Summer Reading Week 4

A usual part of our summer reading program is of course.....READING! We started out our time this morning by reading books about how kids and their families celebrate birthdays in China, Africa and Mexico. After reading about birthday celebrations we had to have one of our own.

Every celebration has games right? We played several games: pin the tail on the donkey, jacks and a chopstick relay race. It is harder than it looks to pick up cotton balls with chopsticks!

We also enjoyed some fun with a pinata!

Of course every good party has good food! We ended our time with yummy cake and pizza and handing out the final prizes for reading goals that were met. Every child went past or met their reading goal for the program. Way to go kids!!!!

Summer Reading Week 3

This week for summer reading we had a guest performer - Kevin McMullin. Kevin is a talented, friendly guy who gave a great performance with stories from around the world, that he told with a personal accompaniment of several different instruments. The kids responded well to the tales, with participation and had a lot of fun giggling at Kevin's expressions and actions that fit the stories so well. I would highly recommend Kevin for a performer for a library or school program.

Usually, we do our programs outside in the park right next to the library. We have a small indoor space, but with the heat we decided to move indoors today. We were a bit cramped especially when it came time for making the paper plate tambourine craft, but we managed and the kids all went away smiling.

I reminded the kids today that music can tell a story too, just like a book. I planned ahead a had a selection of music Cd's on hand from around the world for the kids to check out today. If they checked one out they got to take home some fun stickers.

For our reading program, kids make their own goals, get it back to me and I make up personalized reading goal sheets for each child. The goal sheet is divided by the number of weeks our program runs. Each week, if a child has met her/his goal, accompanied by a parent signature, they can earn a prize. The kids have really responded well to this and it has been a great way to encourage children to read at their own level.

Only one more week for the summer reading program. Next time we'll Party Around the World!

Summer Reading Week 2

I'd have to say this candy sushi was a big hit yesterday at our second Summer Reading program. Krissy, our Circulation Librarian, kindly made two batches of sushi for the kids. The candy sushi was so colorful and so pretty. The kids kept coming back for more sushi!

Jenny did a great job presenting a theme on Africa and Japan. She taught the kids an Africian word game....all the kids participated too. Just lots of fun yesterday, and I have to say we have a really good batch of well-behaved kids this year. We librarians really appreciate GOOD kids!

We also set up a "Japan" table with authentic tea sets, a sake set, a beautiful cooper tea pot used in a tea ceremony, Japanese dolls & tea. All the authentic Japanese items were brought in by me, since my hubby was stationed in Japan twice when he was in the Marine Corps. I was glad I could bring in these items to share with the children.

The weather was beautiful....65 degrees and sunny. Since we do our Summer Reading program outside in July, we always count on good weather.

Be sure to check us out on Facebook for more photographs of the Summer Reading program.

Lisa

Puppets Are So Fun

The Wonder Weavers came on July 6th to kick-off our first Summer Reading program. What a great team! The ladies told lots of fun and interesting stories from around the world. I especially love their variety of puppets. We highly recommend the Wonder Weavers for any kids or family program.

To see more photos from the Summer Reading program, check out our Facebook page.