Meeting Natalie Dias Lorenzi: Young Readers League Author

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On Thursday, November 8 at Central Library, we got to meet Natalie Dias Lorenzi, author of A Long Pitch Home, this year’s Young Readers League selection! Participants got their books signed, joined in activities and crafts, and celebrated the art and writing contest winners. To learn more about Young Readers […]

Writing “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories with Twine

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Last month, kids came to the library to learn how to write a “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of story using a free web-based software called Twine. I walked them through the steps of it and they were very quickly writing stories with twists that the reader could choose. Here […]

Roller Coaster Ski Jumps

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I’m trying to catch up on my blogging… Back in summer, as part of our STEAM 2018 year of STEAM programming, we did a fun engineering project making roller coaster ski jumps out of pipe insulators for marbles to “ski” down! I’ve been meaning to share the photos and videos […]

STEAM Careers in Pasadena: I.T. Specialists

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On July 31st, we had a program for kids 8-12 about exploring the work of some of the specialists in our city’s Department of Information Technology. They showed kids how GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, work and how kids already use GIS all the time in their daily life. They […]

Preschool STEAM ~ non-Newtonian Fluid! (aka Slime)

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Preschool STEAM (for children ages 2-6) is all about having fun with science, math and art!  There is no right or wrong way for children to experiment – the fun and learning comes from the doing!  Early childhood research shows us that little hands and minds learn best when at play. […]

Kids’ Art Salon ~ Bridges

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Kids’ Art Salon is in it’s fourth year!  To celebrate this milestone AND to pay homage to STEAM 2018, we thought we would focus on architecture & engineering.  Architecture is the perfect choice for Pasadena’s year of STEAM because it incorporates science, technology, engineering, art and math! For our third session of the year, we […]

Lucha Libros: 2nd Grade – Junie B. Jones and Jack and Annie

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Last week, twenty second graders met at Pasadena Central Library to answer questions about two books they read this month: Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business / Junie B. Jones y el negocio del mono Haunted Castle on Hallow’s Eve / Un castillo embrujado en la noche de […]

School of Rock @ PPL!

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Twenty budding young guitarists joined us for Pasadena Public Library’s first ever SCHOOL OF ROCK!  Taking after the movie of the same name, we wanted to give a group of kids (ages 10-15) a rock and roll experience they’d never forget.  Professional jazz/rock/blues guitarist Kimberly (KC) Allison from Starliner Music […]

Bilingual Music for Infants and Toddlers with Nathalia

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This summer, our families from Infant and Toddler storytimes at Central Library got a special show performed by Colombian-American singer-songwriter Nathalia! She performed her original bilingual songs with lots of fun props, activity prompts, dances and movements to keep babies and toddlers and their parents highly engaged and having fun. […]

Music and Movement with Dayita Datta Summer 2018

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This past summer and in previous summers, music education specialist Dayita Datta presented programs that introduced children in preschool or elementary school to the fundamentals of music. She engaged the children in rhythm and movement activities; taught the children about pentatonic scales; had the children playing melodies on a metallophone; […]