Kids cheer for private bookmobile party

At the end of our Summer Reading Club, we took all the winning prize slips from our drawings this summer and put them in a big box. Our Children Services manager and our Outreach manager (and keeper of the Bookmobile!) created a brand new grand prize for the SRC kids this summer: a Bookmobile Grand Prize party. The winners were chosen to host a party at their house or in a park---any place large enough to allow our bookmobile to stop---and we provided the books on the bookmobile, and a Children's librarian with stories, crafts, and a snack.

 

We had our first Bookmobile Grand Prize party a couple weeks ago, and it was a big success! There were 13 kids and 6 adults present and we gave out 5 new library cards. It was a terrific opportunity for some of the kids who had never been able to go onto a bookmobile, and for others we were able to give them their first library card. Now when they see the big blue Bookmobile in their area, hopefully they will want to come aboard and check out books and movies.

 

Prior to the bookmobile party, we worked with the parents on a guest list of the child's friends. Then we sent out invitations for the winner. On the day of the party, our Children's librarian arrived at the party ahead of the bookmobile. When all the kids were there, the bookmobile and its staff pulled right up to the winner's house. The kids got on the bus and sat on the benches inside for a story. Here's the order she chose for this party:

 

SONG: "Happy Unbirthday to You" (sung to the winner; tune "Happy Birthday")

BOOK: Wild About Books by Judy Sierra

Then the kids had time to choose their own books to check out. We asked them to bring their library cards on the invitations.

STORY: The Fox & the Crab: a folktale from China (which was in keeping with our Summer Reading Club theme: "One World, Many Stories"). This story was told with flannelboard pieces on our traveling hook and loop board.

Then the kids left the bookmobile and went over to a table provided by the winner's parents in a garage or shady area to do their crafts.

CRAFTS: Standup bookmobile (a cardboard cutout picture of our Bookmobile that can be assembled into a small bookmobile) and an origami fox (to match "The Fox and the Crab" story).

SNACK: Bookmobile-shaped cutout cookies that one of our Children's staff made, blue punch (our bookmobile is blue!)

EXTRA BOOK IF NEEDED: Bibiloburro by Jeanette Winter

I love this book. The illustrations are very vivid colors and detailed. It's the true story of a Colombian schoolteacher with a passion for reading who had so many books in his house that he decided to take them up high in the mountains to the children there who had no library. So every weekend, he loaded up his books on the back of two burros and made the mountainous trek to deliver them to families far away. He would hold storytimes under the trees for anyone who showed up at his stops. It is nice picture book for the elementary-age crowd.

The parties were a lot of fun and hopefully the beginning of many more grand prizes here!

The Independent, Massillon's local paper, gave us a write-up recently so you can read about that here:

Kids cheer for private bookmobile party.

But perhaps the biggest fan of the bookmobile parties was this large farm cat who wandered onto the bookmobile looking for some stories and some petting:

Happy 90th Birthday Winnie-the-Pooh!

This month Winnie-the-Pooh is turning 90 years old! The New York Public Library, which has been housing the original Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends on display in their library since 1987, is hosting a card shower for him. Winnie is hoping to get lots of birthday cards and pictures sent to him at the NYPL. You can either drop them off at their library, or if you're like me and can't get away to NYC (!), you can mail them to this address: Winnie-the-Pooh, c/o Children's Center at 42nd Street, The New York Public Library, 476 Fifith Avenue, Room 84, New York, NY 10018.

Or you can email Winnie a birthday wish via the NYPL website here: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/06/29/winnie-the-pooh-birthday

Winnie-the-Pooh, originally called Edward Bear, was a present to Christopher Milne from his parents on his first birthday on August 21, 1921. Then A. A. Milne wrote a series of stories about Christopher Robin and his bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, and the rest is history. Let's all draw a birthday picture or send him a birthday card for his big 9-0!

Got crayons and just need a picture to color for Pooh? Check out this one: http://www.coloring-crafts.com/coloring-pages/winnie-the-pooh/pooh-birthday-coloring-page.html!

The Wimpy Kid contest!

Are you a Wimpy Kid or do you know one? This looks like a fun contest for kids to enter! To promote the new "The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Youself Book", which just came out May 1st, Amulet Books and the School Library Journal are sponsoring a "Do-It-Yourself Comics Contest" where kids can win $500, a signed copy of the book by Jeff Kinney, and $1000 for the library of their choice. (May I suggest Massillon Public Library?)

The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book is like a journal that lets kids draw and write inside. It has questions for them to answer and places to create their own comic strips like Jeff Kinney. My 12 yr old son filled his book up within the first day of buying it, and he is a reluctant reader at times!

The contest is open to children ages 6-16. They just need to create an original comic on an 8 1/2 by 11" paper (see the Wimpy Kid books at our library for inspiration!). Then mail it to The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Comics Contest, c/o Amulet Books, 115 W. 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 by June 10, 2011. Winners will be announced on June 25, 2011. Here's what you need to do: Official contest website rules.

Good luck and have fun creating!

Massillon Ready to Read

Research has shown that children need to know six literacy skills before they can learn to read. Children who enter kindergarten with these skills learn to read more easily and are more successful throughout school. The Massillon Public Library is now offering free workshops to teach parents and caregivers how to incorporate these skills into early reading experiences.

Our next workshop will be offered on Saturday, May 21, from 9 am to 12 pm at First Baptist Church, 20 Sixth St. SE, right off of Lincoln Way. The info for that workshop can be found here: http://www.massillonlibrary.org/ReadytoRead.

At our last Massillon Ready to Read workshop on April 26, we were excited to host a small-but-mighty group of interested adults, including two moms, a grandma and grandpa and a preschool teacher. I never cease to be amazed that people from all walks of life are thrilled to learn some new facts as well as tips and techniques to use with the little ones in their lives. You might think that a degreed teacher would already know many of the things we discussed at the workshop, but it was so inspiring to see her enthusiasm for learning and also for educating preschool children. Through Massillon Ready to Read, the library is trying to reach everyone in our community, whether you have small children at this time or not. Even teenagers, as potential babysitters, older siblings, and future parents themselves, can learn how to help preschoolers learn the six skills that lead to reading! Grandparents, daycare providers, Sunday School teachers, Godparents, friends and parents ALL have important roles in the lives of the children of our community and can impact young lives in a very positive way that leads to education, literacy, and future job skills.

To sign up to attend one of the Massillon Ready to Read workshops, call the Children's Department at 330-832-5037.

You may have tangible wealth untold,

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be --

I had a mother who read to me.

--Strickland Gillilan, from the poem "The Reading Mother"

This lovely quotation is something my grandmother used to recite to me and, in fact, inscribed on the flyleaf of a big picture book of children's poetry she gave me when I was a preschooler. Only later did I realize that, although my grandmother believed in the idea behind it, her mother probably never actually read to her! Being from Poland, speaking very little English, and as a widowed mother of seven during the Great Depression, her mother did not have the time nor the ability to read to her children. My grandmother, however, became a great example of someone whose life was transformed by the ability to read. Although she never went to school past the eighth grade, my grandmother was a voracious reader throughout her childhood and after. She likes to tell the story of how her brothers would throw rocks at the door of the outhouse (the only place she could get any privacy and some quiet!) to get her out of there when she was taking too long, reading a book. "Get your nose out of that book!" was a phrase that, unfortunately, she heard all too often. Eventually, she had educated herself so thoroughly by reading that people would often assume she was a retired teacher, although she actually worked as a waitress and then on the Hoover factory assembly line until she was 70 years old.

So although it is sometimes easy to feel discouraged, overwhelmed, or unqualified to teach your own little ones reading or the skills that help lead to reading later, remember that YOU ARE your child's first teacher. You are the person he or she looks up to, and you are a role model. So if you read to your child, check out books from the library, and allow your child to see you reading, he or she will come to learn that reading is a valuable skill that is useful and important in all areas of life.

Tell me a story...

There are six early literacy skills that research has shown children need to know before they can learn to read. One of those is "Narrative Skills," or the ability to retell a story. Often with a young child, reading a favorite story over and over again and asking your child to repeat the story back to you is a good way to reinforce this skill. But it can be fun for older, school-age kids to practice this reading skill too.

Here's an idea for parents of school-age kids:
A fun activity that supports "Narrative Skills" or the ability to tell a story is for you and your child to write your own book or a few chapters of a book. When I was about 7, like many girls, I loved Nancy Drew mysteries. When I went to my grandmother's after school once a week, she would allow me to go into the bathroom off the kitchen and write a page or so of my own version of a Nancy Drew mystery. Ever interested in being mysterious, I would then slide the page under the door to her, and she would pause in her chores, write a continuation and slide it back under the door to me. Later on, we would read our story together. This is something that is so simple, yet so memorable to me, and that helped me with my reading and writing skills. It impresses me that my grandmother took the time to do this, after having worked day shift at the Hoover plant, and while trying to get supper on the table. It's something that doesn't take any money, not much time, and yet can help a child learn to value reading and writing and later help him or her in school.

If you'd like more ideas, leave a comment below and one of our librarians will help you come up with more games like this to help your child with their reading skills.
 
If you'd like to attend our next Massillon Ready to Read workshop on Saturday, May 21, call the Children's Department at (330) 832-5037 to sign up. All the details about that workshop are on our website: http://www.massillonlibrary.org/ReadytoRead.

World Read Aloud Day: March 9, 2011

This morning on the School Library Journal's facebook feed, I read that today, Wednesday, March 9, is World Read Aloud Day. What a great day to read to your children or come to a storytime at the library!

There's a good article at LitWorld's webpage explaining all the details and reasons behind a World Read Aloud Day: http://www.litworld.org/worldreadaloudday/ . Last year, in their first year doing this, they reached 40,000 participants in 35 countries! There is a form online where you can register your family as participants and get counted.

The benefits of reading out loud to young babies and children are numerous. Many pre-reading skills and a love of reading can be learned by simply reading to them.

If you don't have any children at home, try reading aloud to someone at a nursing home who cannot read for themselves anymore. Or if your children or grandchildren are far away, why not tape record yourself reading out loud a few bedtime stories and send it to them? If you would like to read aloud to them directly, try calling and reading a story or using Skype to show them the pictures at the same time. Grab a book and start reading out loud!