New Leaves - Themes

For the last few weeks, we've been working on single sheets of paper, but this week we each selected the book that we'll be working on for the rest of the session. After picking our books, we drew themes - things like "mystery" or "my future job" to help us along. Once we had our themes, we sat down to work on a two-page spread.

Here's Tracy's:



Her theme is "dreams."

More later!

90-Second Newbery Video Contest

Calling all kid actors! The children's department at Tredyffrin Public Library is going to be putting an entry together for the 90-Second Newbery Video Contest!

"Outstanding!" you say. "But what is it?"

Well, it's a contest where we make a 90-second video of a Newbery Award-winning book. (And when I say "we," I, of course, mean "you." I'm just gonna hold the camera.) And when we're done, we'll post it up on the YouTube, send a link to the contest folks, and keep our fingers crossed!

Now, here's the tricky part. We need to smush a whole book down into 90 seconds. Which means:

a) We need to decide which parts are the most important to the story, but even more importantly...
b) We have to have read the book before we start this project!

Which means, of course, that we need to PICK a book pretty soon. If this is something you're interested in doing, and you think you know what book we should use, give me a shout at anewman@ccls.org. (Don't know all the Newbery winners? Here's a list!)

We're going to be filming the project during the week of April break (April 18-22) but we'll have to meet a few times before then to get organized, so look for more information as we get a little closer to spring.

Any questions? Call Angela at 610-688-7092, ext. 209.

Road Trip Thursday - Arkansas

Well, I feel pretty confident in saying that we explored as much of Arkansas as humanly possible in 30 minutes. While sipping some milk (the state beverage since 1985), we listened to Johnny Cash (born in Kingsland, AR) as we talked about the history and symbols of the state.

Next we talked about famous people from Arkansas, including former President Bill Clinton, writer Maya Angelou (born in MO, raised in AR), NBA star Scottie Pippen, and of course, the aforementioned Man in Black.

Finally, my fellow travelers humored me by joining hands and doing a bit of the state folk dance of Arkansas - the square dance. (I suspect I owe them big-time for this.)

After choosing Texas as our next state, we researched a little to find out what kinds of things we could see and do there. We made a long list and collectively decided to visit the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Aquarium, and the Poteet Strawberry Festival.

(And yes, we're cheating just a tiny bit here. From Little Rock to Dallas is 318 miles, and from Dallas to Poteet is another 309, and that's definitely over our 500 mile daily limit. But I'm willing to drive an extra 127 miles if there are chocolate-covered strawberries at the end of them.)

See you there!

Photo by Chedid (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License), via Wikipedia

Road Trip Thursday - Alabama, Arkansas...

I bet you thought I forgot about you all, right? No chance. I know you're there, sitting on the edge of your proverbial seat, just waiting to hear about the travels of my next carload of fearless road-trippers.

This latest bunch joined up with me in Florida, where we explored the Everglades, learned the difference between alligators and crocodiles, tasted some fine key lime pie, and chose our next destination - Alabama.

Which is where we were today.

We started off with fried chicken and peach-flavored iced tea, since the state tree fruit of Alabama is the peach. (Chicken is just chicken, but it's pretty tasty when you fry it, and they've been known to do that in many parts of the American South.) While we were eating, we listened to the Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel music group that has been around for over 60 years!

Then we learned about a very famous Alabamian - Rosa Parks - a black woman who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on the racially segregated bus. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, an important part of the modern civil rights movement in America.

Finally, we got out of the car and went on a scavenger hunt for Alabama state symbols in the library, including the state rock (marble), the state bird (yellowhammer) and the state nut (pecan), among others.

Join us next week as we head for Arkansas, birthplace of Johnny Cash, Bill Clinton, and Scottie Pippen!

(Just to name a wildly different few.)

Photo by Muffet, via Creative Commons.

Q. Why Should I Bring My Baby to Storytime?

A. Because it's fun!

Wee Ones is our program for babies 0-15 months old, and is held every Monday at 9:30am. It is a rollicking good time, filled with songs and rhymes, and, of course, books. Caregivers and babies get to keep the beat with bouncing, clapping, and tapping; play a game of pat-a-cake or peek-a-boo; and even "fly" through the air! All this and much, much, more, all while being exposed to a caring, language-rich environment, so helpful for baby's development.

After storytime, there's always time for toys, and catching up with old (and new!) friends.

So join us, would you? There's always room in our storytime circle!

No registration necessary for Wee Ones Storytime.

New Leaves - Page Poems

Well, we had our first session of New Leaves, our altered books program at Tredyffrin Library. On the first day, we tried our hands at page poems, taking a single page from a book and isolating single words to create a poem. Here are two examples from Tuesday, thanks to Arshad and Hari, respectively:




Next week, we'll branch out a bit and try our hands at collage...

New Leaves is open to 5th and 6th graders and is held Tuesday afternoons from 4:30-5:15pm. No registration necessary; just walk right in!