After fidgeting with model clay for just a few minutes, Floyd C. Fretz Middle School student Joslyn Tyler held up an index finger covered with a hand-crafted, mouse-like creature.
The finger puppet is just one of the dozens of creations Fretz students and their parents will be able to create during new “Maker Night at Fretz” activities from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the school library.
Fretz librarian Aimee Emerson said the event is a spin-off of the popular MakerSpace activities now held at libraries around the country. The Makerspace or Maker programs encourage people of all ages to work together, alone or with library staff on creative projects. The goal of the popular trend is to give children and adults opportunities to learn through direct experimentation, and from each other.
“This is just a movement to try and get people to think and tinker,” Emerson explained. “Libraries have provided the big move for it.”
She said libraries have pushed the program because people don’t use the facilities as frequently nowadays to find information.
“So they come (to libraries) to form a community of creators and innovative design,” she noted.
Emerson said the school’s Science, Technology, Electronics and Mathematic (STEM) lab lends itself well to organizing such a program. Schools and organizations that don’t have STEM facilities should not be discouraged, however, as a number of common materials can be used for the program. Items that can be used for the sessions include clay, paper for origami creations, perler beads for melting into a design, building magnets and Legos.
“Basically, you can provide any type of materials and have your patrons (or students) come in and create” designs, she explained. “There’s no requirements (for activities), kids can come in and attach Legos to a wall, while other kids can add to it or take away.”
She said some libraries also provide sewing machines, allowing people to teach themselves to sew, if that is the preference. Other materials that can be used in the program include 3D printers or soldering equipment.
Emerson said she plans to have adult coloring books and bookmarkers available for participants. She said another popular activity is “blackout poetry” which uses newspaper print or pages from a book.
“You take a page and make a poem out of the words on the page by blocking out all the other words,” she remarked.
Fretz students who created items for a Maker after-school activity this week included Tyler who created a small creature from clay.
“This helps your imagination,” she said while tinkering with the clay.
Another student, Julie Post, summed up the new trend by noting “There is no limitation to creativity.”
Emerson said future Maker Event Nights at Fretz will include “Tinkering with Technology” in January and “Innovative Play” in March.
