Last Friday July 15th our Kids’ Writing Workshop for ages 8-12 learned about the form and structure of the Hero’s Journey. We watched a video about how myths use a more-or-less twelve-step process that gets the audience identifying with and rooting for a hero. The video demonstrates how this journey […]
Bethany Barton Teaches Creative Writing
Published on :On Saturday, July 9, 2016, author-illustrator Bethany Barton taught a creative writing class for kids ages 5-8 at Pasadena Public Library. Her humor and fun infused the class and put the kids in a playful, creative zone. She read us one of her books and even brought some way-cool props, […]
Programming a Cyborg
Published on :On 6/25/16 we had a special kind of computer class for 6-8 year-olds: one where kids learned about programming in an interactive, personal and funny way! Cyborg.EAN taught them how to program him to move and do things, and taught the kids how to use laptops to program Python 3 […]
Project Designation: Graphic Design for Tweens and Teens
Published on :For three weeks in June, a group of extremely smart and motivated teen girls came to Pasadena Public Library to teach kids between the ages of 10 and 14 how to do graphic design using free websites like Pixlr and using art media like pens, pencils, markers, scissors and more. […]
Creative Writing for Beginning Readers, with Ashlyn Anstee!
Published on :Last week, author-illustrator Ashlyn Anstee came to Pasadena Public Library to teach a workshop on creative writing for kids between the ages of 5 and 8. The workshop was super fun, punctuated by her amazing sense of humor and her creative ideas for engaging the kids! Thanks a million for […]
Tablets and Tech for Kids
Published on :On 6/2/16, families came to Pasadena Library and played with a range of different toys that extend the learning potential of the iPad beyond the two-dimensional screen, and into a three-dimensional world of play. Kids played tangrams, word games, an engineering/physics game, programmed a robot, and played robot soccer! Here’s […]
A much-overdue Lucha Libros post :)
Published on :On Tuesday, May 3, our 2nd and 3rd grade luchadores gathered together for one last battle, answering questions about Neil Gaiman’s hilarious book Fortunately, the Milk / El galáctico, pirático y alienígena viaje de mi padre. After answering the questions, each kid got tickets for our prize table. The children […]
Creative Writing for Beginning Readers: Stories inspired by Pamela Zagarenski
Published on :Yesterday in our Creative Writing for Beginning Readers workshop we wrote stories based on the beautiful illustrations in Pamela Zagarenski’s book The Whisper. This picture book is about a magic book whose words have all flown away and it is up to one intelligent little girl to create new words […]
Kids’ Writing Workshop with Author Rachel Searles
Published on :Rachel Searles, author of MG science fiction novels The Lost Planet and its new sequel Stolen Moon, got the kids thinking creatively and having fun making the weirdest, scariest, funniest, most colorful alien character they could! First she shared her writing process with us. I love it when a successful […]
Lucha Libros: April Battle, Stink the Incredible Shrinking Kid
Published on :We read and tested on another Megan McDonald book for Lucha Libros this month: Stink, The Incredible Shrinking Kid / Stink el increíble niño menguante. The book wasn’t a hard read, but a few of the questions were. It’s that these kids are doing so well, I have to throw in a […]