On August 8th, we had a packed story room full of kids 7-12 years old who were here to learn about how electricity works, what kinds of materials conduct electricity, and how to make their own batteries. First, we viewed a slideshow that explained concepts like electric current (the movement […]
Sensory Art & Craft Making
Published on :Last Saturday’s Sensory Art & Craft Making program at Lamanda Park Branch Library made a BIG SPLASH (pun intended). Over 20 young artists and their families set out to make “sandpaper” starfish, “squiggly” jellyfish and “squirmy” octopuses (just to name a few). An entire wall of Lamanda Park’s meeting room was turned into an […]
Silly Split-Panel Books – Writing Parties for Primary Grade Kids
Published on :At our most recent Writing Party for Primary Grade Kids (previously named “Creative Writing for Beginning Readers”), we made split-panel books inspired by A Cheese and Tomato Spider by Nick Sharratt. Because of the odd format, this book is not available in Pasadena’s collection–unfortunately, libraries often cannot add unusual books […]
Reading Great Books to Learn Writing Great Hooks
Published on :At our Kids’ Writing Workshop on Friday, June 16th, we learned about writing engaging beginnings. I combed through the upper middle grade books at our library and looked through all of my favorites, seeing if the first line was something I would hold up as an example of a great […]
Music and Movement with Dayita Datta
Published on :Earlier this year, Pasadena Unified School District surveyed parents about what their kids need and found a strong need for more music learning opportunities. Well, Pasadena Public Library has traditionally offered all kinds of free musical performances especially during the summertime. But today we really stepped up our music literacy […]
Tablets and Tech for Kids
Published on :Coming up on Tuesday, June 13th from 2-3:30 pm, we have our next Tablets and Tech program at the Pasadena Central Library on our 4th floor. This is a fun, walk-in program where kids are invited to move around different iPad stations exploring a wide range of apps that incorporate […]
The Lucha Libros Class of 2017–and a new Champion!
Published on :Last night thirty-six 2nd and 3rd graders and their families came to the Donald R. Wright Auditorium to answer questions about the book Fantastic Mr. Fox / El Superzorro by Roald Dahl, and get their final scores for the year. These kids have been coming every month since September to […]
Lucha Libros: Big Nate Goes for Broke
Published on :Last night kids answered questions about the book Big Nate Goes for Broke / Nate el grande invencíble by Lincoln Peirce. The questions were much harder this time and fewer kids got the Bonus Round right. That’s good–these kids are so smart they keep pushing us to get tougher! One […]
Poetry about our moments in history — Kids’ Writing Workshop
Published on :Book Inspiration Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson We read the poem “second daughter’s second day on earth” which contains many references to the various events going on around the country at the time that Jacqueline Woodson was born. Then, we used a timeline to learn about the historical events […]
Creative Writing with Word Baskets
Published on :Yesterday, our Creative Writing for Beginning Readers Workshop was inspired by the picture book Little Red Writing, written by Joan Holub and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. In the story, Little Red (a pencil in pencil school) goes on a journey to find words that she can put in her word […]