• Lifestyle

    National Poetry Day

    Contrary to what I believed (Poetry Month being April), National Poetry Day is on October 2nd.  Upon further research (because that’s what I do)… it’s National Poetry Day in England!  That being said, I’m going to share a few of my favorite poetry books that are accessible to all ages.…

  • Reviews

    Shiver Me Timbers…

    It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  And with that being said, here’s my (condensed) list of must-read pirate books!  I could have gone on forever, but I’ll hold back and list only ten. Dirty Joe the Pirate: A Tue Story by Bill Harley You can’t go wrong when it…

  • Activities

    Fun Friday – Yoga

    The kids were all a little wired for our Fun Friday program.  We ended up with 21 kids for 45 minutes in grades 1 – 4.  It’s only the second week of school, the weather was awesome, and it was Friday, so naturally the kids were bouncing off the walls. …

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Loot: How to Steal a Fortune

    Loot  is exactly what Jude Watson does best – action-packed, fast-paced and adventure wrapped up in a story you can’t put down.  When March’s father, a notorious cat burglar dies on the job, March must finish one last job.  His father’s dying words to March, “Find jewels,” and it’s only…

  • Activities

    3rd & 4th Grade Book Discussion

    We started our 3rd & 4th grade book discussion last summer and had some great experiences and the kids who attended all read the books!  This is particularly amazing because I can’t always get our middle school students to read the book (which can make a book discussion difficult), but…

  • Activities

    Fall Programming Ideas

    Although in our area children do not go back to school until after Labor Day, I’m already hard at work finalizing fall programming dates and times as well as beginning to promote events that are upcoming in September.  Our summer reading program doesn’t even end until the 29th, so we…

  • Activities

    Catapult Science Workshop

    pom poms

    Today we’re going to be creating own very own catapults to test out!  I came across this idea from the Libraryland blog and from the Show Me Librarian blog.  Both had great ideas and I combined them as well as some ideas of my own to create, what I think,…

  • Activities

    Robot Building – Part 2

    I survived our robot building workshop this afternoon! It was a lot of controlled chaos, but I think the kids and many of the parents had a really great time building, exploring, imagining, and just having a really great time together. We ended up with over 100 people for this…

  • Activities

    Summer Camp Outreach

    Every year the library partners with the local Park & Recreation Department to bring a library program out to the summer day camp.  This year we’re focusing our services on children ages 5 – 8, which is a little easier than offering a 30 – 45 minute program for the…

  • Activities

    Slime Science Workshop

    Our slime science workshop was definitely a lot of fun  – so fun in fact, that I took it with me when I visited summer camp today and we had fun there as well!  I started each program reading the story The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School by…