This year is going to be the best yet! We have had so many creative contributions from our collaborating libraries it is blowing my mind. I am so excited for the coming year. So for all of you using the program here are some highlights about things that have been added this year.
If you have stumbled upon this post and you don't know what Reading Dragons is, here is a quick video to get you up to speed. You can contact me by email to access this program for you public or school library for free.
We have 2 new creature templates we can use to design new cards.
Kelly Robertson of the Central Arkansas Library System created Cerberus. And he is just the cutest pupper! Kelly has shared the editable art files with us so we can make our own Cerberus cards. You can find the Cerberus template in folder 5 Share Your Creature Templates.
When Liz and I were doing our live Drawing and Q&A session someone recommended a sphynx cat for our next magical creature. I am a sucker for cats so I had to make it. So here we have winged sphynx. You can find this new template in folder 3 Color Me Templates with the Simplified PSDs. Liz will convert the template to the MDP file type when she has time. I am coloring Sphynx cards to add to the collection, but as of posting this blog I have not added any Sphynx cards yet.
This year we have had a flood of new cards from collaborating libraries. There are soooooo many. This is a small preview of some of the adorable cards added, but you should check out the 4 Share Your Cards Here folder to see all of the wonderful cards added to the program. I will be going through and adding these new cards to the printable pdfs, which takes time; but if you are looking for the individual card images please check the 4 Share Your Cards Here folder.
Kelly Robertson made this Potion Making activity where children help sick creatures by making magical cures for their illnesses. The image below is a small preview of what Kelly has made available to us. There are lots of ingredients and some more sick babies that need your help. She included detailed instructions on how to run this program as well. You can find this activity in folder 6 Programming Ideas -> 1 Share your Creations Here -> Potion Making.
Over the summer Liz and I did a Drawing and Q&A session. Liz our FireAlpaca master went through the process of designing a strawberry dragon in FireAlpaca, a free art program accessible on PC. While she was drawing I answered questions from the group.
Check out this Webinar by Sammie Betler and Michelle Yates of the Casey County Public Library. They talk about their experience with the program and how they used their creativity to expand on this program and make it fit their community. Some of my favorite ideas from this webinar are the holographic cards, monthly tournaments with 2 difficulty levels, and collaboration with local artists to make special cards.
We have new coloring pages! Kelly and I added a few new coloring pages of the creatures reading books. We are definitely on the same page with our little dragon. Dragons are definitely book hoarders.
I love seeing all of the amazing things you are making! If you have ideas you would like to share with the group you can add them in the programming ideas folder. Your creativity and collaboration is what makes this program so awesome!
Since everyone has unique approaches to this program, I would love your input on how you do things at your library. Here are some frequently asked questions by librarians getting started in the program.
How do you introduce this program at your library? Do you throw a kickoff party? What kind of activities do you do?
How do you teach kids the card games? How often do you run tournaments? Do you add or alter the rules to make the game more challenging for older players?
How do you get your school involved with the Reading Dragons? What did you say to convince them that this program is awesome?