not, checkout our webpage about cardboard building for other ideas you can do at home to get creative and put your design skills to work.
KIDS AT THE TABLE: FOOD JUSTICE
FEBRUARY 20
Food justice is about fresh/healthy/affordable food and fair wages and treatment of those who harvest, prepare and serve our food. Learn about food justice and food activists like Cesar Chavez, make seed packet art, and more!
THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF KINDNESS
FEBRUARY 13
Watch Pat show you what happens when you drop a tiny object into the water and create ripples! Kindness works the same way. When you share a smile or a kind deed with a friend, they are more likely to go out and do kind deeds themselves, and in this way the effects of kindness can spread across a whole family, a whole classroom, a whole neighborhood!
MAKE MUSIC
FEBRUARY 6
Music brings people together, has the ability to capture entire moments in history, and tell personal stories. Learn about music, including how it’s been used by Black Americans as a form of protest since before the Civil Rights Era, and pick up a kit with supplies to make a hand drum and more!
KITCHEN SCIENCE: WATER BEADS
JANUARY 30
Pick up a kit with water beads, then try a variety of experiments and play!
READERS THEATRE IN A BAG
JANUARY 23
Pick up a kit with scripts and easy costume materials, then have fun acting out the play as a family. Find theatre warm ups and more ideas for improv fun on our Readers Theatre webpage.
REMEMBER AND REFLECT ON THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
JANUARY 16
Older kids, take a virtual tour of our NEH exhibit For All the World to See. Visit the exhibit webpage to watch the video tour and find an amazing array of resources you can read to learn more about how images impacted the Civil Rights Movement. Then reflect, how does media impact civil rights and the Black Lives Matter movement today?
As with all media, parents are encouraged to preview the For All the World to See video before watching with your child. If you feel the content is too mature for your child, use our other resources to talk about race, read a book about activism, or browse our anti-racist pages for more ideas to start family conversations about race and racism. Listening to Common read Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester linked here is a good place to start.
Everyone is welcome to request an activity kit with coloring pages, a protest sign template, and YpsiWrites prompts you can use to contribute to our community scrapbook. Or upload a photo to the scrapbook as your social justice weapon of choice, like Gordon Parks. You’ll also find accompanying booklists and more!
DIY RELAX PACK
JANUARY 9
Find ideas for things you can make or do at home to reduce anxiety and stay focused at school. Pick up our DIY relax kit if you need supplies to make our suggestions!
FAMILY GAMES
DECEMBER 26
Looking for something to do from home over Winter Break? Since we can’t host our usual Boredom Buster programs, we’ve assembled a DIY games kit and curated a list of fun ideas and sites you can use to stay connected with family and friends from a distance!
FINLAND
DECEMBER 19
We don’t have live reindeer this year! Instead, take a virtual visit to Finland to see where reindeer and Sami herders live. Pick up a supply kit to make Finnish inspired art, too!
THE SECRET LIFE OF PINE CONES
DECEMBER 12
Take a nature walk, pick up pine cones, then use them for a science experiment you can do at home to learn more about pine cones!
WRITING AS A GIFT
DECEMBER 12
Use the YpsiWrites/826michigan writing guide and turn your writing into a gift such as a pop-up card for someone special.
KITCHEN SCIENCE: EGG SCIENCE
DECEMBER 5
This week’s Kitchen Science with Liz is all about eggs. Watch a video, then try egg science at home!
FAMILY INTERVIEWS
NOVEMBER 28
Take time this winter to listen to and record family stories, with tips from 826michigan and StoryCorps. Watch the short StoryCorps video where a son interviews his dad about growing up in the New York Public Library as inspiration, then click the button for the full set of writing tips. YpsiWrites!
TALES OF IKKYU
NOVEMBER 21
Watch this beautiful short animated video with two tales of Ikkyu, then make your own Japanese inspired art.
NIGHT SKY
NOVEMBER 14
Take a tour of Flint’s Longway Planetarium to learn about the night sky. Then use your supply kit to make constellations, write your own YpsiWrites constellation stories, and more!
KITCHEN SCIENCE: POPPING BOBA
NOVEMBER 7
Pick up a supply kit at the library, then join Liz for a fun kitchen science experiment you can eat!
PUMPKINS
OCTOBER 31
Take a trip to Wiard’s with Liz on her quest for a pumpkin, then click the button below to learn more about growing pumpkins, decorating pumpkins, and cooking pumpkins!
YPSI FAMILY READ KICKOFF: LOOK BOTH WAYS
OCTOBER 24
Hear chapters of Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds read aloud by members of the local chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi Alpha. Find 826michigan/YpsiWrites prompts and other fun activities you can do at home to engage with the book and think more about friendship, family, and community.
2020 ELECTION
OCTOBER 17
Learn a bit about elections, then vote in our Book Character Election. Check back on November 4 to see which duo won!
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
OCTOBER 10
Can you complete our secret agent training activities? Pick up your activity kit and use the supplies to challenge your mind and body!
SOUTH KOREA
OCTOBER 3
Did you take our Summer Around the World virtual trip? We have another stop this week–South Korea! It’s time for the Chuseok Harvest Festival. Pick up a supply kit and so you can make and play two traditional Korean games and learn the Korean hangul alphabet, then join us on an exploration of the country that includes a virtual Chuseok fall festival hosted by the Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan, links to online manhwa, and k-pop dance videos.
KITCHEN SCIENCE
SEPTEMBER 26
Learn all about acids and bases using items you have in your kitchen. Liz shows you how in a YouTube video you can watch and follow along with from home.
SEED SAVING
SEPTEMBER 19
Watch a how-to video on our YouTube channel, then learn all about seed saving as part of our Garden-to-Table series.
ROLLER GIRL
SEPTEMBER 12
Pick up an activity pack from the library with supplies to help you delve into Roller Girl, the award winning graphic novel by Victoria Jamieson. Your supply kit will come with an YpsiWrites prompt, friendship bracelet materials and instructions, and more. Listen to the book read aloud by members of the Ann Arbor Roller Derby in a series of videos that each include a safety tip.
