Greetings from Flow Circus: Back to School! This time of year brings a variety of emotions.....kids (and teachers!) want summer to last a little longer, but many parents are ready for school to start.
As the summer wraps up, we are taking a little down time to reflect on the summer and gear up for a fun and exciting school year. Take a look at the Summer Reading Program video we made which is our answer to the age-old question "What did you do this summer vacation?"
Playfully yours,
Paul & Dawn
New Video: Make A Splash - 2010 SRP Highlights: Another wonderful summer of encouraging families to visit their libraries and READ! Thank you to the many libraries that invited Flow Circus to share our love of laughter and play.
Click here to watch a 7 minute video with highlights from Make A Splash performances from throughout the summer. Many of the over 80 libraries we visited this summer are represented. Feel free to share it with patrons, colleagues, and funders that support your library. If you have had Flow Circus in past years, see how we adapted the performance for this summer's theme.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a few more laughs before the summer officially ends.
Fundama Feedback Needed - Did You Fundama This Summer? We loved creating Play Fundama & hope it has been a valuable resource as you planned programs for tweens and teens this summer. We've had over 800 people visit the Play Fundama website this summer and we have gotten good feedback so far:
The programs I did with your free web tutorials were easy and fun for me and our teens. I've even had a few adults who happened to be in my office and they couldn't resist giving the cup and ball a try!
We'd love to hear more. If you have visited the site, run a fundama program, or made some of the toys yourself, we want your feedback. How did the programs go? Did the participants enjoy making and designing the fundama? What challenges did you face?
We are going to be adding videos and instructions for skill toys this fall. If you have any suggestions or requests, let us know. We already had a librarian in Pennsylvania suggest Game of Graces which will make a fabulous addition. We want to make the site a valuable resource for you - so tell us how we can help.
Tween/Teen Library Programs Growing: In addition to performances this summer, Flow Circus helped tweens and teens Make Waves by learning new skills. Juggling, balloon twisting, and skill toy workshops engaged and entertained YA groups in many states.
Each program looked a little different depending on the community and we were happy to adapt. In some cases, our workshop followed Paul's general performance for all ages. The tweens/teens had the exclusive opportunity to stay after the show to try their hands at some of the skills they saw Paul perform. In other communities, the librarians knew the teens wouldn't come to the “kid's performance” and had a special teen event featuring our workshop. Apparently the way to a teen's heart is through food because these usually had pizza, ice cream, or some other fun treat!
What does juggling and skill toys have to do with the library and reading? As librarians know, it is often difficult to design programs for this age group that will attract both boys and girls. Our experience shows that juggling is gender neutral! Then once we teach the basic skills, we encourage participants to continue learning through books and on-line resources. Learning research skills is a lot easier when the topic is something they see as fun. True story.......Paul actually learned to juggle from a book, and we continue to learn about new tricks and skill toys through books and on-line research.
We are in the process of developing a Flow Circus program guide with instructional videos to help librarians create juggling/skill toy clubs at their library. It should be ready in the next few months - look for updates in future newsletters.
In the meantime, you can find more information about our teen workshops on Library Page.
Performing Off-Broadway: During our August tour in New York, Paul had the opportunity to perform Off-Broadway at the Times Square Arts Center for 2 nights. He opened for LMAO-Off Broadway presented by Eight Is Never Enough – an interactive improve and musical comedy show. We met members of the cast at the Arts Council of Fairfax County CAPS Showcase last year and they invited Paul to bring his improvisational comedy to their stage. Fun performances space and playful audiences in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district….can’t beat it!
For more information about Paul’s clean comedy juggling shows for adult audiences, visit JustPaul.com.
2010-11 School & Library Tour Schedule: We currently have the following tours planned for the 2010-11 school year and still have openings available. Book during one of these tours and we will waive your travel costs. We are continually adding new tours to this schedule so feel free to contact us about setting up a tour in your area.
- September 21-24: South Carolina Tour
- Mid-October (dates TBD): Fairfax County, VA
- November 1-5: Northeast Tour (NY, NJ, PA)
- February 21-26: Northeast Tour (NY, NJ, PA)
- March 9-11: South Carolina Tour
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