Happy May Day!
There will be a May Day celebration on April 30th at 6:00 p.m. in the Blair-Taylor Elementary school cafeteria. All families and staff from B-T Elementary are invited. There will be May Day activities for children, educational iPad apps, and lots of other fun events. Enjoy a free pizza supper and a book for every child! Don’t miss the fun!
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten-Down On the Farm
Would you like to help your child prepare for Kindergarten while instilling a love of reading at the same time? Then you should sign up for the library’s new early literacy program called “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten.”
Developing literacy skills begins at birth and continues on through the toddler and preschool years. The best way to prepare a child to learn to read is to read aloud to them. Reading to a child greatly increases his or her vocabulary. YOU are your child’s first teacher!
You may be wondering if it’s possible to read 1,000 books before your child starts Kindergarten. Even though this sounds like a lot of books, it’s entirely possible to reach this goal! If you only read one book each day for 5 years, you and your child would read almost 2,000 books. If you read 2 books each day, you could easily reach this goal in 2 years! Think of all the possibilities you’ve opened up for your child!
Sign up now at the library to receive your first reading log and book bag. Keep track of what you read with your child. If your child has a favorite book, read it more than once! After each 100 books read, come to the library for a new reading log and a small prize. Incentives will be given out after each 100 books read. After your child has read 1,000 books, his or her name will be added to a brand new picture book in the library collection. All children who reach their goal will also be invited to attend a special “Down On the Farm” party, and their name will be added to our wall of readers!
Spend some quality time with your child now by participating in “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten.” Help your child become a reader for life!
There’s no school on Friday the 15th, so let’s celebrate Peep-A-Palozza! Kids can conduct very scientific experiments with Peeps, play Peeps games, and make Peepish crafts. We love Peeps! Space is limited so please call the library to save your spot. For grades 2 and up.
A few years ago a wonderful lady walked into the library and asked if she could be placed on our list of library volunteers. That wonderful lady turned out to be one of our most requested after school tutors. Shirley Stanford is a retired elementary school teacher who taught for 20 years in the Blair and Whitehall school districts. Twice a week Shirley comes to the library and works with different students, helping with homework and listening to readers. Shirley is a real asset to the library and is an active member of our community. Both parents and kids love her and so do we! Shirley is a gem!
Cody Harms Reads For Our “Big Box” story time
It’s time to highlight another one of our awesome library volunteers. Cody Harms often stops in to surprise us during story time when he’s visiting family in the area. We love Cody’s enthusiasm, and he always makes our stories come to life! Of course, the kids think he is awesome! While he was going to college in Milwaukee, Cody always made sure to offer to read for us, which he still does, even though he’s now a busy elementary school teacher. Thanks, Cody!
To see our story time schedule, go to our “Events Calendar.”
Katelyn & Emmy, Jazz Band Concert, 2012
We love our library volunteers! This is Katelyn Johnson, one of our most dedicated high school tutors in 2012. Katelyn always made time for us during her very busy senior year of high school. Her “students” couldn’t wait to see her each week, and we appreciated her positive and giving attitude!
Katelyn also performed at the library with the Blair-Taylor High School Jazz Band and the Handbell Choir. We wish her well as she attends college and know that she has many great things ahead of her. Katelyn is pictured here with her younger sister Emily. Thanks, Katelyn!
Claire and Shana, Fancy Nancy Party
Our library volunteers are the best! Nearly every day of the week, our wonderful volunteers are helping out with after school tutoring, special programs, or story times. Many of our most successful activities would not happen without our volunteers. We have helpers as young as 10 years old and others who are very energetic retirees. During the month of January, we would like to highlight some of the great things these wonderful patrons have done for us over the years. Thanks to all of them!
We have to start out with our very first volunteers, Shana Harms and Claire Jennings. Shana and Claire have helped out with many activities in the library. Shana has done some last minute, after school, emergency tutoring for us. Claire has read some June Dairy Days stories with us when she was helping out her 4-H club. In the great picture above, the girls are all decked out in their finest to read for our Fancy Nancy Story Time in 2009. As you can see, both Shana and Claire were totally in character as our favorite book character Fancy Nancy!
The library will be closed on Tuesday, January 1st for the New Year holiday. We wish all of our patrons a safe and happy New Year!
Image by thaler1978 via Flickr
It’s time for our final Lego Lab of 2012! Come to the library early on Thursday, December 27th from 10:00-11:00 for some serious brick construction. We’ll start with Mrs. McNamer’s 5 minute building challenge, and then it will be free building time. This is a free program for all ages! Join us!
