Encouraging STEM with Block Parties

There's been a lot of buzz lately about how to best encourage science, technology, engineering, and math (aka S.T.E.M.) in children.

As it turns out, you have to look  no further than your local library.

All week long tables are set out with an assortment of crafts and experiments for our S.T.E.A.M. Friday endeavors (STEM, with the add on of Art as well).

In addition to this, we host programs especially focused on these subjects in a fun time play environment. Block Parties are movable parties in a box provided by the Purdue Extension, which handily also provides a real life tip giving spokesperson to lead the program.

 So what do you have to do? Just bring yourself and your kids and have fun! All blocks are provided and your child can build anything they want, knock it down, and start again. Our next Block Party is scheduled for July 14th. For more information please go to our library calendar or contact the library by phone. We hope to see you there!

Reading & Fun!: Every Child Ready to Read

In October we put our nose in a book with the rest of Indiana for National Literacy Day! Check out the fun reading times!

YOU can help your child enjoy reading and books. That's Print Motivation--enjoying books and reading and one of the 6 essential pre-reading skills children must have in order to learn to read. So read to your child from infancy, but ALWAYS keep it fun! To a baby books are toys—let him play with it. You might gently take it out of his mouth and open it and say, “Let’s see what’s in this book.” Make book sharing a special time, but share books when your child is ‘in the mood’ and stop if he becomes fussy or loses interest—try again later. Even a few minutes a day is important. Research shows that children who are read to often start school with better language skills and knowing more vocabulary. Every Child Ready to Read makes these suggestions to help your child develop good Print Motivation: read to your child, even for short amounts of time; let your child see you reading; point out signs and make a game of it; visit the library often & make it fun; attend library programs for you & your child.

Remember, children who enjoy being read to will WANT to learn how to read!

At the Cedar Lake Branch we have early literacy activities during all open hours. We also feature STEAM activities & experiments--fun learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Math.

 Check out all the library events and classes that are offered each week @ the library:

 Cedar Lake Branch: http://www.libraryinsight.com/calendar.asp?x=3&jx=typ&sm=&nMonth=11&nYear=2014

All library locations: http://www.libraryinsight.com/calendar.asp?x=1&jx=x8p&sm=&nMonth=11&nYear=2014

Time to Rhyme! Or Not--Fun with Poetry

During April we celebrated National Poetry Month--& poetry about libraries during National Library Week. Check out some of our local poets!

Many wrote acrostic poems—You use the letters in your name or something you like to do, or the letters in ‘library’—or any word:

Liberty

Ice cream

Book

Read

Active

Reread

Yay!

Lucky

In Cedar Lake

Because the library is

Amazing. You can

Read The Hunger Games

Yet it is never open too late

Super awesome

Work hard

In the water

Makes me feel amazing

Joyful

Always reading

Can do algebra

Excited

You can always find me doing something creative.

Jam and toast

Everyone’s friend

Rabbids is my favorite game!

Extra joyful

Makes up jokes

Yoyo doer

Riddle Poetry—we solved different riddle poems all month long. They were from the book, Guess Again! Riddle Poems by Lillian Morrison. Here is one for National Library Week:

“Easy to open, no need to unlock it.

Sometimes it’s small enough to carry in your pocket.

But when it is open it can carry you

Through fascinating spaces like a far-flying rocket.!

It is a    _____   _____   _____   _____  (See the answer at the end of this post!)

24 Hour Poem—for this poem you write down what you did each hour during a 24 hour period. Here is one composition:

I sleep all day.

I sleep all night

I sleep at sunrise

I sleep on a rainy day.

I sleep in Mexico

I sleep everywhere.

I waaaaaake up.

I am hurrying up to go to school!

I work at MacDonald’s and

I work at an office.

I love to work.

I work so hard

I eat breakfast.

I work,

Work,

Work,

Work,

Work.

I wait for the bus

I relax.

While I relax I read.

I talk a lot and laugh too.

Now I fall asleep.

I like to sleep.

Some made poems from letters and words cut from old magazines:

 

           

Try some of these fun types of poetry. Talk about them with your older child and provide materials. Have fun working together, too!

You and your preschooler or toddler can work together. For example you might write an acrostic poem featuring the letters in your child’s name. Get out some old magazines and use pictures and letters to create unique poetry. Activities like these—that involve writing (& cutting, gluing and coloring), rhyming, singing, and talking—all teach your child essential early literacy skills. So have fun together—you are helping your child get ready to learn to read!!

It is a  b o o k.

STEAM Away the Cold!

This week @ the library we are STEAMing (activities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math) about snow!

•  Look at snow through a magnifying glass. What do you see? 
• Which melts snow more quickly, salt, flour, or water? What happens when you put the melted snow back outside? 
• Paint snow with eyedroppers of water color. What happens as the snow melts?
•  Learn about snowflakes, then make one of your own. 
• Blow bubbles outside. What happens? So much to learn, so much to see! 

You can do these things at home too! Here's a great one for days like today & tomorrow:

• Go outside with your budding scientist (very briefly) and blow bubbles. No bottle of bubbles? Make some with water and dish soap. If you have a choice, Joy or Dawn are best. But any type will work. Then you need something to blow with. Pipe cleaners or thin wire or anything else that can be rounded into one shape will work. So will paper tubes! Dip the bubble blower into the solution, blow, and watch what happens. 
• If you don't mind, let your young scientist blow some bubbles inside. What's the difference between the bubbles you blow outside and those you blow inside? Why? 
• Try blowing a bubble onto a plate and set the plate outside. What happens to the bubble?

Want to learn about all this? Check out the Canada Science Technology Museum for a great explanation, picture, and a bubble solution recipe! (That's about 1/2 cup dish soap, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and 3 cups water. You don't have to have corn syrup--it may make the bubbles last longer--but so will the cold! And I didn't use corn syrup or hot water, but my results were the same.)
Check out the library's Facebook page for another fun cold weather activity.

National Library Card Month!

The library has been a busy place this month! This month we've started focusing more on STEAM, which is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Every Friday we've had activities relating to the Giant Squid and the ocean. And we did some experimenting with our Preschoolers with sinking and floating.

Here's a little peek at what's been happening:

Have you visited the library this month? Has your child showed us his or her library card? Remember... children can pick a prize and be entered into a drawing for a Target gift card through the end of September - just by showing that they're cool kids with a library card!

January Wrap Up

Time got away from us this month and I've been very bad about posting. Here's a quick glimpse of what happened at the library in January:

During Preschool Story Hour, our 4 and 5 year olds enjoyed some silly animal stories and songs. They then created animals of their own, using an oval for a base. This gave them an opportunity to practice several early literacy skills by drawing, talking about their pictures and  sometimes pretending by creating their own animals.

During our Swamp Party, the elementary school crowd heard stories from the swamp, hunted for swamp animals through the library and sampled some delicious swamp juice. Don't those "eggs" look tasty? And yes, there IS a fish swimming in that cup.

I was impressed that all the kids (except one with allergies to food coloring) tried the swamp juice. And all but one seemed to enjoy it.

During our Bubble Wrap Family Fun program, the children made sculptures from bubble wrap, used bubble wrap to make prints on paper and had a "popping" snack when they put Pop Rocks and sprinkles on their cookies.

One little guy got very into his art and decided to paint his arm instead of his bubble wrap. Could that have been the influence of this book:


  I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

We have lots happening in February, too!

In celebration of President's Day, we have presidential activities available every day.

In honor of Valentine's Day, we're invited children to make a valentine for the Library Lion.

And we have all our regular programs, as well.

This week:

Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 10:30am or 1:00pm, Preschool Story Hour for ages 4-5

Thursday, Feb. 7 at 4:30pm, Lego Mania for children in grades K-6.

Saturday, Feb. 9 from 10-12, Carnivale Crafting Fun for children of all ages.

Shopping at the Library

At our last Preschool Story Hour, the children enjoyed shopping books. We took a shopping trip, choosing from a board of food and then the children had the chance to fill their own shopping carts, but choosing items from the sales papers. It was fun to see what caught their eyes and to hear their reasons for their "purchases"! Most of them chose toys, but a few made sure to include treats for their pets and some food.

This shopping craft would be easy (and fun!) to do at home together, too. This time of year, our mailboxes overflow with sales papers and catalogs. Let your child "shop" the papers and talk about their choices. Another twist could be to have your child find items on your shopping list. This one simple activity can work on so many levels. Cutting out the pictures works on fine motor development, which helps in writing. Seeing a shopping list connected to the pictures works on Print Awareness. Talking about the purchases helps to develop narrative skills. And the fact that they're playing a game reinforces the fact that learning can be fun!

Check out these books that we shared during storytime:

Llama Llama mad at mama by Anna Dewdney

To market, to market by Anne Miranda