Programs for Libraries
Logistics
Mileage: Face-to-face programs for libraries outside Genesee County will be charged at the 2023 IRS standard mileage rate.
Space Requirements: The program space should be available for set-up shortly before the beginning of the activity. Tables and chairs are appreciated. Program staff may need access to water and electrical outlets.
Cancellation Policy: Cancellations must be made by 12:00 p.m. on the day before the scheduled activity. The program fee will be charged each time a Sloan Museum or Longway Planetarium Educator reports for a scheduled session.
Education staff will not be responsible for students left after the completion of the activity. A responsible adult from the library must be present in the building during each activity.
Please note: All of our library programs for All Together Now are in-person. If you need virtual programming, please contact us for options by calling (810) 237-3408.
Professional Development Opportunities - Sharing STEM with Young Children
Interested in doing STEM with your little learners in your center, school, or home? We’ll share some of our favorite STEM activities in this fast-paced, hands-on session. We’ll provide all necessary materials for participants to try out the activities and each participant will receive a detailed write-up for each activity. This training is customizable. Our staff will work with your library to identify themes and activities to best suit your patrons’ needs.
Audience: Early Childhood Educators, Teachers, Parents, Librarians
Maximum Number of Participants: 75
Program Length: 2 hours
Fee: $400 (mileage for libraries outside Genesee County)
Contact for Reservations:
Laurie Bone
Director of Education and Outreach
Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium
1310 E. Kearsley St.
Flint, MI 48503
810-237-3403
lbone@sloanlongway.org
Katie Bancroft
Curator of Education and Outreach
Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium
1310 E. Kearsley St.
Flint, MI 48503
810-237-3408
kbancroft@sloanlongway.org
2023 Summer Reading Program - "All Together Now"
Activities for Kids

Building Together: Marble Machines
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Work together using interesting everyday materials in new and interesting ways. Build an obstacle track that moves your marble from one place to another. Can you join your marble machine with someone else’s? How far can you and your friends make the marbles move?
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Program length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Light-up Circuit Friendship Bracelets
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Use felt, LED lights, and conductive thread to create a beautiful bracelet that you can share with your friend; or keep for yourself!
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Program length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Pre-K Play!
Kids in these playgroups will explore math and science through stories, songs, and projects while learning to create and play together.
Playgroup Options:
Frog and Toad are Friends
Investigate the lives of frogs, toads, and other animals. Make a sticky frog tongue to catch some flies and make a frog life cycle project.
Big Friends
In the story, Big Friends, two friends have a grand time with their imagination and some cardboard boxes. What happens when someone new wants to play with them? Find out while building and playing with your own cardboard creations.
Tangled
What to do with a bunch of shapes that are all trapped inside a jungle gym? Maybe the straight and narrow line can help! Build and take apart shapes while exploring geometry.
Monster Math
Practice your number and counting skills with these monstrously fun activities! What will your math monster look like?
Audience: 4-7 year olds
Format: In-person
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Program length: 60 minutes
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location
Library Programs - Year Round Offerings

Dinosaur Tales
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Dinosaurs lived a long, long time ago. Let’s learn about these fascinating prehistoric creatures as we observe and touch real fossils, build our own fossil model, and make a dinosaur tail to wear. You will even design and build your own dinosaur to take home!
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

City Shapes
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Shapes, shapes, everywhere! Which shapes will you use? Create a piece of city-scape art while exploring the attributes of shapes.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Colorful Chemistry
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Poor Camilla Cream… her skin has turned green. And red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple, too! Our skin cannot change colors like Camilla Cream’s, but we can make color-mixing creations. Let’s read the story, “A Bad Case of Stripes” and engage in chromatography and color-mixing chemistry activities.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Overhead and Underfoot
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Look up! What do you see? Stars, the moon, and the sun. Look down! What’s on the ground? Bugs and plants. We’ll explore features of the Earth as we learn about directional words.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

What’s the Weather?
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Let’s learn more about meteorology! Explore the weather and changing seasons as you create a cloud painting, design your own windsock, and much more!
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

A Day By the Sea
Audience: 4-7 year-olds
Seashells, feathers, and other treasures! Explore science, math, and engineering with these beachy-themed hands-on activities. Engineer a sandcastle, sort shells, and make a piece of seashell jewelry.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Worm Motels
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Who says worms can’t relax in a cozy motel?! Explore a worm’s world by building a temporary worm habitat and learning about all of the needs of living things.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Nature’s Colors
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Have you ever noticed how colors and patterns are everywhere in nature? You will investigate how animals’ colors and patterns help them live and thrive in their habitat. Explore mimicry, camouflage, and warning colors while making a beautiful butterfly, hiding caterpillars, and engaging in other fun hands-on activities.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Space Art
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Create beautiful space-themed artworks while learning about the nighttime sky. Build a comet, use liquid water color to paint a starry scene, and learn about eclipses while making a chalk project.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: Face-to-Face or Virtual
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

How Does Your Garden Grow?
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Plants need water and light in order to live and grow. What happens when you try to grow a plant without these resources? Set up and run your own experiment while growing seeds in terrariums you build.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Jitter Critters
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
No need to get the jitters as you create your own critter! Use your artistic abilities and engineering skills to design and create your own battery-powered critter equipped with a vibrating motor.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Cranky Contraptions
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Engineering meets art! Create a moving sculpture while using wire to design a cranking mechanism that puts your sculpture in motion.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Electrical Circuits
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Explore electricity while building simple circuits that make motors move, lightbulbs light, and buzzers buzz. You’ll even make circuit using a piece of paper!
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Wizards, Wands, and Potions
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Step into another world full of wizards and witches. Cauldrons will bubble and potions will change color. Is it magic or chemistry? Build your own light-up wand and squish your fingers into ghost brains.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: in-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Solar System
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Join our out-of-this-world experience! Learn about the solar system through hands-on activities as you make a scale Solar System that fits in your pocket. Get to know the planets, their moons, and other Solar System objects while creating a fold-up explosion book, making a Star Finder, and other fast-paced and fun activities.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Flinging Things
Audience: 8-12 year-olds
Experience forces and motion while building a variety of devices that will cause ordinary objects to fall, fling, and fly.
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.

Build-A-Buggy Challenge
Audience: 4-12 year-olds
Explore forces and motion while designing and building a buggy that moves! We’ll provide the wheels, axles, and materials to build the body, you engineer a way to make the buggy move! Are you up for the challenge?
Maximum number of children per session: 25
Length: 60 minutes
Format: In-person
Fee: $150 for first session, $60 for each additional session on the same day, in the same location.