Summer Reading Program Announcement

The 2014 Fizz Boom Read Summer program offers age appropriate stories and activities for children ages 4 - 13! The program will be held each Thursday from June 5 through June 26 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. 

The weekly topics are:

June 5th -- Egg-tastic Experiments

June 12th -- Weather Wonders

June 19th -- Ooey-Gooey Week

June 26th -- Wonders of Nature 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Blanche K. Werner Public Library.

Graphics courtesy of Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP).

A Spooktacular Halloween Storytime

Here's a quick look at all of the fun we had on Halloween at Storytime. Our volunteer reader of the week, Lisa, captivated superheroes, witches, faeries, and other exciting creatures with her bookworm costume.

We played several Halloween-themed games...

 Ghost Poop Race

Pin-the-Nose-on-the-Pumpkin

Spider Splat 

Skeleton Scavenger Hunt and Puzzle

Skeleton Scavenger Hunt and Puzzle

Once everyone had a chance to play all of our spooky games we headed for the table of delicious treats for a plate full of sugar. Some of the mysterious masked kiddos made their way back to the table several times.

After consuming all of the delightful snacks it was time for us to fill their Trick-or-Treat bags and send them on the hunt for more.

Waiting for Treats

Do we have enough treats? 

Storytime: Once Upon a Time...a Wolf Cried BOY!!!

Our weekly Storytime program has continued to be a huge success. Even though school is back in session, we are continuing to offer our Storytime hour on Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30.

Mrs. Laura captivated young readers with two exciting stories about wolves,  "The Wolf Who Cried Boy" by Bob Hartman and "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" by Eugene Trivizas.

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" -- Little wolf that is tired of his mom's cooking. It's the same old thing night after night, Lamburgers and Sloppy Does. The little wolf wishes his mother would serve up a nice platter of his favorite dish: Boy! But Boy is hard to come by these days. As Little Wolf trudges home from school one day, he decides to postpone his boring dinner by shouting "Boy! Boy!" But what will happen when a real boy finally comes along?

"The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" -- When it comes time for the three little wolves to go out into the world and build themselves a house, their mother warns them to beware the big bad pig. But the little wolves' increasingly sturdy dwellings are no match for the persistent porker, who has more up his sleeve than huffing and puffing. It takes a chance encounter with a flamingo pushing a wheelbarrow full of flowers to provide a surprising and satisfying solution to the little wolves' housing crisis.  

After enjoying the hilarious tales of little wolves and the big bad pig, we created our very own wolf. Each child designed their unique and very colorful wolf. Some of the wolves were pink, purple, blue, while other had stripes of many different colors. No two little wolves were alike. We used the printable wolf craft template at Learn Create Love.

I'd like to take a moment to say 'Thank You' to all of the wonderful volunteers that help us to make the Storytime program a HUGE success. We appreciate the many hours of assistance you provide and look forward to your continued support of the library. 

If you are a student and would like to earn community service hours, enjoy working with children or would like to be a valuable part of your local library please call or stop by the library for more details on how you can help.

Storytime: Gone Fishing...at the Library

Last week's Storytime theme was fishing.

Our volunteer reader of the week, Mrs. Jeanne, shared a wonderful story with the children called "Tiny Learns to Fish" by Craig Bartlett.

Tiny Learns to Fish is about a fishing trip. Mr. Pteranodon takes the kids to the pond to teach them how to fish. There's just one problem. Tiny can't catch a fish, and Buddy can't fly, so they team up to catch fish together! 

In keeping with our fishing theme, we did a little fishing of our own at the library. With fishing poles at the ready, we took a chance with our imaginary pond and landed a ton of colorful fish. We even had a mermaid fish in the bunch! 

After all of the kids caught their share of fish, we wiggled like worms on a hook to the snack area. Would you eat a worm? Some of the children didn't think they could. While some of the kids turned their noses up to our cherry flavored jello worms; others jumped for the chance to give them a try. The fishing themed cupcakes were a big hit amongst all of the kids. Thank goodness! To be honest, the creepy, wiggly jello worms were absolutely delicious! 

 

Local Author Mary Keith Inspired Little Authors at Storytime Last Week

Last week at Storytime the children met local children's book author, Mary Keith. Mary's debut children's book, "Little Sister and the Gink-A-What," is a true story about Little Sister (Mary) and the GINKABOODLE. The Ginkaboodle is an animal that lived in her brother, Jimmie's, imagination. The book illustrates the wonderful creations and ideas that come from within a child's mind.

The cover is a reproduction of the original drawing of the GINKABOODLE, done when the author's brother, Jimmie, was about 10.

After listening to Mary's wonderful and inspiring story, the children began working to create their own Ginkaboodle and a story to go along with it. They had a great time sharing their artwork and stories with us. It was a lot of fun watching the kids create exciting and very unique characters for their stories. Who knows one of the children could become a famous author one day! 

Here's a look at some of the books created this week.

Join us next Thursday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30 for another exciting story and activity.

Storytime: Where Do Balloons Go?

This week at Storytime we had a ton of fun with balloons! Sharon K. shared Jamie Lee Curtis' uplifting mystery 'Where Do Balloons Go?' The book is a humorous exploration of the joys and perils of a balloon's life.

Activity time was once again full of creativity. Following the balloon theme for the week, each child created a silly balloon face. Each week we are excited to see smiling, happy children have a wonderful time at the library. This week was no different. 

We did have a special reader sneek in at the end of the program this week. One of the kids picked a random book from the shelf and started reading to a small group of kids. Very exciting! After all, the main goal of the  Storytime program is to spark a love of reading in the children of our growing community. We hope that more of the children will follow in this young reader's footsteps and make each week even more special than it already is.
 
Here's a few of the super silly balloon faces created this week!

Join us next Thursday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30 for another exciting story and activity.